Sangakkara is described as one of the "most polished and prudent of batsmen" in cricket.Currently Kumar Sangakkara is placed at number 2 in ICC test rankings.With 8 double centuries, he is the third in the list of Test double century-makers, behind Donald Bradman (12) and Brian Lara (9). He is also the first cricketer ever to score 150+ scores in four consecutive Test matches.[8] As the wicket keeper, he has contributed to the 3rd highest number of dismissals in ODIs—382. It includes 81 stumpings, which is the highest for a wicket keeper in one-day international cricket.
Sangakkara delivered the 2011 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture, which gained worldwide attention.He was the youngest person and the first current international player to deliver that lecture, which was widely praised by the cricketing community for its outspoken nature.
On 26 December 2012 he reached 10000 test match runs in 195 innings becoming the joint fastest to get there, the same number it took Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar to reach the same figure.
1. Early life
Kumar Sangakkara was born to Kumari Surangana and Swarnakumara Sangakkara, an attorney-at-law at Matale, Sri Lanka in 1977.His parents settled in Kandy, where he grew up in his childhood. Kumar received his primary and secondary education at Trinity College, Kandy, an independent elite private boys' school situated in the central highlands of Sri Lanka.( The only school in the world to own an international cricket stadium in the name of Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy.) He has two sisters: Thushari and Saranga, and an elder brother: Vemindra, all who have made national level achievements during their school-life. Sangakkara too started playing a number of sports: badminton, tennis, swimming, table tennis and cricket at the junior school. He was able to win national colors for badminton and tennis at his younger age. The then principal of the Trinity College, Leonard de Alwis, advised his mother to encourage Kumar to concentrate on cricket.
He represented his school's under-13 cricket XI under coach Upananda Jayasundera. Berty Wijesinghe coached Sangakkara for under-15, under-17, under-19 and first XI squads. He was awarded The Trinity Lion, the most prestigious prize awarded to a Trinity sportsman, for his exceptional batting and wicket-keeping skills in the 1996 season, at the age of 19. Sangakkara was selected to represent Sri Lanka A cricket team at a tour to South Africa in 1998–99. His knock of unbeaten 156 against Zimbabwe A team at a one-day match, helped him secure a place at the Sri Lankan national cricket team later that year.
Sanga was the Senior Prefect (Head Boy) of school, he did his Advanced Level examination in the Arts stream in 1996. He was also awarded the highest honour of Trinity College_The Ryde Gold Medal, for the best all-round student in his year. Following his father, who is a lawyer in Kandy, he entered the Law Faculty of the University of Colombo, but was unable to finish his degree due to cricket tours. Kumar was a chorister and played the violin during his school-days. He was cited as an inspiration to continue his higher education by Bangladeshi captain Mushfiqur Rahim, upon receiving his Masters degree:
It is appreciated that someone like Sangakkara's sports personality is shaped by his education. He is obviously an inspiration.
2. International career
Early career
At the age of 22 Sangakkara made his Test debut on 20 July 2000, keeping wicket in the first fixture of a three-match series against South Africa. Sri Lanka won the match and in his side's only innings Sangakarra batted at the fall of the third wicket and scored 23 runs before he was dismissed leg before wicket by spin bowler Nico Boje. He received his first man of the match award in the 2nd match of the Singer Triangular Series, 2000, scoring 85 runs against South Africa. He ended the series with 199 runs, at an average of 66.33, securing his place for the upcoming Test series against South Africa. Before reaching his first Test century, he was twice dismissed in the 90s, once against each of South Africa and England. In August 2001, India toured Sri Lanka for three Tests and in the opening match Sangakkara scored his first century. His innings of 105 not out at number three helped set up a ten-wicket victory for Sri Lanka. Later that year Sangakkara scored his second Test century, this time in the first of three matches against the touring West Indians.
He scored his first double-century against Pakistan in 2002, at the 2nd Asian Test Championship final. His performance helped Sri Lanka secure the Test championship. In April 2003, Sangakkara made his first ODI century against Pakistan, in a losing effort. Together with Marvan Atapattu, he made a partnership of 438 for the 2nd wicket—4th highest in the world—against Zimbabwe in 2004. In that game, he scored 270, his first 250+ score. In July 2005, he was selected to the ICC World XI ODI team but missed out from its Test counterpart.
As vice-captain
Sangakkara (right) resigned the captaincy after the 2011 World Cup and was succeeded by Tillakaratne Dilshan (left).
