Kumar Sangakkara

Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara is a Sri Lankan cricketer and a former captain of the Sri Lanka national cricket team. He is a left-handed top-order batsman and the wicket-keeper in the One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 formats of the game. He captained the national team from 2009 to 2011, stepping down after the 2011 ICC World Cup final. The same year, he was named the ODI Cricketer of the Year at the ICC awards ceremony. In 2012, he was honoured as one of the top-five Wisden Cricketers of the Year.

Sangakkara is described as one of the "most polished and prudent of batsmen" in cricket. Currently Kumar Sangakkara is placed at number 1 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. 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 July 28, 2012, Sangakkara and Jayawardene became only the fourth pair to register 30 100-plus international partnerships when they put on 121 in the third ODI against India.

Ranatunga had already exploded the myth of the Sri Lankans being meek men who could be bullied, but Sangakkara has refined the belligerence, combining a suave exterior with cutting asides and sharp sledges from behind the stumps. Initially, his glove work wasn't for the purists, but such was his batting ability that there was no question of displacing him from the XI.

As a batsman, he has matured steadily, and the appetite for runs was best illustrated at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo in 2006, when he and Mahela Jayawardene, captain and close friend, added 624 against a South African attack boasting Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini. Sangakkara contributed 287 and did his burgeoning reputation no harm a year later when he went to Hobart and scored a dazzling 192 in a narrowly lost cause. By then, he already had a half-century in a World Cup final to his name, and long before Jayawardene relinquished the captaincy, it was understood that Sangakkara would be the anointed one.

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.

He has been far less relentless in the one-day arena, often throwing his wicket away when well set, but his leadership qualities have made him a sought-after signing in the Indian Premier League. With the captain's burden on his shoulders, he no longer keeps in Test matches, but the smart-alec remarks from behind the stumps are a common feature of every game that Sri Lanka plays in colored clothes. If he keeps scoring at his present rate, every Sri Lankan batting record will be his by the time he stashes the kitbag away and takes up those weighty law tomes.