Mahela Jayawardene - A perfect Cricketer

If cricket is a team game than he is a complete team man , if a teams performance depends on its captain than he is a as clever a captain that every team demands ,if cricket is all about scoring runs than he had thousands of them to count ,if cricket is all about performing consistently than his long cricketing career answers your question.Cricket is blessed to have a student like Denagamage Praboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene (Mahela Jayawardene) who had respected the game and played it with the defined set of rules of cricket.

Over 17 years in international cricket , more than 23 thousand runs under his belt ,50 international hundreds ,highest number of catches in ODI (204) -the stats says it all about the former Sri Lankan Captain who  had announced his retirement from Test cricket on 14 July 2014,which means another gem of a player became history in test cricket.

Mahela Jayawardene was among the Sri Lanka's most successful captains who had made me his admirer through his great cricketing mind . He has that gifted ability to switch his  game according to the format- be its ODI ,Tests or T20,thats the reason that he had not only scored runs in all the format but is among the rarest cricketers in this modern day competitive cricket on whom selection committee relied and elected as a captain in all the formats.In fact it is because of captaincy only he has been the first choice for captain for IPL teams as well. Always Cricket First is the principle which he had followed rigorously throughout his career   and hence was always available for Sri Lankan team whether it is for selection , for taking his team out from difficult situations or helping in the reformation of team .

15 May 2011 was the day when i got the opportunity to watch  this iconic cricketer live in action on cricketing field from stands. I really consider myself lucky that i got the opportunity to watch his captaincy ,watch his batting , watch his fielding,watch his team winning under his captaincy ,all live on ground.The memories of that day are still alive and would always be.

I wonder whether world cricket will have another nearly perfect cricketer ever who had achieved all the milestones with his fair play and inculcated the same in his team.

What a captain , what a player ,actually a perfect cricketer.

Sri Lanka Is Winning ICC World T20 2012

In a hall ,located on the first floor of the Sinhalese Sports Club Stadium in the heart of Colombo , a cup gleams alone under the light .It is the biggest affirmation of Sri Lanka’s cricketing prowess and it is not just another cup it is the world cup that they won in 1996 .Since than Sri Lanka has never looked back and its hence the second best dossier reads : Runner-up in the 2007 and 2011 World Cups , Losing finalist in the 2009 ICC World Twenty20  are some silver ware which defines their so-near-and yet-so- far tale .As now once again Sri Lanka has entered into the world T20 final the script doesn’t get any better for them to add another glittering trophy and emerge as a Champion from just being the eternal bridesmaid in ICC tournaments.

With the other favorites have already taken their flights back to home with India beating all the defending champions England ,former champions Pakistan and the current ranked no. 1 in ICC T20 South Africa but lost the one which mattered against Australia -who has past inept rivals before getting hypnotised by the Pakistani spinners and than lost to West Indies the way you have never seen them before have actually justified their ranking in the ICC T20 and their exit from the tournament .With Pakistan as usual seemed to suffer from the  self destructive itch against Sri Lanka and the world no. 1 actually standing  last in the group and the members of Group 2( group of death ) are all dead now.

Before the tournament West Indies has been hyped as one of the strong contenders of winning this world T20 edition , probably that’s what have acted as catalyst behind their strong performance against Australia ,lets not talk about how they made it to the Semi’s .Now they are going to face Sri Lanka and beating them at their home is considered even more difficult than beating India or Australia in their home turf.

The stage is all set to have a new champion this time and we have two highly motivated teams as a finalist in the world T20 ,who will not let any stone unturned to prove themselves and regain some dominance in the world cricket .For me , Sri Lanka is surly going to make it this time with having both home advantage and electrifying home support in their  favor and of course by playing the good cricket and taking all precautionary measures to deal with Gayle Storm as there is already a warning from him..!!  

Sri Lanka – A Gentleman’s Team

ICC’s 2008 and 2009 spirit of cricket award winning team ,a team which made its presence count in international cricket with it fair play –  truly deserve this award . Sri Lanka is my all time favorite team ,ask for batting , bowling , fielding they truly keep the spirit of cricket alive .  I have never seen a team  as disciplined as Sri Lanka .They actually play cricket ,level playing thats what they believe in .They play with the attitude to respect all the three results of match and try to give their best in the field .

Cricket has really became famous in this part of country  and Kumar Sangakkara’s speech at Lords says it all what cricket matter to them .Sri Lankan has got every thing a very intelligent ,clever, thinking captain and very good batsman as Mahela Jayawardene ( I am a big fan of this great cricketer) , a brilliant wicket keeper and superb batsman Kumar Sangakkara , an explosive batsman and a superb explosive batsman fielder as Dilshan , an slinger Malinga with his precise Yorkers  and who can forget the great Sanath Jayasuriya(the first batsman I liked) , the pied piper Arjuna Ranatunga their world cup winning captain , and the great spinner Muttiah Muralitharan  ,well they have many all full with cricketing spirit very athletic ,world class ,who believe in themselves and always try to give their best  .Ask for any format ODI,Test or T-20 they have achieved their stature with hard work.Even this time also Sri Lankans have not got their match fees from World cup 2011 and they are continuously playing cricket more than any other team and representing their country with full spirit without any complaints.Truly a great ambassador of their country and an idle cricketing team which sets a very high standard whenever they are on the field .Sri Lanka is probable the only team  in modern day cricket which proves that “Cricket is a gentleman’s game “.