Kumar Sangakkara

**Kumar Sangakkara**
Personal information

Full name	Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara
Born	27 October 1977 (age 33) Matale, Sri Lanka
Nickname	Sanga
Batting style	Left-handed
Bowling style	Right arm off break
Role	Wicket-keeper, Batsman
International information
National side	Sri Lanka
Test debut (cap 84)	20 July 2000 v South Africa
Last Test	7 July 2011 v England
ODI debut (cap 93)	5 July 2000 v Pakistan
Last ODI	2 April 2011 v India
ODI shirt no.	11
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1997–present	Nondescripts
2008–2010	Kings XI Punjab
2007	Warwickshire
2011–present	Deccan Chargers
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	96	291	183	387
Runs scored	8,307	9264	12,896	12,925
Batting average	56.12	38.02	47.76	40.01
100s/50s	25/34	11/62	33/58	19/83
Top score	287	138*	287	156*
Balls bowled	66	–	192	–
Wickets	–	–	1	–
Bowling average	–	–	108.00	–
5 wickets in innings	–	–	–	–
10 wickets in match	–	–	–	–
Best bowling	–	–	1/13	–
Catches/stumpings	163/20	286/74	324/33	388/99
Source: ESPN Cricinfo, 19 June 2011

Kumar Sangakkara (කුමාර් සන්ගක්කාර)(born 27 October 1977, Matale, Sri Lanka) is a Sri Lankan, Sinhalese cricketer and the former captain of the Sri Lanka national cricket team. He is a left-handed top-order batsman. He used to play as a wicket-keeper and top-order batsman in all forms of the game, but has stopped doing so in Tests as his batting average is significantly higher in Tests when he plays as a pure batsman. He was ranked as the number 1 Test batsman in the world several times during his career.^[1] Following the world cup defeat to India he has since stepped down from the captaincy.
Sangakkara became the only Sri Lankan and only active cricketer to deliver the Cowdrey Lecture, when he delivered the 11th MCC Cowdrey Lecture at Lord's on 4 July 2011.^[2]

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Early life

Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara was born to Kumari and Chokshanada Sangakkara at Matale in 1977. Sangakkara received his primary and secondary education at Trinity College, Kandy, a private elite boys' school in Sri Lanka, which holds the distinction of being the only school in the world to own an international cricket stadium in the name of Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy. At Trinity he was awarded the coveted Trinity Lion for Cricket and was the Ryde Medalist of his year.^[3]He was the Senior Prefect (Head Boy) of Trinity College in 1996. Sangakkara showed talents in both cricket and tennis at school, and it was the school's Principal, Mr. Leonard De Alwis who advised his mother to encourage him to pursue cricket.^[3]

International career

Sangakkara began his career as a batsman but subsequently became a wicket-keeper. His batting has developed to such an extent that he once topped the LG ICC Test batting rankings. However, in 2006 he gave the gloves to Prasanna Jayawardene in Tests and has since played as a specialist batsman. He remains Sri Lanka's wicket-keeper in One Day International and Twenty20 cricket. As of September 2009, he was ranked 1st on the Test batting rankings. Sangakkara peaked at 6th on the ICC all-time Test batting rankings.
Sangakkara likes to hit the ball square of the wicket on the off-side and upon making a century consistently continues on past 150. On the 6 December 2007 he was named as the new Number 1 batsman in the LG ICC Test player rankings with a rating of 938, the highest rating ever achieved by a Sri Lankan player, and became the first batsman ever to score in excess of 150 in four consecutive tests.^[4] His skill was recognised worldwide when he earned selection for the ICC World XI One Day International team that competed against Australia in the Johnnie Walker Series in October 2005. He holds the record for fastest 8000 runs (152 innings) in Test cricket. He broke the previous record set by Sachin Tendulkar (154 innings) during the third test against India on 6 August 2010. Despite the World XI losing all of the one-day games by considerable margins, Sangakkara left the series with some credit, averaging 46.
Sangakkara was billed as a future captain of Sri Lanka.^[5]^[6] On Sri Lanka's tour to England in May 2006, he was named the vice-captain of the side. In March 2009 he was appointed to captain the Sri Lankan team for the 2009 ICC World Twenty20. Sangakkara has won a certain degree of admiration for his clever use of sledging and is one of few cricketers who are willing to talk about it openly.
In Sangakkara's first World Cup as captain, Sri Lanka reached the finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 tournament.^[7] Throughout the tournament Sangakkara was in prolific form with the bat and was the third highest run scorer behind Tillakaratne Dilshan and India's Sachin Tendulkar. In nine One Day international matches, he scored 465 with 44 boundaries and five Sixes. He retired as captain of Sri Lanka in one day formats on 5 April 2011.
Days after guiding SL to the finals of the World Cup, Sangakkara stepped down as captain of the T20 and ODI teams so that a new captain can take over, keeping the 2015 World Cup in mind. Sangakkara will remain Test Captain if deemed necessary for transition to new skipper.^[8] However, he was not retained as captain, with Tillakaratne Dilshan being appointed as skipper.^[9] . Kumar Sangakkara delivered the 11th MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at Lord's on Monday 4 July 2011.

