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Jayasuriya to retire from Tests

chipmonk

U19 Debutant
Jayasuriya eyes a memorable exit from test cricket
Associated Press, Sun April 2, 2006 06:57 EDT . KRISHAN FRANCIS - Associated Press Writer - KANDY, Sri Lanka - (AP) Sri Lanka - 's prolific batsman Sanath Jayasuriya said he wants to finish his test cricket career on a high note in front of a home crowd when he takes the field for a last time Monday in the second test against Pakistan. ``I like to finish it off with the people in Sri Lanka - ,'' said Jayasuriya adding that he has been receiving regular calls from fans who want him not to leave, after a career spanning 15 years.
Stand-in skipper Mahela Jayawardene said his players are keen to give Jayasuriya a fitting farewell with a good performance.

``Let's see whether we can give him something memorable on the fifth day of the test match,'' Jayawardene said while practicing at the Asgiriya Stadium.

``It is definitely going to be an emotional game for most of us, because when we came into the side, Sanath was an elder statesman. He has taught us a lot.''

Jayasuriya on Friday announced plans to retire from tests cricket. However he said he will continue to play limited-overs cricket and be available for selection for the 2007 cricket World Cup in the West Indies.

``It was a sudden decision I took after the first test,'' Jayasuriya said about the drawn match in Colombo.

``I thought I'll give a youngster a chance, we got that chance when we were young. Even though I am fit and performing I thought when the right time comes, I should give a chance to those deserving,'' he said.

I took that decision with positive thinking...so no regrets.''

Jayasuriya, 36, has been Sri Lanka - 's most prolific batsman over the past decade in both tests and limited-overs internationals.

In 101 matches so far, he has scored 6,599 runs at 41 runs per innings with 14 centuries and 29 half-centuries. Jayasuriya has also taken 92 wickets with his left-arm spinners.

Although he started his career on a low note and a limited-overs specialist, Jayasuriya has been a mainstay in the test team since 1995, when his performance peaked.

Jayasuriya's biggest moment in tests came in 1997 when he scored 340 runs in an innings against India and shared 576 runs with Roshan Mahanama (225) the highest ever partnership in tests.
Published: Sun Apr 2 13:55:29 EDT 2006
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
C_C said:
I meant that with respect to Tests and ODIs ( ie, 'pure opener'). I would rate him as the third or fourth best of the 90s, after Taylor,Anwar and Kirstien.
If you seriously think he was a better Test opener than Atherton you need your head examined.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
chaminda_00 said:
A sad day for Sri Lanka with one of our greats retiring from Test Cricket, but hopefully this prelongs his ODI Career. Where he still plays a major role, like he showed in Australia. A big game for Vandort next game when he comes into the side. I guess it time now to see how our long depth really is. Is there life after Atapattu and Jayasuriya. Vandort, Daniel and Tharanga have been deveopled for a while to take over from these guys, but there are still big questions whether Daniel or Vandort are ready. With Atapattu hopefully coming back soon, they may only be short term replacements, but a good game, could keep them in the eye of the selectors.

