Aravinda de Silva has been urged to reconsider his retirement plans, after announcing he would call it a day after next year's World Cup. de Silva, who turns 37 next month, had said he was unsure of his place in the World Cup squad, despite shedding more than two stone in recent months. "There are some good youngsters coming through in Sri Lankan cricket," he said, "and I would like to go out on a high note."

But bad weather denied him the opportunity to claim the ICC Champions Trophy in front of his home crowd, a tournament he had believed would be his final knock on home soil, and after the match, Sri Lanka's captain and coach were both adamant that de Silva still has much to offer to the game.

"I recognise he's got a family life and a business life," said Dav Whatmore, Sri Lanka's coach, "and it's the weighing up of those factors that's probably got him to make his assessment of where he is at the moment and where he would like to go.

"I just think that playing with us up to and through the World Cup must be a minimum amount of cricket he should play. From my point of view as a coach he's been wonderful to the team. It's the experience he brings, not just with bat and ball but also in areas that are difficult to quantify.

"It's in the team room, the team meetings, the dressing rooms, the bus travel. It's that extra experience, that calming influence and it's an asset that means I hope he plays on as long as he can."

And Sanath Jayasuriya, his captain and long-term team-mate, added: "Personally I think he can play on a lot more."

Since Sri Lanka's tour to England last summer, de Silva has displayed a renewed hunger for the game. He has scored 8803 runs in 288 one-day internationals, at an average of 35.49, as well as more than 6000 Test runs, and played a crucial role in Sri Lanka's semi-final victory over Australia at the Premadasa stadium on Friday. His spell of 1 for 16 off 10 overs helped restrict Australia to a measly total of 162, a total that Sri Lanka passed with ease.

His finest hour came in the 1996 World Cup final against Australia at Lahore, when he hammered a century and took three wickets to carry Sri Lanka to victory.

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