Domestic cricket

Sangakkara plays his domestic cricket for Nondescripts in Sri Lanka. Sangakkara has played English county cricket with Warwickshire in the 2007 County Championship. In 2010 Sangakkara was confirmed to represent Lancashire in the 2010 County Championship. Lancashire coach, Peter Moores said "Kumar is hot property at the moment and rightly so. He is arguably the most consistent batsman in international cricket with an outstanding average in all formats, making his signing a real coup for Lancashire. Not only will he bring his qualities as a player to the squad but his experience and knowledge will be invaluable."^[10] However, Sangakkara never played for Lancashire as he was unavailable due to international commitments^[11]

2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team

Main article: 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team

On 3 March 2009, a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team convoy injured several players, including Sangakkara, and also injuring six other people in the convoy.

Personal life

He is the youngest of four siblings and has a brother and two sisters one of whom is a sportswoman herself – a keen Tennis player. Sangakkara is married to his longtime partner, Yehali [2] and is currently a law undergraduate at the Sri Lanka Law College, following in the footsteps of his father, who is also a leading lawyer in Kandy. He is multilingual, being able to speak Sinhalese and English and is often seen as the unofficial spokesman of the cricket team. Sangakkara is ambidextrous.
On 30 June 2009 Sangakkara's wife gave birth to twins, a girl and boy.^[12]

Player Statistics

Career performance

An innings-by-innings breakdown of Sangakkara's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).

Performance against each opponent

As of 5 December 2010:

Opponent	Matches	Innings	Not out	Runs	High Score	100	50	Average
Australia	6	12	0	503	192	1	3	41.91
Bangladesh	11	14	2	876	222*	2	5	73.00
England	15	26	1	1007	152	2	6	40.28
India	15	24	2	1257	219	5	2	57.13
New Zealand	8	14	3	651	156*	3	2	59.18
Pakistan	10	19	2	1314	230	5	5	77.29
South Africa	12	22	0	1182	287	2	5	53.72
West Indies	12	19	2	918	157*	3	5	54.00
Zimbabwe	5	6	0	536	270	2	1	89.33
TOTAL	94	156	12	8244	287	24	34	57.25

Test Centuries

The following table illustrates a summary of the Test centuries scored by Kumar Sangakkara.

In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career

Test Centuries of Kumar Sangakkara
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	105*	10	India	Galle, Sri Lanka	Galle International Stadium	2001
[2]	140	14	West Indies	Galle, Sri Lanka	Galle International Stadium	2001
[3]	128	17	Zimbabwe	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2002
[4]	230	20	Pakistan	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	2002
[5]	270	38	Zimbabwe	Bulawayo, Zimbabwe	Queens Sports Club	2004
[6]	232	42	South Africa	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2004
[7]	138	44	Pakistan	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	2004
[8]	157	48	West Indies	Kandy, Sri Lanka	Asgiriya Stadium	2005
[9]	185	56	Pakistan	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2006
[10]	287	61	South Africa	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2006
[11]	100*	63	New Zealand	Christchurch, New Zealand	Jade Stadium	2006
[12]	156*	64	New Zealand	Wellington, New Zealand	Basin Reserve	2006
[13]	200*	66	Bangladesh	Colombo, Sri Lanka	P. Saravanamuttu Stadium	2007
[14]	222*	67	Bangladesh	Kandy, Sri Lanka	Asgiriya Stadium	2007
[15]	192	68	Australia	Hobart, Australia	Bellerive Oval	2007
[16]	152	69	England	Kandy, Sri Lanka	Asgiriya Stadium	2007
[17]	144	76	India	Colombo, Sri Lanka	P. Sarawanamuttu stadium	2008
[18]	104	80	Pakistan	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi stadium	2009
[19]	130*	83	Pakistan	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2009
[20]	109	85	New Zealand	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2009
[21]	137	88	India	Mumbai, India	Brabourne Stadium	2009
[22]	103	89	India	Galle, Sri Lanka	Galle International Stadium	2010
[23]	219	90	India	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club	2010
[24]	150	93	West Indies	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium	2010
[25]	119	97	England	Southampton, England	Rose Bowl	2011

