The first time I saw Mahela Jayawardene in action was
against England
in Australia
during a tri-nation one-day tournament. That match is still remembered by many
due to the tussle between Australian umpire Ross Emerson and Sri Lankan captain
Arjuna Ranatunga, but few tend to remember a young man’s valiant contribution
which ensured Sri Lanka
a dramatic win.
Jayawardene, the batsman
Amid a complete hopeless situation, a young lad remained
calm and composed to notch-up a brilliant hundred and thus, I came to know
about a young man named Mahela Jayawardene who could follow the footsteps of
Aravinda de Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga in the near future. And the young man
did carry on De Silva and Ranatunga’s legacy splendidly.
Since that knock at Adelaide ,
Jayawardene’s career started to flourish. His bat continued to essay some of
cricket’s prolific knocks and gradually he became Sri Lankan cricket’s most
valuable and respected player. With the bat in his hand, he had been an artist
in an era when most of the batsmen were more addicted in bludgeoning the
cricket ball. Very few sights in world cricket had been as pleasant as Mahela
Jayawardene’s batting – his silken drives through the covers and wristy flicks
off his pads have always been a cricket romanticist’s treat.
Then there were those cuts and dabs behind the stumps – both
against the spinners and pace-bowlers and some well-timed strokes in the ‘V’ were
pure gems. Blessed with an excellent
hand-eye coordination, playing the ball late has been one of Mahela’s assets
and he has been such a batsman who was the master in playing strokes all around
the wicket.
Taking over captaincy
But, over the years, this little man’s brilliant captaincy
and sound cricket brain kept on impressing me time and again.
This quiet and polite guy inherited Sri
Lanka ’s captaincy by default during the England
tour in 2006 when the touring captain Marvan Atapattu was injured. In the first
Test at Lord’s, the Lankans were all set to digest a heavy defeat and amid such
circumstances, a captain needed to script something special to maintain the
confidence of the team.
Jayawardene rose to the occasion and defied all the odds to
score a brilliant hundred and ensured one of Sri
Lanka ’s greatest escapes in their Test
history. His 119 in the second innings was a captain’s rearguard which
converted a first-innings deficit of 359 runs into an overnight lead of 22 runs.
With that knock Mahela answered his critics who always used to say that
captaincy would affect his batting and with that Lord’s hundred the Lankans,
who were written-off by many before the tour, rediscovered their self-confidence.
After a shoddy performance at Edgbaston in the second Test,
the Lankans bounced back strongly at Trent Bridge to level the Test series and
they returned home from England with their heads held high by beating the
English team comprehensively in the one-day series. What was supposed to be a
one-sided affair in favour of the hosts, turned out to be a memorable one for
Sri Lankans and the credit must go Jayawardene who lifted up the morale of the
team by leading from the front.
One of Sri Lanka ’s
greatest leaders
In the following years, as a captain, the right-handed
batsman had been superlative. He stabilized Sri Lankan cricket and even his
second stint as Sri Lanka ’s
captain in 2012-13 was highly significant as because during that time, Sri
Lankan cricket was again in need of stability and again, Mahela installed self-confidence
in the team.
The most striking thing about Mahela Jayawardene’s captaincy
had been his innovativeness and attacking instincts. He was never that sort of
captain who usually waited for things to happen, but more often than not, he
used his brain to make things happen – suddenly there would be a wide third or
fourth slip, a man at extra-cover or short mid-on or mid-off, a leg slip, some
tricky bowling changes or a surprising shuffle in the batting order – Mahela’s
brain always remained busy to bring his best for Sri Lankan cricket.
Even when he was not captaining the side, he was never shy
to pass on productive advice to the captain and during such times his cricket
brain never used to stop working. It always kept on thinking about new
innovative ideas which made captains like Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews
reap rich harvests. He was one of Sri Lanka ’s
most influential captains ever.
Describing Jayawardene, former Sri Lankan coach Paul
Farbrace said: “As a leader, and a team man, there is no one you would rather
have around than Mahela. Even when he's not captain, he's the leader of that Sri
Lanka team, and I think Angie [Angelo
Mathews] has learned a lot from him over the past few months. Everything he
does is always for the team and for Sri Lankan cricket. There is not a selfish
bone in his body. For any overseas coach, he's your go-to guy, because he's
thinking about everyone in the team - the seniors, the juniors, support staff -
everyone. He's a real people person and that's his great strength. He is a
world-class player and a world-class person. Sri Lankan cricket will not
realize how much he means to the team, until he's gone.”
Jayawardene will retire after the ongoing Test series
against Pakistan .
Another great player will leave the scene. You will keep on missing his
artistic batting, but I shall always miss his unique and brilliant cricketing
brain.
Note: This article has been published on Sportskeeda on 08/08/2014 http://www.sportskeeda.com/cricket/mahela-jayawardenes-retirement-cricket-losing-best-leaders
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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