When Sri Lanka toured Bangladesh in February 2006 regular captain Marvan Atapattu was injured and Mahela Jayawardene became captain while Sangakkara was made vice-captain. Pakistan toured Sri Lanka for two Test and three ODIs in March 2006, and with Atapattu still injured Jayawardene and Sangakkara remained captain and vice-captain respectively.The pair had only expected to hold the positions on an interim basis, but extended into a third series as Atapattu failed to recover in time tour tour England in April and ended up filling the roles full-time. In July 2006, Sangakkara made his highest Test score to-date (287) against South Africa. In a record-breaking partnership with Mahela Jayawardene, he set up the world record for the highset partnership in Test cricket—624 runs—in this match.
On 6 December 2007 he made it to the top spot of ICC Test player rankings with a rating of 938, the highest rating ever achieved by a Sri Lankan player, and became the first batsman ever to score in excess of 150 in four consecutive tests. His skill was recognised worldwide when he earned selection for the ICC World XI One Day International team that competed against Australia in the Johnnie Walker Series in October 2005. Despite the World XI losing all of the one-day games by considerable margins, Sangakkara left the series with some credit, averaging 46. He was one of the winners of the 2008 inaugural Cricinfo awards for outstanding batting in Test cricket.
Sangakkara holds the record for fastest 8,000 runs (152 innings) in Test cricket. He broke the previous record set by Sachin Tendulkar (154 innings) during the third Test against India on 6 August 2010. He also holds the record for fastest 9,000 runs (172 innings) in Test cricket. He broke the previous record set by Rahul Dravid (176 innings) during the second Test against Pakistan on 3 November 2011. Sangakkara was billed as a future captain of Sri Lanka.On Sri Lanka's tour to England in May 2006, he was named the vice-captain of the side. On 3 March 2009, a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team convoy in Pakistan injured 6 Sri Lankan players including Sangakkara. Sangakkara suffered shrapnel wounds in his shoulder. In November 2006, Sangakkara made it to the ICC World XI Test team he missed out previous time. Next year, he signed an agreement to join the Warwickshire County Cricket Club.[41] That year, he scored back-to-back double centuries against Bangladesh and became only the fifth cricketer in the history to do so.
Captaincy
Sangakkara's record as captain
Matches Won Lost Drawn No result
ODI 45 27 14 – 4
T20I 21 12 9 – –
In February 2009, the then captain of the Sri Lankan side, Mahela Jayawardene announced that he would step down from captaincy "in the best interests of the Sri Lankan team". He said he believed that it would give his successor around two years to build up to the2011 Cricket World Cup. Therefore at the age of 31 and with the experience of 80 Tests and 246 ODIs, Sangakkara succeeded Jayawardene as Sri Lanka's captain in all formats of the game. His first engagement in the role was the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 hosted by England in June. Sri Lanka became runners-up in the series after winning all the game in group and knock-out stages and being defeated by Pakistan in the final. Sangakkara made 64 not-out in the final, but was unable to take Sri Lanka for the championship.[48] Sri Lanka failed to reach to the knock-out stage of the ICC Champions Trophy in September 2009. The next Indian tour proved to be disastrous for the team, with Sri Lanka being beaten by India in Test sries 2–0 and ODI series 3–1.
Sri Lankan team under the captaincy of Sangakkara gained momentum and won the next Tri-series in Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, beating India as well. The Sri Lankans' tour of Australia proved to be very successful, in winning both the T20 and ODI series. This was Sri Lanka's first ever series victory in Australia.
A month in advance of the 2011 World Cup in March, Sangakkara decided that he would resign the captaincy after the tournament. Sri Lanka reached the final of the tournament. Throughout the tournament Sangakkara was in prolific form with the bat scoring 465 runs from 9 matches and was the third highest run scorer behind team-mate Tillakaratne Dilshan and India's Sachin Tendulkar. Days after guiding Sri Lanka to the finals of the World Cup, Sangakkara announced to the public he was stepping down as captain of the T20 and ODI teams. He offered to continue as Test captain if deemed necessary for transition to new skipper; in the event Dilshan was appointed captain across all formats. Reflecting on the decision afterwards, he said that "captaining Sri Lanka is a job that ages you very quickly ... It's rarely a job you will last long in ... I also had a two-year stint, and I enjoyed it at times, certainly on the field where our results showed we were one of the top two sides in the world for one-and-a-half years, especially in the shorter form of the game.
