Soliloquy

Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara became the best opener, middle order batsman, wicket keeper and first slip he could possibly become but he wasn’t considered good enough. He wasn’t considered good enough by men who ruled world cricket. They said that he had to make tough runs. And when he did so, they said that he had to look graceful while batting. When he did that, they said that he was being selfish and had to win games for his country. When he did that too, they moved on to their next prey. They may have succeeded in making themselves look embarrased but they didn’t win against this tough law under-graduate from Kandy.

Sangakkara scored almost twice as many runs as Sourav Ganguly in Test cricket and he wasn’t considered good enough. He was told of as a flat track bully who ruled in Sri Lanka. When he scored hundred after hundred in England and Australia, his detractors pretended not to notice. Yes, they pretended not to notice because they were busy appreciating Rob Key, an opener held of the highest regard only in Middlesex or Michael North, a thirty year old Test debutant. In a world which was dominated by the Tendulkars, Laras and Waughs, Sangakkara went about his business as quietly as his sleepy hometown. He scored runs all over the world but lived under the shadows of Mahela Jayawardene and Sanath Jayasuriya, all illustrious teammates.

He was given the honour of leading his country in a World Cup but was taken the privilege back soon after the team landed in Colombo after the final loss to India in Mumbai. The media said that Sanga had resigned but I found that hard to believe. Sanga had the knack of scoring runs under pressure and did that with ease, too. He looked graceful with his back knee bent while latching up on a juicy half volley. He looked graceful sweeping, cutting and of course, hooking.

Sanga found that fame was a fickle mistress and decided to earn his place among the media by doing what he knew best, score big hundreds. It was almost as if in his final year of international cricket, he’d found his best form. He knocked up two triple hundreds and garnered up over a thousand runs in a calendar year. He was as good as Rahul Dravid in his prime and that wasn’t just the only similarity the two shy gentlemen had. Sanga had lived his life under Jayawardene just as Dravid had lived his under Tendulkar. Sanga was just as difficult to get out too.

He took up wicket keeping because he didn’t like fielding all day but gave it up later in his career to focus just on his batting which led to him having around six or seven prolonged, effective seasons. In his final series too, he was accused of announcing his retirement too early and making the occasion his own. He couldn’t hit a ball of the square in that series and hardly timed them. Maybe the pressure of retirement was getting to him after all. For the first time in his career, Kumar Sangakkara gave in to his detractors and bowed out without shutting them up.

But for him, the whispers had always been there.