Kumar Sangakkara (Sinhala: කුමාර් සංගක්කාර) (born 27 October 1977, Matale, Sri Lanka) is a Sri Lankancricketer 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 keeping wicket in Tests as his batting average is significantly higher in Tests when he plays as a pure batsman. He has been ranked as the number 1 Testbatsman 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 (8) is third in the list of Test double century-makers, behind Donald Bradman (12) and Brian Lara (9). He scored his eighth double ton in Test cricket on October 21, 2011 against Pakistan at Abu Dhabi.2
Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara was born to Kumari Chokshandara Mudalige 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 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 his school in 1996. Sangakkara showed talents in both cricket and tennis at school, and it was the school's Principal, Mr. Leonard De Alvis 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 August2010. Despite the World XI losing all of the one-day games by considerable margins, Sangakkara left the series with some credit, averaging 46.He also holds the record for fastest 9000 runs (172 innings) in Test cricket. He broke the previous record set by Rahul Dravid (176 innings) during the second test against Pakistan on 3 November2011.5
Sangakkara was billed as a future captain of Sri Lanka.67 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.8 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 3 April 2011. He is a real gentlemen in the present cricket who is honored by the whole cricket world.
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.9 However, he was not retained as captain, with Tillakaratne Dilshan being appointed as skipper.10
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."11 However, Sangakkara never played for Lancashire as he was unavailable due to international commitments.12
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 Tamil and English and is often seen as the unofficial spokesman of the Sri Lanka cricket team. Sangakkara is ambidextrous (meaning he can bat left- and right-handed). He is Buddhist and goes to the temple and does his prayers before he plays cricket
On 30 June 2009 Sangakkara's wife gave birth to twins, a girl and boy.13
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).
