Sports

Sports

Master blaster retired hurt
By S.R. Pathiravithana
Going back through the pages of time I still remember the first time I really heard someone describing the talents of Sanath Jayasuriya. It was the "Observer-Bata" Schoolboy cricketer selections way back in 1988 where I was a member of the selection panel and the rest of the committee comprised representatives of the SLSCA, the ACUSL and the sponsors. I remember after we had selected the Schoolboy Cricketer -All island it was the turn to select the Outstation Schoolboy Cricketer of the year.

We all had heard about this boy who had scored a thousand runs and bagged a hundred wickets from St. Servatius College Matara, but we were rather pleasantly surprised when the ACUSL representative who represented the South said that this young cricketer was something special and we should look out for him in the future too.

It was not very long after that we started hearing about him and his exploits in Pakistan with the Sri Lanka 'A' team where he scored two double hundreds. It was long afterwards that he graduated to the "big league". Surprisingly his initial period with the senior side was not a flashy success, but a modest one to keep him floating in the pool as a middle order batsman. Nevertheless whenever he was among the runs there were signs of his true talents that lay untapped. One such instance was when he scored a blazing hundred against India in a practice match at the Welagedera Stadium on their tour of Sri Lanka in 1993 when he flayed the Indian attack to all parts of the ground. However his power hitting caught the eye of the senior management along with the exploits of young wicketkeeper batsman Romesh Kaluwitharana. There they pondered "what if we send them up in the order to give us an explosive start then the rest of the batting can take off from there".

In reality these were the magic words which he translated into action non-fiction and this cricketing nation came to be the World Champions from being nobody's child.

In this episode of transformation it was Sanath who really came to the fore. It was the chance of his lifetime. Sanath took it up with both hands so much so that after making his debut in 1990 as a middle order batsman it was not until 1995 that he scored his first Test century and that too as an opening batsman against Australia in Adelaide. In the year of 2005 Sanath became the very first Sri Lankan to play in 100 Test matches. His exploits in the limited overs version of the game in which he still is became legendary and will grow to be so until the next World Cup in the West Indies in 2007. He is also only the fourth man in cricket history to score over 10,000 ODI runs.

Jayasuriya represented Sri Lanka in 102 Test matches scoring over 6613 runs with 14 centuries with an average of 41.59. Jayasuriya took over the Lankan reins from Arjuna Ranatunge in 1999 and had a good spell as captain with a set of ten straight wins, but gave it up in 2003 to concentrate on his playing career.

Then in Sanath's swansong in Kandy where he tore his web Sri Lanka played a dominos game in the second innings in his absence and crashed to a shameful eight wicket defeat after leading by over a hundred runs in the first innings. In this unforgettable series the Lankans fell short of answers to the swing bowling of Pakistan's new pace discovery Mohammed Asif. Nevertheless Sanath will be long remembered for his epic knock of 340 against India which was followed by another 199 in the next match. In the game that he made 340 he also was associated in a record 527 run second wicket stand with Roshan Mahanama.

In spite of his unorthodox batting grip he became the most successful batsman in both forms of the game. Like the umpire who saw him in action many years ago, he is of a rare breed where very little in this mould could come out in the activity of life. This breed is proven to be more talented than the ordinary and their brilliance becomes more and more legendary as time goes by.

Top