Sanath Jayasuriya

Lore & Background

Jayasuriya was born in the Southern Sri Lankan city of Matara, to the family of Dunstan and Breeda Jayasuriya. He has an elder brother, Chandana Jayasuriya. He was educated at St. Servatius' College, Matara, where his cricketing talents were nourished by his school principal, G.L. Galappathy, and cricket coach, Lionel Wagasinghe. He excelled in cricket while at St. Servatius College, Matara and captained the college cricket team at the annual St. Thomas'–St. Servatius Cricket Encounter in 1988. Jayasuriya was picked as the 'Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year' in the Outstation Segment in 1988. He also received the awards for the 'Best Batsman' and 'Best All-rounder' in the Outstation Segment at the Observer School Cricket Awards ceremony in the same year. Jayasuriya represented Sri Lanka in the inaugural ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup which was held in Australia in 1988 and was subsequently selected for a tour in Pakistan a few months later with the Sri Lanka 'B' team, where he made two unbeaten double centuries in his debut first class series. Shortly afterward he was drafted into the national team for the tour to Australia in 1989–90.

Reader's Guide

Jayasuriya is known for both cuts and pulls along with his trademark shot, a lofted cut over point. He was one of the key players in Sri Lanka's victory in the 1996 Cricket World Cup, where he was adjudged Man of the Tournament. His philosophy towards batting is summarized by an all-aggression approach. He was a left-arm orthodox spin bowler known for quickly getting through his overs. Although a spinner, he was used to bowling faster balls and yorkers with quick arm action which gained him success as a bowler. He took 440 wickets altogether in international cricket with six 5 wicket hauls. His best bowling performance in an innings in international cricket is 6 for 29, which he took against England in an ODI in 1993. Jayasuriya's best match figures in test cricket came in 2001/2002 season when he took 9 for 74 against Zimbabwe. One of Jayasuriya's memorable bowling performances came in the semi-final of 1996 Cricket World Cup, where he took three wickets for just 12 runs in seven overs. It was Jayasuriya who took the vital wicket of Sachin Tendulkar. Jayasuriya held the record for the highest Test score made by a Sri Lankan, 340 against India in 1997. This effort was part of a second-wicket partnership with Roshan Mahanama that set the then all-time record for any partnership in Test history, with 576 runs. On 20 September 2005, during the second Test of the home series against Bangladesh, Jayasuriya became the first Sri Lankan to play 100 Tests.

Did You Know?

• Jayasuriya is the only player to achieve the all rounder double of scoring over 10,000 runs and capturing more than 300 wickets in a single format of international cricket.
• He was named the Most Valuable Player of 1996 Cricket World Cup and Wisden Cricketers' Almanack named him one of Five Cricketers' of the Year 1997.
• He served as the deputy minister of Postal services and later as the Deputy Minister of Local Government & Rural Development in Sri Lanka.
• Jayasuriya ran for public office in the 2010 Sri Lankan general elections and was elected to parliament from his native Matara District.