COLOMBO // Tillakaratne Dilshan will be Sri Lanka's captain in all forms of the game for the rest of the year, the Sri Lankan cricket board have confirmed.
Dilshan, 34, had been appointed skipper on a series-to-series basis after Kumar Sangakkara stepped down following Sri Lanka's defeat in the World Cup final against India in April.
It means that he will be the captain of the touring Sri Lankans in the UAE when they play Pakistan in three Tests, five one-day internationals (ODIs) and a Twenty20 from October 18 to November 25 in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.
Under Dilshan, Sri Lanka lost the Test and one-day series in England, but have enjoyed mixed results in the ongoing home contest against Australia.
Sri Lanka won the two Twenty20 games at the start of the tour but lost the first two one-day internationals before bouncing back to win the third game at Hambantota on Tuesday.
The remaining two one-dayers will be played in Colombo on Saturday and Monday, before the two sides clash in a three-Test series starting on August 31.
Dilshan, who turns 35 in October, has made his mark as an aggressive opening batsman in all three formats.
He made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in 1999 and hit an unbeaten 163 in his second match in Harare.
Dilshan has scored 4,243 runs in 68 Tests at an average of 43.74 with 12 centuries, and 5,587 runs in 212 one-dayers with 10 hundreds.
In 34 Twenty20 internationals, Dilshan has smashed 866 runs at an awe-inspiring strike-rate of 125.32 per 100 balls.
Dilshan also bowls off-spin that has fetched him 20 Test wickets, 63 in one-dayers and four in Twenty20 cricket.
Meanwhile, the court hearing of the Pakistan Test cricketer Danish Kaneria has been pushed back a month after he failed to produce a transcript of the British police inquiry that cleared him of criminal charges last year.
Kaneria's lawyer Farogh Naseem told the Associated Press today that his client had been unable to get the transcript of an Essex police inquiry into allegations that he was involved in spot-fixing during a county match, which the Pakistan court had requested.
Kaneria is yet to be cleared by an integrity committee of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
The court has now asked the PCB to get legal advice on whether it can get the transcript.
The court has set September 27 as the next date of the hearing.