One Day International Centuries

ODI Centuries of Kumar Sangakkara
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	100*	86	Pakistan	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	2003
[2]	103*	87	Kenya	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	2003
[3]	101	100	Australia	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium	2004
[4]	138*	141	India	Jaipur, India	Sawai Mansingh Stadium	2005
[6]	110	183	India	Rajkot, India	Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground	2007
[7]	128	213	India	Adelaide, Australia	Adelaide Oval	2008
[8]	101	221	Bangladesh	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	2008
[9]	112	222	Pakistan	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	2008
[10]	121	223	Bangladesh	Karachi, Pakistan	National stadium	2008
[11]	111	288	New Zealand	Mumbai, India	Wankhede Stadium	2011

Awards

Test Cricket – Man of the match awards

In this table Ct., refers to the Catches and St. refers to the Stumping

#	Series	Season	Match Performance	Result
1	1st Test – Zimbabwe in Sri Lanka	2001/02	1st Innings – 128(4x22, 6x1) 2nd Innings – 3 Ct.	Won by an innings and 166 runs
2	Final – Asian Test Championship	2001/02	1st Innings – 230(4x33, 6x3); 5 Ct., 1 St. 2nd Innings – 14*(4x1)	Won by 8 wickets
3	2nd Test – Sri Lanka in Zimbabwe	2004	1st Innings – 270(4x36, 6x2); 1 Ct.	Won by an innings and 254 runs
4	2nd Test – South Africa in Sri Lanka	2004	1st Innings – 232(4x31, 6x1); 1 Ct. 2nd Innings – 64(4x10, 6x1)	Won by 313 runs
5	2nd Test – West Indies in Sri Lanka	2005	1st Innings – 6(4x1) 2nd Innings – 157(4x24)	Won by 240 runs
6	1st Test – Pakistan in Sri Lanka	2006	1st Innings – 8(4x1); 2 Ct. 2nd Innings – 185(4x22)	Drawn
7	2nd Test – Bangladesh in Sri Lanka	2007	1st Innings – 200*(4x20, 6x2)	Won by an innings and 90 runs
8	1st Test – England in Sri Lanka	2007/08	1st Innings – 92 (4x13) 2nd Innings – 152 (4x19); 1 Ct.	Won by 88 runs
9	3rd Test – India in Sri Lanka	2008	1st Innings – 144(4x14) 2nd Innings – 04(4x0)	Won by 8 wickets

One-Day International Cricket – Man of the series awards

#	Series	Season	Match Performance	Result
1	Cherry Blossom Sharjah Cup in UAE	2002/2003	228(3 Matches); 100x2	Won the Sharja Cup by 8 wickets
2	South Africa in Sri Lanka	2004	247(5 Matches); 50x3, 5 Ct., 5 St.	Won the series 5–0
3	2nd Test – Sri Lanka in Zimbabwe	2004	182(3 Matches); 100x1, 50x1, 5 Ct.	Won by an innings and 254 runs
4	Idea Cup 2009–10 in Bangladesh	2009/2010	274(5 Matches); 50x4	Won the Idea cup by 4 wickets

One-Day International Cricket – Man of the match awards

#	Series	Season	Match Performance	Result
1	2nd Mt. – Singer Triangular Series vs South Africa	2000	85(4x11); 1 Ct.	Won by 37 runs
2	7th Mt. – NatWest Series vs England in England	2002	70(4x8)	Won by 23 runs
3	2nd Mt. – Cherry Blossom Sharjah Cup vs Pakistan in UAE	2002/03	100(4x9)	Won by 7 wickets
4	4th Mt. – Cherry Blossom Sharjah Cup vs Kenyain UAE	2002/03	103(4x9)	Won by 129 runs
5	4th ODI – South Africa in Sri Lanka	2004	74(4x6); 1 St.	Won by 7 wickets
6	Final – Paktel Cup vs Pakistan in Pakistan	2004/05	68(4x7); 1 Ct., 2 St.	Won by 119 runs
7	2nd Mt. – Afro-Asian Cup vs Africa XI in South Africa	2004/05	61(4x9, 6x1); 1 Ct.	Asia XI won by 17 runs
8	3rd Mt. – VB Series vs South Africa in Australia	2005/06	88(4x10)	Won by 94 runs
9	1st Final – VB Series vs Australia in Australia	2005/06	83(4x3, 6x1); 1 St.	Won by 22 runs
10	3rd ODI – Sri Lanka in Bangladesh	2005/06	109(4x11); 1 Ct.	Won by 78 runs
11	2nd ODI – Sri Lanka in India	2006/07	110(4x11, 6x4); 2 Ct., 1 St.	Won by 5 runs
12	8th ODI – Commonwealth Bank Series	2007–08	128 (4x12); 1 Ct.	Won by 2 wickets
13	4th ODI – Tri-Series in Bangladesh	2008–09	59 (4x6); 4 Ct.	Won by 2 wickets
14	5th ODI – India in Sri Lanka	2009	84 (4x8) (6x1); 2 Ct.	Won by 68 Runs

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