Plaque of record - breakers Mahela and Kumar unveiled at SSC

By Ranjan Anandappa

Stand-in captain Mahela Jayawardena sincerely hoped that his former skipper Marvan Atapattu should once again take over the reins as captain from him, Jayawardena said that he is really happy to do the job right now, but thinks Marvan has structured something and we are quite happy to take it along and see where we can end, that’s what all the team members want to do.

“It’s not about the leaders, it’s all about the team, there are eleven guys who are going out there to play for their country. At the end of the day you get highlighted for your performances, but the most important thing is without eleven players and without the support of all the others and the well-wishers we cannot achieve that.” said Jayawardena.

“Let me thank all the people who are here, it’s been really nice and I throughly enjoyed this moment, because it’s not that often that you find your picture hung up with such greatness and I am really happy about that”.

Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara were felicitated by the Sinhalese Sports Club Cricket House Committee at the air conditioned pavilion for their world record breaking effort at the recently concluded Sri Lanka-South Africa Test cricket series. A plaque was unveiled by Jayawardena and Sangakkara to commemorate the highest partnership in Test and first class cricket. A portrait of Mahela Jayawardena ,who became the 12th SSC player to captain Sri Lanka, was hung among the other elite eleven captains and unveiled by the president of the club Daya Perera.

Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara broke the existing world record of 576 by Sanath Jayasuriya (340) and Mahanama (225) in 1997 vs India for any wicket adding 624 runs for the third wicket. Jayawardena missed the individual world batting record by 26 runs when he was out for 374 runs while Sangakkara’s contribution was 287 in that marathon partnership against South Africa.

Kumar Sangakkara said that he was happy that he was able to break the record in the company of Mahela who is one of his closest friends on and off the field, which makes it just a bit more special.

“To me, I think, I must personally thank my parents, my father and my mother who are here today. They have supported me during my career to the fullest my father through his coaching.

It was not always the easiest of times when he was coaching me and my mother was always the medium in between who kept my feet firmly on the ground.” said Sangakkara.