The 35-year-old Jayawardene hoped that next year would be a good year to make the transition to a younger leader as there were few high-profile series scheduled,PTV sports reported.

Jayawardene, who led Sri Lanka to the 50-overs World Cup final in 2007, agreed to take over the captaincy for a second spell in place of opener Tillakaratne Dilshan earlier this year.

Jayawardene said his choice to succeed him as skipper would be 25-year- old Mathews, who has matured into a world class all-rounder over the last couple of years.

Jayawardene made his Test debut in 1997 and his One Day International (ODI) debut the following season. In 2006 he made the highest ever score by a Sri Lankan in Test cricket, scoring 374 in the second Test of Sri Lanka's home series against South Africa.

He has a Test average of over 50 and an ODI average in the 30s. He is the first and only player in the history of Sri Lankan cricket to score over 10,000 Test runs.

Jayawardene is considered to be one of the best batsmen produced by Sri Lanka and is generally held in high regard as a legend of the modern game along with team-mate Kumar Sangakkara.

He is one of only three Sri Lankans-the others being Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara-to have scored more than 10,000 runs in ODIs.