Kumar Sangakkara:

One of top five WISDEN Cricketers of the Year

By A.C De Silva

To grab a prize from WISDEN - the cricketers almanac is not an easy task. Sri Lanka's former skipper Kumar Sangakkara had all cricket fans talking about the performance of the Sri Lanka cricketers with his fine performances this year. He is one of the top-five WISDEN cricketers of the year.

Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara has achieved the unprecedented feat of being selected as both WISDEN's Leading International Cricketer in the WORLD and one of Five Cricketers' of the year, in the 2012 edition of WISDEN Cricketers' Almanac, published in the UK. WISDEN's Five Cricketers of the Year are picked by the editor of WISDEN and it is a tradition that date back to 1869.

In February 2009, the then captain of the Sri Lanka side, Mahela Jayawardene announced that he would stop down from captaincy "in the best interests of the Sri Lankan team." He said he believed that it would give his successor around two years to build up to the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

Therefore at the age of 31 and with the experience of 80 Tests and 246 ODIs, Sangakkara succeeded Jayawardene as Sri Lanka's captain in all forms of the game. His first engagement in the role was the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 hosted by England in June. Sri Lanka became runners-up in the series after winning all the games in group and knock-out stages and being beaten by Pakistan in the final.

Sangakkara made 64 not out in the final, but was unable to take Sri Lanka for the championship. Sri Lanka failed to reach to the knock-out stage of the ICC Champions Trophy in September 2009. Then followed a few ups and downs, Sangakkara decided that he would resign the captaincy. Sri Lanka reached the final of the tournament. Throughout the tournament Sangakkara was in prolific form with the bat scoring 465 runs from 9 matches and was the third highest run scorer behind team-mate Tillakaratne Dilshan and India's Sachin Tendulkar.

Days after guiding Sri Lanka to the finals of the World Cup, Sangakkara announced to the public he was stepping down as captain of the T20 and ODI teams. He offered to continue as Test captain if deemed necessary for transition to new skipper. In the event Dilshan was appointed captain across all formats.

Speaking about his decision, Sangakkara said: "Captaining Sri Lanka is a job that ages you very quickly... It's rarely a job you will last long in... I also had a two-year stint, and I enjoyed it at times." The unassuming cricketer that he is, he gets his performances do the talking and there's a lot to talk about him. WISDEN mentions the fact "In 2011, no one came close to matching the 2,267 runs Kumar Sangakkara scored in all international cricket. Overall, no one made more than Sangakkara's five hundreds or his 13 fifties and he now stands alone in topping 1,000 runs in both Tests and one-day internationals in one year on three occasions. Sangakkara showed that he was a champion cricketer in good and somewhat challenging conditions. He had the nerve and spirit to score in the somewhat damp conditions of Southampton and in the heat of South Africa. He showed fine leadership qualities. As captain of Sri Lanka, he took the team to the World Cup final, and then taking over again for the Rose Bowl Test in England. What's more, Sangakkara gave such a wonderful speech for the MCC Cowdrey Lecture and displayed his talents in no uncertain manner that he is a great cricketer and speaker too!

Speaking about cricket Sangakkara has said that the International Cricket Council has given their consent to play Tests at night, Sangakkara does not fancy the move very much. There are many reasons - we got to be certain about the colour of the ball and hot it will perform in the night. Then there is the question as to how the pitch will stand upto night cricket.

Speaking about his cricket, he has said that he is well satisfied the way he has been performing. The matches against New Zealand these days is a run-up to a important tour of Australia that is coming up. Sri Lanka did well to beat New Zealand in the First Test and though Sangakkara did not perform well (he was out for 5 in the first innings) and did not bat a second time as Sri Lanka won the match by ten wickets at Galle.