Mahela Jayawardena’s induction in to ICC Hall of Fame
Mahela, the third Lankan in HOF Pic by Sameera Peiris
It was indeed a proud moment for all of us, when Mahela Jayawardena became the third Sri Lankan to be inducted into the prestigious ICC Cricket Hall of Fame last Sunday, an honour bestowed upon by cricket’s governing body, on “only the very best players for their contribution to cricket”.
Mahela, who showed signs of great talents from his early days at Nalanda later blossomed into one of the greatest batsmen and tacticians ever to play the game. He set new standards in all three versions of the game, playing 652 times for Sri Lanka in a career spanning 18 years.
A technically elegant batsman who was a treat to watch when in form, Mahela made his international debut for Sri Lanka against India in a historic Test match in 1997, and contributed 66 runs in Sri Lanka’s world record total of 952 runs for 6 wickets.
Since that memorable Test match, Mahela has amassed a total of 11,814 runs in Test cricket while also becoming the first Sri Lankan to score 10,000 runs in Tests.
His epic score of 374 against South Africa in 2006 at the SSC, while sharing a world record partnership of 624 runs with Kumar Sangakkara, still remains the highest ever by a Sri Lankan batsman in Tests. It is also the fourth highest individual score of all-time by a batsman in Tests.
Mahela has scored 34 Test centuries (only five have scored more) and seven double centuries during his career and only three other batsmen have scored more double centuries in the entire history of the game.
Mahela’s performances in the shorter version of the game has not been second to any of his deeds in the Test arena. He has scored 12,650 runs in 448 One Day Internationals and 1493 in 55 Twenty 20 Internationals.
He was a key member of the Sri Lanka teams that reached four ICC World Cup finals, two in the ODI day version and three in the T20 versions and was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s T20 World Cup Championship win in 2014 against India.
His classic centuries in the ODI World Cup semi-final against New Zealand in 2007 and in the final against India in 2011 will be remembered for a long time to come by all Sri Lankan cricket lovers. He holds the unique record of being the only player, thus far, to have scored a 100 in both a World Cup final and a World Cup semi-final.
In fielding, Mahela has held 205 catches in Test cricket and holds the unbroken record of holding 218 catches in ODIs. Across all three formats of the game, no player, other than a wicketkeeper has taken more international catches than Mahela, who has grabbed a total of 440 catches for Sri Lanka in Tests, ODIs and T20s.
Mahela is known to have been an astute captain who has always got the best out of his players, by carefully analysing the situation of the game and his leadership skills and tactical brilliance has been amply rewarded in many of the coaching assignments he has undertaken so far. It is therefore no surprise that he is ranked among the most successful captains of Sri Lanka.
Mahela, who was named as Captain of the year by ICC in 2006 also received the Spirit of Cricket award from ICC in 2013, which was a true reflection of how he conducted the affairs of the team he was in charge of, both on and off the field.
As the latest inductee into the ICC’s Cricket Hall of Fame (November 2021), we wish Mahela Jayawardena many more years of invaluable service to the game of cricket in general and more so for Sri Lanka cricket.