Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara may have retired from international cricket but youngsters half his age are finding that he is no less a competitor at the club level.
While most legends of the sport, post retirement, would have opted for some time away from the game or gone on a long vacation with family and friends, Sanga chose to keep up with his County commitments. He shook off the poor form of his farewell Test series against India to hit a classy 166 in the Royal London One-Day Cup for Surrey against Nottinghamshire on Monday.
His knock came off 138 deliveries and it included 13 boundaries and a six. His innings added one more record to an illustrious career — the highest score by a Surrey batsman at The Oval in List-A games. The knock also fell just three runs short of his record one-day score made against South Africa in Colombo, set two years ago.
It was vintage Sangakkara again as he unleashed his trademark fluent drives on all sides of the wicket. It was an innings that would have left Sri Lankan fans wondering as to what on earth made him leave international at 37 since there had been calls from within Sri Lanka’s sporting and political establishments for Sanga to extend his career by another year, but he had declined those requests.
However, Sanga’s retirement from international cricket was clearly a boon for Surrey skipper Gareth Batty who certainly wasn’t complaining. Batty acknowledged that his side had been “nervous” ahead of the match and was all praise for Sanga, who could become a Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the UK should he accept the honour.
“Notts are a very good team. Kumar is the best player in the world still. What is a disappointment for world cricket is the best news possible for Surrey.”
Having now propelled them to the final with an innings of tremendous character, all that Batty and his team will now be hoping for is for an encore from the Sri Lankan great. And what better place to do that than Lord’s!