Sri Lanka’s batting legend Kumar Sangakkara has racked up the numbers to be ranked the country’s best.
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Our #360debate today is: Is Kumar Sangakkara Island nation’s greatest?
Jaideep Marar, Assistant Editor, thinks YES.
The best tribute for Kumar Sangakkara came from a Sri Lankan soldier: “It is OK if I die because it is my job and I am ready for it. But you are a hero and if you were to die it would be a great loss for our country.”
The incident narrated by Sangakkara himself was about his interaction with the serviceman after he had returned home surviving a terrorist attack in Pakistan in 2009.
An engaging character on and off the field, Sangakkara has been the backbone of Sri Lankan cricket for 15 years amassing 27,887 runs in 591 international matches (Tests, one-dayers and Twenty20) scoring 63 centuries and 153 fifties.
Kumar Sangakkara has announced he will retire from Test Cricket later this summer. One of the all-time greats. pic.twitter.com/yUbut5HXHu
— betway (@betway) June 27, 2015
Only Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar (34,357) has scored more than him. There is no doubt that Arjuna Ranatunga stoked the fire and was responsible in converting the Islanders into world beaters, but Sangakkara took it a step further and has become the torch-bearer.
Ranatunga can still lay claim to be Sri Lanka’s finest captain but the honour of being the country’s best cricketer must go to Sangakkara. In an era ruled by some of the finest batsmen the game has seen, Sangakkara has been able to carve a niche for himself.
He may not have been a great captain but his leadership came from his batting feats, that places him at sixth spot in the all-time run-getter’s list in Tests.
His displays in away Tests (5,888 runs in 53 games averaging 53.13) and his contribution in Sri Lankan wins (5,370 runs in 52 matches at an average of 74.58) bear testimony to his fighting spirit.
With Sangakkara by their side, the Sri Lankan bowlers always knew they had a decent total to bowl at any opposition.
The only other batsman who could match Sangakkara’s batting excellence was his best friend and another Sri Lankan legend, Mahela Jayawardene. But Sangakkara was a shade better and his 14,234 runs in 404 ODIs and 1382 runs in 56 Twenty20 Internationals prove his class across formats.
The closest competitor to Sangakkara as Sri Lanka’s greatest player would be spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan for his grit to stay at the top despite facing strong criticism for his bowling action. However, Sangakkara edges Murali for his ability to stand tall against any bowling attack on any pitch home and away.
Joy Chakravarty, Dubai Editor, thinks NO.
His numbers are simply numbing. One look at the staggering tally of 12,305 Test runs, each of them compiled with so much style and panache, and it is easy to pour the accolades on Kumar Sangakkara.
But is he the greatest Sri Lankan cricketer of all time? I have absolutely no doubt that he is the island nation’s greatest batsman of all time.
And based on my interactions with him, I will also go as far as to say he is perhaps the most humble, humane and affable cricketer in recent times. And yet, I definitely don’t think he is the greatest Sri Lankan cricketer of all time.
GALLERY: A look back on @KumarSanga2‘s outstanding career http://t.co/U7UdgFEErI pic.twitter.com/njvXJn2StA
— Sport360° (@Sport360) June 28, 2015
That honour, without an iota of doubt, belongs to the mercurial Arjuna Ranatunga. At 5,105 runs and just four centuries – the highest of which was an unbeaten 135 as against a whopping 11 double century by Sangakkara – Ranatunga’s record pales in front of his compatriot.
Ranatunga’s greatest achievement was giving his country immense pride and self-belief by leading them to that fairy-tale victory in the 1996 ICC Cricket World Cup.
His shrewd captaincy was the key in Sri Lanka’s transformation from minnows of the game to world-beaters. For almost a decade starting 1989, Ranatunga captained Sri Lanka in 56 Test matches.
His winning record is just 21.4 per cent (12 victories), but most of them were while leading a team of no-hopers. And then there was the way he stood by Muttiah Muralitharan during the chucking controversy in Australia – Ranatunga really was the rock that provided Sri Lanka the support they needed to become one of the premier teams in the world.
Like India’s 1983 World Cup win spawned a whole new generation of exemplary players like Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, Sri Lanka’s 1996 triumph was instrumental in shaping the careers of many of their modern greats, including Sangakkara. Ranatunga could never achieve the popularity and goodwill that Sangakkara has enjoyed across the globe.
There was always a bit of brashness in him, and that admirable quality of never backing out of a fight. But for metamorphosing Sri Lanka from a ‘bunch of nice guys’ to nice guys who hate finishing last, he gets my vote as the greatest cricketer from his country.
