Sri Lanka bowler Chaminda Vaas has denied reports of his retirement from Test cricket after his board said on Saturday the paceman had told selectors he was quitting the longer form of the game with immediate effect.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) secretary Nishantha Ranatunga said that Vaas, a veteran of 110 Tests, who has taken 354 wickets in a career spanning 15 years, informed selection chairman Ashantha de Mel of his decision earlier in the week.

However, Vaas responded to the news of his retirement by saying that he had not made “any such decision yet”.

Earlier, Ranatunga explained Vaas’s plans to focus solely on limited-overs cricket.

“Chaminda told him (De Mel) that he wanted to concentrate on ODI’s (one-dayers) and T20′s (Twenty20s) in the future and he would be forwarding an official letter to that effect when he returns from abroad,” Ranatunga said.

“Sri Lanka Cricket’s interim committee will also speak to him about his future and the role he can play in shaping Sri Lanka cricket in the future,” he said, adding to speculation that he may be appointed Sri Lanka fast bowling coach in the future.

Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara believes the 35-year-old Vaas still had a role in the limited-overs game.

“I had a very good one-on-one chat with him (Vaas) before we went for the World Twenty20,” Sanagakkara said on the eve of the match.

“He has still got a role to play in our side. We just have to decide which format of the game he is going to make the most contribution in.”

Former England captain Michael Vaughan is set to announce his retirement from senior cricket on Tuesday. 

The Yorkshire batsman’s future has been the subject of speculation ever since he was left out of England’s Ashes training squad last week.

British newspaper reports on Sunday said his retirement was imminent and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) subsequently announced the 34-year-old Vaughan would hold a press conference at Edgbaston on Tuesday.

England are due to play Warwickshire in an Ashes warm-up match there on Wednesday.

It was at Edgbaston that Vaughan led England to a nailbiting two-run win over Australia four years ago.

It was a victory that helped England to a 2-1 Test series win over their oldest rivals and a first Ashes campaign victory since 1986/87.

That series was the high point of Vaughan’s time in charge of England, with a persistent knee injury leaving him on the sidelines for months at a time.

Unsurprisingly, his form as a batsman – which had seen touch the realms of greatness during the 2002/03 tour of Australia – also began to decline.

He resigned the England captaincy in tears in August last year after the home series against South Africa was lost and has not played for England since.

Vaughan, England’s most successful Test captain in terms of overall wins, with 26 victories, 11 defeats and 14 draws in his five-year spell in charge, vowed to force his way back into the team through sheer weight of runs.

But never the most prolific of run-getters in county cricket, he has managed just 147 runs in seven County Championship innings this season for Yorkshire.

Meanwhile any hopes Vaughan had of regaining a place in England’s side have been blunted by the emergence of Ravi Bopara, who this year has scored hundreds in three successive Tests against the West Indies, at No 3.

There had been speculation that Vaughan might make an announcement about his future following Yorkshire’s Twenty20 Cup match against Derbyshire at Headingley on Sunday.

But his position is complicated by the fact that Vaughan is on an ECB central contract.

As a result Vaughan, who met with Yorkshire officials on Sunday, may now have played his final game of cricket at senior level if, as has been reported, his retirement announcement takes immediate effect.

Yorkshire chief executive Stewart Regan said: “Michael is employed by the ECB so he is unable to comment until after he has spoken to them and formalised the situation.

“As far as the club is concerned today is an important match for us and we can’t have any disruption or lack of focus on what needs to be achieved on the field.

“Both Michael and the club felt it was in both of our interests for him not to play.

“The plan was for him to play but given the news we discussed the situation and felt all the hype and speculation going on wouldn’t have been in the team’s interests.”

Pakistan’s senior all-rounder Shahid Afridi is seriously considering retiring from Test cricket after national selectors ignored him for the two-match home series against Sri Lanka starting later this week.

The 28-year-old Afridi said on Thursday that he was disappointed over his failure to impress the selectors ahead of the opening Test against Sri Lanka and added that he would retire from Test cricket if Pakistan continued to ignore him for the longer version of the game.

“I was looking forward to earning a place in the Test squad,” said Afridi, who has not been in Pakistan’s Test picture for almost three years.

“But I respect the selectors’ decision,” he stressed.

Afridi played the last of his 26 Tests in the summer of 2006 against England in Manchester. Since then national selectors have curtailed his role to ODIs and Twenty20 internationals.

Afridi shot to instant stardom on his debut as a 16-year-old in 1996 when he scored the fastest ODI century in Nairobi. He has so far played 271 One-Day Internationals, scoring 5,531 runs and taking 243 wickets. His Test career is less impressive, having scored 1,683 runs from 26 Tests with 47 wickets.

Afridi was given a lifeline by national selectors when he was picked to lead the Patron’s XI against the visiting Sri Lankans in a two-day warm-up game in Karachi on February 17-18. However, in spite of hitting a 29-ball 49, Afridi was unable to convince the selectors that he deserved a Test recall.