Kumar Sangakkara
Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara is a Sri Lankan former professional cricketer who represented Sri Lanka from 2000 to 2015. A former captain for Sri Lanka in all formats. Born in Matale, Central Province, Sangakkara played first-class cricket for Nondescripts Cricket Club from 1997–98 to 2013–14 and for Surrey County Cricket Club from 2015 to 2017. He was a key part of the Sri Lankan squads which won the 2001-02 Asian Test Championship, 2002 ICC Champions Trophy and 2014 T20 World Cup.
Sangakkara played mostly as a wicket-keeper-batter and is generally regarded as one of the greatest wicket-keeper-batters in cricket history. His 38 Test centuries and 25 in ODIs are both highest for a wicket-keeper. He batted left-handed and, although he rarely bowled, was a right-arm off spinner. Combining all three forms of international cricket, Sangakkara is the third-highest run-scorer in international cricket, having amassed a total of 28,016 including 63 centuries.
He has received four individual ICC awards. In 2012 he won Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy and ICC Test Cricketer of the Year. Also he won ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year twice in 2011 and 2013.
He was named Wisden Leading Men's Cricketer in the World for both 2011 and 2014.
, Sangakkara is one of only 15 players to have scored 10,000 or more runs in Test cricket, and has the highest average of those who have achieved this feat.
Since retirement, he has worked as a commentator for Sky Sports and served as President of the MCC from October 2019 to September 2021. In January 2021, Sangakkara also became the coach of Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League from 2021-2024.He was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in June 2021, the second Sri Lankan player to be inducted after Muttiah Muralitharan.
Early life
Kumar Sangakkara was born in Matale, Central Province, on 27 October 1977. He is the fourth and youngest child of Kshema, a civil lawyer, and Kumari Sangakkara. Kumar was brought up in the family home near Kandy. His father was very keen on sport and would daily spend hours coaching his children.Sangakkara's childhood, youth and most of his cricket career were set against the background of the ruinous Sri Lankan Civil War between the Tamil militants and the government of Sri Lanka. It is generally held that the war began with the Black July riots in 1983. During Black July, Sangakkara's parents offered shelter to Tamil families, whom six-year-old Kumar viewed as his friends.
He was educated at Trinity College, Kandy. Musically talented, he was a chorister and played the violin. He excelled in several sports and his mother Kumari wanted him to concentrate on his best one. The choice was between cricket and tennis. Kumari sought the advice of college principal Leonard de Alwis, who said Kumar should focus on cricket. The Sangakkaras are a sporting family and Kumar's three elder siblings all excelled in sports at Trinity. His two sisters, Thushari and Saranga, played basketball and tennis respectively, both at representative level. Saranga won a national tennis championship. Kumar's elder brother Vemindra represented the college in both cricket and badminton.
Sangakkara represented his school's Under-13, under-15, under-17, and first XI teams. In August 1994, when he was 16, he went to Kuala Lumpur with Sri Lanka's national under-19 team and played in two one-day matches against Bangladesh under-19s. Even so, he modestly described himself as a "run-of-the-mill" cricketer while he was at school, but he said facing real competition at Nondescripts Cricket Club spurred him on to improve his game and strive to reach a high standard. Academically successful, he was the school's Senior Prefect and received its Trinity Lion and Ryde Gold Medal awards. He passed the Advance Level Examination and gained entry to the Faculty of Law at the University of Colombo. However, he had to indefinitely postpone his law degree due to his cricketing commitments; he said in 2011 that he would consider finishing it after his cricket career ended.
Playing career
1997 to 2002
Nondescripts and the under-19s
After he entered the University of Colombo in 1996, Sangakkara joined Nondescripts who were one of the city's most notable clubs and he spent most of his domestic career, until 2014, with them. Having played for Sri Lanka under-19s while he was still at school, he made further appearances for the team in the 1996–97 season. In February 1997, he played in three Under-19 Tests against the touring India under-19 team, though he did not keep wicket. In the second match, he was run out for 96 in Sri Lanka's first innings. In March, he played in three Under-19 One-Day Internationals against India under-19s.First-class and List A debuts
Sangakkara began his professional career in the 1997–98 season when he was 20 years old. He made his List A debut on 28 December 1997 in a 50-over match, playing for Nondescripts against Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo. The match was a Hatna Trophy semi-final which Nondescripts won by 71 runs. Sangakkara scored 18 in a total of 211. Nondescripts went on to win the tournament, defeating Tamil Union by 5 wickets in the final.Soon afterwards, on 9 January 1998, he made his first-class debut in a Saravanamuttu Trophy match, also against Bloomfield C&A, at the Nondescripts Cricket Club Ground in Colombo. This was a three-day national championship match which ended in a draw. Sangakkara kept wicket and was seventh in the Nondescripts batting order. He held three catches and, in his only innings, scored six runs. He played in six championship matches that season. Nondescripts finished third in Group A of the competition and marginally failed to gain a place in the play-offs.