Post-captaincy
Sri Lanka's first fixture after the World Cup was a tour of England beginning in May. During the second match of a three Test series Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sangakkara's successor as captain, suffered a broken thumb. Sangakkara filled-in while Dilshan was off the pitch and formally assumed the captaincy for the final Test. The match ended in a draw and the series ended in a 1–0 victory for England; Sangakarra scored a century in the match, his first against England in nine Tests.
Sangakkara's results in international matches
Matches Won Lost Drawn Tied No result
TEST 115 46 37 32 0 -
ODI 337 181 139 - 2 15
T20I 43 25 16 - 1 1
Sangakkara was named the man of the series in 2011–12 Pakistan vs. Sri Lanka Test series—his first man of the series award in Test cricket. He made 516 runs in the 3 match series which was won by Pakistan 1–0. He scored his 8th Test double-century in that tournament. This is the third highest number of double centuries made by a Test cricketer in history, behind Donald Bradman and Brian Lara, with 12 and 9 respectively.On August the same year, he was named the ODI Cricketer of the Year, wicket keeper-captain of the ICC World XI Test team, and won the ICC People's Choice Award in 2011 ICC Awards. In 2012, he was named one of the Wisden's five Cricketer's of the Year.
Sangakkara struggled when England toured Sri Lanka in 2012. He failed to score a half century during The Two Test match series. But he regained his form in the ODI series VS Pakistan where he twice scored in the 90s. In the following Test series Sangakkara continued his form with a 199, the scoreboard originally said he had scored the double century but it turned out to be a mistake. Sri Lanka later won the Test match. He followed this up with 192 in the game, again missing out on the double century. Sri Lanka drew the next two matches meaning Sri Lanka won the series 1–0. The first time they won a Test series since the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan.
Cowdrey Lecture
Kumar Sangakkara delivered the 2011 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at Lords. He became the youngest person and the first current international player to deliver that lecture, which was widely praised by the cricketing community. The one hour long speech was based on the history and the corruption in the cricket administration in Sri Lanka. In his speech, he said: "accountability and transparency in administration and credibility of conduct were lost in a mad power struggle that would leave Sri Lankan cricket with no clear, consistent administration", and observed that these problems in administration had risen only after Sri Lanka's 1996 Cricket World Cup victory. He also blamed "a handful of well-meaning individuals" who control the game, wasting the cricket board's finances and resources. Immediately after the lecture, the Sri Lankan sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage ordered an investigation into the speech. Despite the critical comments by the Sri Lankan government officials, it has been described as "the most important speech in cricket history".
3. Domestic cricket
Sangakkara plays his domestic cricket for Nondescripts in Sri Lanka. Sangakkara has played English county cricket with Warwickshire in the 2007 County Championship. In 2010 Sangakkara was contracted to represent Lancashire in the 2010 County Championship, but never represented the club because of international commitments.
Indian Premier League
Kumar Sangakkara has played in all five seasons of the Indian Premier League. Winning bids for him in 2008 and 2011 were US$700,000 by Kings XI Punjab and US$ 300,000 by Deccan Chargers respectively. He is currently the captain of the Deccan Chargers team. Sangakkara has scored 1567 runs with 10 half-centuries in 62 matches in IPL.
Sri Lanka Premier League
In the Sri Lanka Premier League which officially kick-started in 2012, Kumar Sangakkara was named the captain and icon player of the Kandurata Warriors franchise. Unfortunately he couldn't participate as a player in the inaugural edition in 2012 as he suffered a finger injury weeks before the tournament during a One Day International against India. However, he appeared as a Television commentator during some matches.
4. Personal life
Sangakkara is married to his longtime partner, Yehali. They have one girl and a boy: Swari and Kavith.
He is involved in a number of charity work in Sri Lanka. He is a member of the Think Wise Initiative, launched by International Cricket Council, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and UNICEF, which is aimed at raising awareness around HIV prevention and eliminating discrimination against people living HIV and AIDS. He is also a partner of the Foundation of Goodness, a charity launched by Muttiah Muralitharan.
