Veteran Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene will relinquish the captaincy after his side's tour of Australia this summer.
Jayawardene made the surprise announcement after naming his team for the first of three Tests against Michael Clarke's Australian side which begins on Friday morning in Hobart.
The 35-year-old has played 135 Tests and has made 31 centuries at an average of 50.18.
Jayawardene has quit as captain before, in February 2009, but agreed to take the reins a second time after Sri Lanka's tour of South Africa under Tillakaratne Dilshan last season.
The skipper was re-appointed for a 12-month period in January.
He waited until the end of his media conference on the eve of the first Test against Australia to announce he will not be seeking another stint in the job.
"It's been brilliant," he said.
"We need to move on to a younger leader and it's much easier for Sri Lankan cricket if we get a new guy in while the senior players are still around so we can help him out.
"I hope I don't get any SOS calls later on."
Jayawardene has endorsed 25-year-old vice-captain Angelo Mathews as his successor.
"Angelo is the one everyone has earmarked for the job and I think he's good enough," he said.
"If Angelo gets the opportunity it'll be much easier in the transition because he'll have Kumar Sangakkara, Dilshan and myself around him in tough situations so we can build him through that period and after that he'll be on his own.
"I think this is the right time. We don't have much cricket next year, not many big tours, so it will be a nice easy start for Angelo if he takes over."
Sri Lanka: Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews, Prasanna Jayawardene, Nuwan Kulasekara, Chanaka Welegedera, Shaminda Eranga, Rangana Herath.
ABC/AAP
Tags: cricket, sport, hobart-7000, tas, australia, sri-lanka First posted December 13, 2012 13:24:43
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