In the 1998–99 season, the Saravanamuttu Trophy was rebranded as the Premier Championship and Sangakkara played in fourteen matches from January to June 1999. He had only moderate success as a batter, scoring 444 runs with a highest innings of 55; but he made his mark as a wicket-keeper by completing 33 dismissals. The two group system was abandoned and the championship became a straight league competition in which the sixteen teams played each other once. Nondescripts, with four wins in their fifteen matches, finished fifth. During the season, Sangakkara played in five one-day matches for Sri Lanka B in a triangular tournament with Sri Lanka A and the English team Leicestershire, who were on tour.
Sri Lanka A (1999–2000)
In November 1999, Sangakkara was selected for the Sri Lanka A team's tour of South Africa. It was at this point that he decided to abandon his degree course and leave university. On the tour, he played in three limited overs and two first-class matches against South Africa A, his best performance being an innings of 89 in one of the limited overs games. On 20 May 2000, playing in a limited overs match for Sri Lanka A against the touring Zimbabwe A at the De Soysa Stadium in Moratuwa, Sangakkara played an outstanding innings of 156 not out, which helped him to obtain a place in Sri Lanka's national team two months later.He played in seven Premier Championship matches for Nondescripts in 1999–2000, but the team had a poor season. The two groups format was revived with Nondescripts in Group A and finishing fifth. Nondescripts played in Group B of the Premier Limited Overs Tournament but they again disappointed and did not qualify for the play-offs.
Test and ODI debuts (July 2000)
In July 2000, Sri Lanka hosted the Singer Triangular Series between themselves, Pakistan, and South Africa. The teams played each other twice in a round-robin league format and the top two, South Africa and Sri Lanka, qualified for the final which Sri Lanka won by 30 runs. Sangakkara made his One Day International debut in the opening match when Sri Lanka played Pakistan at the Galle International Stadium on 5 July. Pakistan batted first and scored 164/8 from their 45 overs. Sangakkara kept wicket and made an important contribution when he caught Mohammad Yousuf off Nuwan Zoysa for a first-ball "duck". Sri Lanka needed only 37.3 overs to score 166/5 and win the match by five wickets with 45 balls in hand. Sangakkara was fifth in the batting order and made 35 before he was run out by Imran Nazir at 131/4. ESPN's cricket writer Charlie Austin wondered if Sangakkara had "the head for international cricket and also the technique". He was impressed enough to describe Sangakkara as "a down to earth man, both intelligent and mature, who was unfazed by the situation and was immediately off the mark with a fluid square drive".In the second match, when Sri Lanka played South Africa at Galle on 6 July, Sangakkara was voted Man of the Match after he scored 85 before again being run out, this time by Makhaya Ntini. He shared a fifth wicket partnership of 120 with Russel Arnold and Sri Lanka totalled 249/7 in their 50 overs. South Africa were all out for 212, Sangakkara catching Jonty Rhodes off his first ball, and Sri Lanka won by 37 runs.
Sangakkara played in all five of Sri Lanka's matches in the tournament, dismissing seven batters and scoring 199 runs at 66.33 to secure his place in the upcoming Test series against South Africa.
He made his Test debut at Galle on 20–23 July in the first match of the three-match series. Sri Lanka won by an innings and 15 runs. In his team's only innings, Sangakkara was fifth in the batting order and had scored 23 when he was dismissed leg before wicket by Nicky Boje. Sri Lanka totalled 522 and then bowled South Africa out for 238 and 269 to win with a day to spare. Sangakkara kept wicket and held two catches to dismiss Gary Kirsten in the first innings and Lance Klusener in the second. Both catches were off the bowling of Muttiah Muralitharan who took 13 wickets in the match. Sangakkara also dismissed Kirsten in the second innings when he took a throw from Chaminda Vaas to complete a run out.