Birthday Special: Kumar Sangakkara – Sri Lanka’s run-machine

There are certain players who make a name for themselves in cricket and then there are some who go down in the history books as absolute legends of the sport. And one such name who retired as a legendary cricket player is Kumar Sangakkara – the wicketkeeper-batsman from Sri Lanka who stayed at the top of his game throughout a career that spanned over a decade and a half.

Cricket is a sport in which players find it difficult to master only one skill, but Sangakkara managed to master two at the same time. As great a batsman he was, he excelled with the gloves behind the wickets too. Right from the beginning of his career, he took the cricketing fraternity by storm and made sure everyone knew that he was here for the long haul. Sanga went on to play more than 500 games in international cricket.

A sensational start to a brilliant career

Sanga’s journey in international cricket started after he was picked to play for Sri Lanka in an ODI against Pakistan on home soil in 2000. In the very second game of his career, he won his first Man of the Match award and the rest is history. From there on, he was a regular feature in the Sri Lankan team and played as many as 404 ODIs, scoring over 14,234 runs.

Just days after Sanga made his ODI debut, he also got the chance to feature in the Sri Lankan Test team in their match against South Africa in the same year. He did not take much time to prove his worth in this format too, where he followed his two 90-plus scores with a century in his 9th match. The southpaw went on to play 134 Test matches and ended his run in the format with 12,400 runs.

A string of good performances for Sri Lanka made him the obvious choice to be selected as the successor to the outgoing captain of the team, Mahela Jayawardene. And to add another feather to his hat of achievements, Sangakkara excelled as a captain too. But his run as a leader came to a dismal end as he stepped down from the position after the Sri Lankan team, under his captaincy lost the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup final to India

Record-breaking Sanga

Sangakkara broke many records while keeping wickets across formats and remained a constant threat to the batsmen from behind the wickets while also assisting the bowlers. He holds the record for having dismissed the most number of batsmen as a wicketkeeper, with 482 dismissals to his name in 404 ODI matches.

He adapted well as cricket changed forms and T20 came along to be the new big thing in sport. Sanga, while playing for his national team, also plied his trade in various T20 tournaments across the globe and made his mark in each one of them.

After hanging his boots from international cricket in 2015, Sanga went on to work in various capacities, making sure that he continued to contribute to the game that he loved all his life. He has worked as an administrator, a broadcaster and in many other capacities. Years after retirement, he continues to be a source of inspiration to many.