SANATH JAYASURIYA BIOGRAPHY
Full name
Sanath Teran Jayasuriya
Born June
30, 1969, Matara
Current
age 41 years 338 days
Major
teams Sri Lanka, Asia XI, Asia XI, Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club,
Colombo Cricket Club, Dolphins, Marylebone Cricket Club, Mumbai Indians,
Ruhuna, Somerset
Playing
role Allrounder
Batting
style Left-hand bat
Bowling
style Slow left-arm orthodox
Sanath
Teran Jayasuriya
It's hard
to imagine that for the first half-decade of his career, Sanath Jayasuriya was
considered a bowler who could bat a bit. Think of him now and you think of
forearms straight out of a smithy, shots hammered through point and cover and
scythes over the leg side. You recall a man who could score equally briskly in
every form of the game, who slashed and burned his way through bowling attacks.
As with anyone who relied so much on extraordinary hand-eye coordination, there
were troughs and lean times, but just as the obit writers got busy, he would
produce another innings of supreme power. The bowling, always canny and relying
more on variations in pace than sharp turn, became the supporting act, though
420 international wickets should tell you that he was pretty adept at what he
did.
Following
Mark Greatbatch's success at the 1992 World Cup, most teams were rethinking the
way they approached the one-day game and Jayasuriya, who had trawled the lower
reaches of the middle order till then, had his first stint as opener during the
Hero Cup in India in 1993. It was only during a home series against Pakistan
the following year that he established himself in the role and by the time the
World Cup rolled around 18 months later, he had already chalked up his first
century in whites, a frenetic stroke-filled effort in Adelaide.
The years
that followed were both prolific and successful. People remember Aravinda de
Silva's magical innings from the semi-final and final of the 1996 World Cup but
it was Jayasuriya's withering assaults that deflated India in Delhi and England
in the last eight. Soon after, he began to exact as heavy a toll on Test
attacks, scoring at such a pace that Muttiah Muralitharan and friends had ample
time to work their way through opposition batsmen.
After
Arjuna Ranatunga's ouster, there was a four-year stint as captain that ended
with a semi-final appearance at the 2003 World Cup, and just as the whispers
grew about diminishing returns with the bat, he had one of his most successful
years in 2004. There was a retirement announcement in 2006, but he was back
within weeks, and the walk off the Test stage came only 18 months later, after
a typically cavalier innings in Kandy.
The
one-day flame continued to burn bright, and took Sri Lanka to another World Cup
final in 2007, and he was instrumental in the Asia Cup win of 2008, a couple of
months after it had seemed that the selectors' axe had fallen for the final
time. The Indian Premier League gave him a new platform to showcase his
big-hitting talent, but failure to replicate the success of the first season in
subsequent campaigns was the surest sign that time had finally caught up with a
man who was still pounding out one-day hundreds at the age of 39.
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