In 2007, Sangakkara became the first player to make scores of 150 or more in four successive Test matches, and in February 2014, he became just the second player (after Graham Gooch) to score a triple century and a century in the same Test.The Chief Executive of the International Cricket Council (ICC) David Richardson has paid tribute to former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara, who retired from international cricket today.
Sangakkara was one of the leading cricketers in world cricket for the last 15 years during which played in 134 Tests (scoring 12,400 runs, 182 catches (131 catches as a wicket-keeper) as well as 20 stumpings), 404 ODIs (14,234 runs, 402 catches (383 as wicket-keeper) and 99 stumpings) and 56 T20Is (1,382 runs, 26 catches as wicket-keeper and 20 stumpings). He also led Sri Lanka in 15 Tests, 45 ODIs and 22 ODIs. One of his finest hours came when he inspired Sri Lanka to the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011.
Sangakkara was selected in the ICC Test Team of the year on seven occasions – 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014 and was won the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC Cricketer of the Year, as well as the Test Player of the Year, in Colombo in 2012. He was also named ICC ODI Player of the Year in 2011 and 2013.
In 2007, he became the first player to make scores of 150 or more in four successive Test matches, and in February 2014, he became just the second player (after Graham Gooch) to score a triple century and a century in the same Test.
Congratulating Sangakkara on a highly successful career, Mr Richardson said: “Kumar Sangakkara will rightly go down as one of cricket’s greatest-ever players and ambassadors. Across an illustrious career, he maintained levels of excellence whether batting, keeping wickets or leading by example.
“By scoring a total of 28,016 runs across all three formats, he puts himself in the higher echelons of players to ever grace the game. But he also made a considerable contribution off the field and carried the weight of expectation of a passionate Sri Lanka supporting public, as he did his batting, with great class.
“The high esteem in which he is also held by his peers is emphasised by the fact that he was invited to deliver the prestigious 2011 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at Lord’s, becoming the first active player to do so. Kumar was also a valued member of the ICC Cricket Committee from 2007 to 2015.
“In stepping off the field of play for the last time we wish Kumar and his family well and thank him for his enormous contribution to the game.”
Kumar “Sanga” Chokshanada Sangakkara (Sinhalese: කුමාර සංගක්කාර; born 27 October 1977) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and captain of the Sri Lankan national team. Widely regarded as one of the world’s most influential greatest cricketers,[1][2] Sangakkara has forged many formidable partnerships with long time team mate and friend, Mahela Jayawardene and holds numerous batting records in the modern era across all formats of the game. He is second to Sachin Tendulkar in terms of most international runs with 28,016.
A left-handed top-order batsman, he is also a record-breaking wicket-keeper, although he no longer kept wickets at the end of his Test career. Currently, he is the second-highest run-scorer in ODI cricket and the fifth-highest run scorer in Test cricket.
Sangakkara is described as one of the “most polished and prudent of batsmen” in cricket. Along with AB de Villiers, he has dominated the number one spot in the ICC Test batting rankings between 2005 and 2015. On 12 August 2015, Sangakkara was placed at number 5 in the ICC Test rankings.
Sangakkara was a key member of the team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and was part of the team that made the final of the 2007 Cricket World Cup, 2011 Cricket World Cup, 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and 2012 ICC World Twenty20. He won the Man of the Match award in the final of the 2014 ICC World Twenty20, where he helped the team win their first title.
He was the youngest person and the first active international player to deliver the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture, which was widely praised by the cricketing community for its outspoken nature.
In terms of number of innings required, Sangakkara is the fastest batsman to reach 8,000, 9,000, 11,000 and 12,000 runs in Test cricket. He is also joint fastest to 10,000. He won the ICC Cricketer of the Year in 2012, Test Cricketer of the Year in 2012, and ODI Cricketer of the Year multiple times in 2011 and 2013. He has also won the LG People’s Choice Award twice, in 2011 and 2012. Sangakkara has regularly featured in the World Test XI and World ODI XI, appearing six times and three times in them, respectively. He was selected as Leading Cricketer in the World in the 2015 edition of Wisden.
He was named the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World in 2011 and 2015. He is one of two players to have won this award twice, along with Indian opener Virender Sehwag, who won the award in 2008 and 2009.
On 29 January 2015, Sangakkara became Sri Lanka’s highest ever ODI run scorer, surpassing the previous record of 13,430 runs held by Sanath Jayasuriya. In the same match, he also broke the record for ODI wicketkeeping dismissals, breaking the previous record of 472 held by Adam Gilchrist.
Sangakkara born to Kumari Surangana and Swarnakumara Sangakkara, an attorney-at-law at Matale, Sri Lanka in 1977. His parents settled in Kandy, where he grew up in his childhood. Sangakkara received his primary and secondary education at Trinity College, Kandy, an independent elite private boys’ school situated in the central highlands of Sri Lanka. He has two sisters: Thushari and Saranga, and an elder brother: Vemindra, all who have made national level achievements during their school-life. Sangakkara too started playing a number of sports: badminton, tennis, swimming, table tennis and cricket at the junior school. He was able to win national colours for badminton and tennis at his younger age. The then principal of the Trinity College, Leonard de Alwis, advised his mother to encourage Sangakkara to concentrate on cricket.
His parents hid Tamil families during the Black July riots in 1983.
He represented his school’s under-13 cricket XI under coach Upananda Jayasundera. Berty Wijesinghe coached Sangakkara for under-15, under-17, under-19 and first XI squads. He was awarded The Trinity Lion, the most prestigious prize awarded to a Trinity sportsman, for his exceptional batting and wicket-keeping skills in the 1996 season, at the age of 19. Sangakkara was selected to represent Sri Lanka A cricket team at a tour to South Africa in 1998–99. His knock of unbeaten 156 against Zimbabwe A team at a one-day match, helped him secure a place at the Sri Lankan national cricket team later that year.
Sanga was the Senior Prefect (Head Boy) of school, he did his Advanced Level examination in the Arts stream in 1996. He was also awarded the highest honour of Trinity College, the Ryde Gold Medal, for the best all-round student in his year. Following his father, who is a lawyer in Kandy, he entered the Law Faculty of the University of Colombo, but was unable to finish his degree due to cricket tours. Sangakkara was a chorister and played the violin during his school-days. He was cited as an inspiration to continue his higher education by Bangladeshi captain Mushfiqur Rahim, upon receiving his master’s degree.
