Retirement woes on Kumar Sangakkara

His flamboyant play and quick-foot as wicket-keeper will be missed henceforth by all the ‘Sanga’ fans as Kumar Sangakkara has taken a final call on his international career.

Kumar Snagakkara, Sri Lanka’s top batsman cum wicket-keeper is likely to retire after the first test which will be played against India in the midst of the August 2015. 

Currently Sri Lanka will be playing a home series against neighbouring country Pakistan. The three tests and two ODIs will be played with Pakistan, the first test beginning from 17 June to 21^st June 2015.  It seems that Sangakkara has informed the board that he will play the two tests against Pakistan and One test against India which will mark the end of his international career. After exiting from international career Sangakkara is supposed to play for county side Surrey.

Kumar had a fantastic international career which had the virtue of leading the Sri Lankan cricket team as a captain. As father of Kavith and Swyree; who are twins-one boy and one girl), Sangakkara, holds the responsibility to dedicate his time for family as well. Playing persistently as number 3 batsman for Sri Lanka his master strokes and pull shots swaying all over the ground will be missed the most.  A batsman who made the fastest 10,000 runs mark in test (equalling Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara’s record), is also a keen player of Golf and Tennis.

Sangakkara in his family of four is the youngest one who was brought up in a hill country of Kandy. A voracious reader and a student of law, Kumar got these traits from his father who is fond of literature and a well-respected lawyer. As a young boy of seven years old he was guided by his coach Sunil Fernando who was also the coach of Muttiah Murlidhran, although Murli was five years senior to him. When the Tsunami hit the shores of island country Sri Lanka, along with other senior players of his team Kumar also donated openly to the affected families.

This left handed batsman of Sri Lanka was part of the 2011 World Cup hosted by Asian sub-continent. Their team had made it to the finals only to lose against India at the famous Wankhede stadium. By now, Kumar has played 130 tests, 404 ODIs, 56 T-20s in his international career. His talent was spotted by the selectors when he was barely 21 years old. Sharing a bond of friendship with Mahela Jaywardhane (Sri Lanka’s yet another diligent batsman) added a record 624 runs against South Africa in Colombo 2006 test match.

For his spectacular performance he was awarded 2012 ICCs Test cricketer of the year award and the People’s choice award. With a test batting average of 58.66 Kumar Sangakkara will retire as Sri Lanka’s one of the most successful batsman.