When Mahela and Sanga bow out

The two veterans will leave behind a void that may never be filled.

MUTTIAH MURALIDARAN: The same yet very different – that is the way I think of the two legends, Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara, as they prepare to play in the ICC Cricket World Cup for one final time, starting with the tournament’s opening match against New Zealand on February 14.

What unites them – aside from their long-standing friendship, the fact they have both led the side with distinction and their business partnership at a crab restaurant in Colombo – is the fact they will both finish their careers with records that mark them out as greats of the game, and both have always possessed a passionate desire to do well for the country.

Mahela was a man schooled in the ways of the Sinhalese Sports Club — the breeding ground of cricketing talent in Colombo. His exceptional ability was there for all to see from a young age and Arjuna Ranatunga, spotting that talent, was quick to take him under his wing and look to promote him at the earliest possible opportunity.

It was not all plain sailing for him, though. He struggled early on in his career especially to come to terms with extra bounce and seam and swing, and it took him a while to work out a technique that both worked for him and was effective.



As for Mahela the cricketer and Mahela the man, in my experience he has never been a big talker in the dressing room. He simply goes about his business in a quiet, unassuming and undemonstrative way. What that means is when he does speak, people tend to pay attention.

He has worked hard to get where he has – you do not achieve all that he has in a career and stay at the top level for as long as he has without doing exactly that – but at the same time, he has also been able to rely on masses of natural talent.

Sanga, on the other hand, would probably be the first to admit that he did not have that massive amount of natural talent when he was starting off, but he has made up for that with a truly ferocious work ethic. Sanga, though, was a very driven cricketer and that drive was reinforced by his father. It is something he has retained right through to this day.

It is not uncommon for him to hit several hundred balls during any given practice session, all in the pursuit of perfection, honing a particular shot. If you had to sum up his approach it would be ‘practice hard, succeed easy’.

Unlike Mahela, Sanga had a reputation as a bit of a fiery character in his early days and was never afraid to mix it with the opposition. He has mellowed since then, but, like Mahela, he too is a deep thinker on the game and everything he does has a reason behind it. The question now is whether Mahela and Sanga can guide Sri Lanka to World Cup glory to put the perfect full-stop on their careers. ICC

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2015.

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.