New MCC President–Man for all seasons
The nation saluted Kumar Sangakkara when he retired, but now the respect grows
The class structure, the social divide in English cricket that prevailed upto about the 1960’s dictated that teams comprised two categories of players–Gentleman and Players. The former comprised the upper class-the Oxford, Cambridge types while the latter had the tillers of the fields, the coal miners etc. Fred Trueman is a representative of the second category.
The two sets of players entered the playing area from two separate gates. Further, they did not share the same change-room. That was staid, crusty, archaic England.
The MCC or Marylebone Cricket Club, a very prestigious cricket club, almost always had as its President, a former Test cricketer. Thus, for Sri Lanka’s cricketing icon and legend, Kumar Sangakkara to be elected as President of the MCC is quit something. No non-Britisher had been given that honour previously in the 232 year old history of this renowned institution.
Why Kumar Sangakkara? To begin with, his cricketing credentials are unassailable–134 Tests, 12400 runs, 38 hundreds, 52 fifties, and a highest of 319 against Bangladesh. If those are insufficient add his 14,234 runs in 404 ODIs and 1382 runs in 56 T20s.
Sangakkara had another vital string to his bow. He took over from the ever popular “Little Kalu” and had 182, 402 and 25 catches in the three formats, as well as 20, 99 and 20 stumping in the three formats. Another Sri Lankan wicket-keeper batsman Brendon Kuruppu’s feat of playing ODIs before his Test debut was emulated by Sangakkara. The difference between debuts was a mere 15 days in the case of Sangakkara, while it was a few years in Kuruppu’s case. In Sangakkara’s case, the statistics don’t lie.
It didn’t take long for this this stylish left hander to establish a certain mastery over international bowlers. His twinkle toed footwork to the spinner was one of the features of his batting. He had 11 double hundreds in Tests, one less than the greatest of all batsmen Sir Donald Bradman. To think that a certain callous umpire made a horrible blunder by ruling him out at 199 in a Test in Australia!
Honours have come thick and fast to this free-scoring left hander. Captaincy of the
Sri Lankan side, membership of the MCC World Committee, ICC ODI player of the year (2011), Wisden cricketer of the year (2012), ICC Test cricketer of the year (2012) and ICC ODI cricketer of the year (2013).
Sangakkara had a stint of a couple of years with Surrey County Crcket Club. His feats as the visiting professional border on the legendary.
One of the greatest honours that came his way was the invitation by the MCC in 2011, to deliver the annual Colin Cowdrey memorial lecture. Needless to say, he gave a flawless performance and people listened open-mouthed to his oratory. He ruffled the feathers of a few local politicians, but Sangakkara being Sangakkara didn’t care a damn.