Sri Lankan batsman Kumar Sangakkara has called time on his distinguished first-class cricket career.

The 39-year-old had retired from international cricket in 2015 after scoring 12,400 runs in 134 matches and 14,234 runs in 404 ODIs.

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The classical left-handed batsman has continued to play first-class cricket in the County Championship and has had a remarkable season with Surrey this campaign.

Sangakkara has been the highest scored in either divisions of the County Championship this season scoring 1491 runs in 16 innings along with eight first-class hundreds.

He also completed a century of centuries in all formats of the game after his ton in the quarter-final win over Yorkshire in the One-Day Cup.

The fifth-highest run-scorer of all time in the Test format remained unbeaten on 35 in his final first-class innings on Wednesday against Lancashire.

That the Sri Lankan has averaged over 106 runs in the County Championship Division One is testament to the fact that the left-hander could easily continue to play for another year at least.

But Sangakarra has always been a man to retire on a high and his first-class career was no different.

“Sometimes you hold on a bit too long and I always think it’s better to let go a bit sooner than later,” he said in an interview with BBC Sports on Thursday.

“I walk away with a few regrets, like anyone would, but I’m absolutely happy with the way I played the game and what I’ve achieved.

“The game goes on and that’s the beauty of any sport. It doesn’t matter who retires or who comes into play – the sport will be bigger than all of us,” he added.

The 35-run knock in his final innings means Sangakarra retires with a first-class total of just under 21,000 runs. He is second only to Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar for the most amount of runs in international cricket in all formats.

The left-handed batsman has 28,016 runs compared to Tendulkar’s 34,357 runs.

Though he says he will miss cricket, in the end it is the sport which will be a little poorer without the classy Sri Lankan doing what he does best inside the batting-crease.