5. Playing style
Sangakkara is a left-handed top order batsman who likes to hit the ball square of the wicket on the off-side. Upon making a century, he consistently continues on past 150. While the Cut and the pull are natural strokes to him, he tends to play in the front foot. Cover drive is one of his regular scoring shots. Sangakkara averages around 57 in Test cricket. Among the current Test batsmen, his average is the next best after Jacques Kallis.In ODI cricket, he retains a modest average of 38. Sangakkara handed over his wicket-keeping duty to Prasanna Jayawardene in Tests cricket in 2009 (on Boxing Day, 2012, he had to replace him behind the wicket after Jayawardene suffered an injured right thumb against Australia). Now he plays as a specialist batsman in Tests, and wicket keeper-batsman in other formats of the game. He is the third in the list of wicket keepers who contributed to the most numnber of dismissals in ODI cricket. With 382 dismissals, he is behind Adam Gilchrist and Mark Boucher. He is also the wicket keeper with highest number of stumpings 81 in ODI cricket.
He has also won a certain degree of admiration for his clever use of sledging and is one of few cricketers who are willing to talk about it openly. In an interview in 2004 he explained his approach to sledging:
The public perception of sledging is to go out there and abuse someone in obscene language, questioning their parentage or sexual preferences. That kind of abuse does not belong on the field of play. Sledging, as coined and pioneered by the Australians, is a measured comment designed to get a reaction out of a player. It could be any reaction: a bit of anger, a show of arrogance, a comment, a shake of the head, or a slump of the shoulders.
6. Player statistics
Kumar Sangakkara
Sri Lanka
Full name:
Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara
Born:
October 27, 1977,Matale
Current age: 35 years 161 days
Major teams: Sri Lanka, Asia XI, Central Province, Colombo District Cricket Association, Deccan Chargers, ICC World XI, Kandurata, Kings XI Punjab, Marylebone Cricket Club, Nondescripts Cricket Club, Warwickshire
Playing role: Wicketkeeper batsman
Batting style: Left-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm offbreak
Fielding position: Wicketkeeper
| Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | BF | SR | 100 | 50 | 4s | 6s | Ct | St | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 117 | 200 | 16 | 10486 | 287 | 56.98 | 19428 | 53.97 | 33 | 42 | 1292 | 36 | 169 | 20 |
| ODIs | 340 | 318 | 33 | 11026 | 138* | 38.68 | 14554 | 75.75 | 14 | 74 | 1056 | 57 | 333 | 81 |
| T20Is | 43 | 41 | 5 | 1080 | 78 | 30.00 | 893 | 120.94 | 0 | 6 | 110 | 16 | 20 | 17 |
| First-class | 205 | 333 | 27 | 15075 | 287 | 49.26 | 42 | 66 | 330 | 33 | ||||
| List A | 436 | 410 | 43 | 14787 | 156* | 40.29 | 22 | 95 | 435 | 106 | ||||
| Twenty20 | 124 | 119 | 10 | 3187 | 94 | 29.23 | 2506 | 127.17 | 0 | 19 | 357 | 55 | 77 | 34 |
| Mat | Inns | Balls | Runs | Wkts | BBI | BBM | Ave | Econ | SR | 4w | 5w | 10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 117 | 3 | 78 | 42 | 0 | - | - | - | 3.23 | - | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ODIs | 340 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| T20Is | 43 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| First-class | 205 | 204 | 112 | 1 | 1/13 | 112.00 | 3.29 | 204.0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| List A | 436 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Twenty20 | 124 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Test debut | Sri Lanka v South Africa at Galle, Jul 20-23, 2000 |
| Last Test | Sri Lanka v Bangladesh at Colombo (RPS), Mar 16-19, 2013 |
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| ODI debut | Sri Lanka v Pakistan at Galle, Jul 5, 2000 |
| Last ODI | Sri Lanka v Bangladesh at Pallekele, Mar 28, 2013 |
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| T20I debut | England v Sri Lanka at Southampton, Jun 15, 2006 |
| Last T20I | Sri Lanka v New Zealand at Pallekele, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| First-class debut | 1997/98 |
| Last First-class | Sri Lanka v Bangladesh at Colombo (RPS), Mar 16-19, 2013 |
List A debut | 1997/98 |
| Last List A | Sri Lanka v Bangladesh at Pallekele, Mar 28, 2013 |
| Twenty20 debut | Nondescripts Cricket Club v Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club at Colombo (Moors), Aug 17, 2004 |
| Last Twenty20 | Sunrisers Hyderabad v Pune Warriors at Hyderabad (Deccan), Apr 5, 2013 |
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