EDIT: Didn't read the article properly, he retiring after this Test Series, so Vandort won't play in the next game, unless they play an extra batsmen and his the one chosen.
Jayasuriya, a fine Test-match opening batsman.
Clearly, only since 1994 has he been put at the top of the order - originally selected as a middle-order all-rounder who Arjuna hoped might turn into a good opener.
And he certainly did - without ever managing to reach the top pantheon.
I think it best to exclude the 8 innings (compared to 135 as an opener) down the order when assessing him.
Equally, I find it best to exclude Bangladesh and the series in Zimbabwe in 2004.
A close look at Jayasuriya's record shows that his favourite opponents were certainly his fellow-subcontinentals - against India he averaged 80.36 (even without the 340, it's still 54.40) and before this Second Test it was 53 against Pakistan.
In the subcontinent against tourists, he wasn't always at his best - perhaps a little surprisingly, his record at home against West Indies, New Zealand and England, who usually offered impotent attacks, is very mediocre, averaging just over 30 against each. Against the even-weaker Zimbabweans he managed a respectible average of 43.30. He did better against the stronger Australians and South Africans, averaging 38.44 and 47.33.
While Jayasuriya travelled well to Australia and West Indies (averaging 36.50 and 44.42 respectively), the one area where he falls down is the fact that he averaged just 14.88 in South Africa and 21.42 in New Zealand. How much of this was really down to fallibility against swing and seam is not something we can know without watching the games - I watched just 3 (all in South Africa in 2000\01) and I can say for certain that he was not overwhelmed, just seemed in poor nick. But as a subcontinental, success in those 2 countries is a must for mine. Jayasuriya also had a poor time against Zimbabwe, a fact masked by that 2004 series - in 1999\2000, when Zimbabwe were Test-standard, he averaged just 26 in that series. Something that might appear to counteract the can't-play-seam argument is Jayasuriya's average of 60.20 in England - but only in 1 innings out of 6 did he face a seaming pitch. Also, he scored 213 and 24* in 1998 and did very poorly in 2002.
The other thing about Jayasuriya the Test player, of course, is the fact that he captained the small matter of 34 games. At first, the captaincy could be seen to have affected his batting - he averaged just 21.47 in his first 11 Tests as captain. After one false-dawn - following 188, 148, 28, 0, 85 with 17, 0, 26, 8, 0, 16, 14, 9, 0, 45, 23 - in his last 13 Tests as captain-opener he managed to compartmentalise the roles reasonably well.
As a captain, Jayasuriya was always foredoomed to suffer comparison with his predecessor, the brilliant Arjuna Ranatunga. Jayasuriya's captaincy had neither Ranatunga's technical merit or his inspirational qualities, but he certainly didn't do a bad job, and clearly suffers nothing in comparison to his successor, Hashan Tillikeratne, who must be the worst first-choice captain I've ever seen. Jayasuriya did, of course, lead Lanka to 8 successive victories - all, naturally, in the subcontinent.
Rather remarkably, however, when not captain, Jayasuriya has only recently suffered a lean patch. Since being made opener, any trough in form was almost invariably a short one, as demonstrated here.
Overall, the impression of Jayasuriya the Test-match opening batsman is of a very fine player, but one who did not quite do enough to be regarded amongst the very best.
 

chipmonk

U19 Debutant
sad and undeserved ending
Charlie Austin
April 4, 2006

On Tuesday evening the palm reader in the Mahaweli Reach Hotel lobby was a forlorn figure. The previous evening Sanath Jayasuriya, one of Sri Lanka's most superstitious cricketers, had sat before her with his big palms outstretched, wanting to know more about his future, a new world without Test cricket, his job for the last 15 years. She'd confidently predicted a successful future. But she'd not seen his tragically sad injury the following day. Needless to say, business was not swift on Tuesday night.

Predictably, though, Jayasuriya had not given up all hope at that stage, although his right thumb was a mess. We feared the worst immediately after Jayasuriya had pouched the 74th and last catch of his Test career. He wheeled around in agony and Tommy Simsek, the fastest physiotherapist in world cricket, was soon mothering him off the field and into the ambulance. The thumb had dislocated and the bone had ripped open the skin. Jayasuriya, now an expert in dislocations, had clicked the joint back into place himself before the painkillers numbed his senses.


Such is the adoration of Jayasuriya in Sri Lanka that his arrival at the hospital created mayhem. Patients awaiting treatment in the emergency ward were swiftly wheeled out into the corridors to make room for Jayasuriya. Before long, as he waited for an army of doctors, all desperate to fuss over him, to prepare the operating theatre, Jayasuriya's room was filled with curious cleaners, nurses and policemen. Eventually, CJ Clarke, the fitness trainer, turned bodyguard and was forced to empty the room of spectators and well-wishers.


The doctors found no fracture but the dislocation had been bad and the cut was deep. As he was whisked back to the team hotel in a rickety mini-bus flanked by police on motorbikes, the doctors informed the team management of the bad news: Jayasuriya was out of the game and all cricket for four to six weeks. Typically, though, Sanath being Sanath, he'd not given up. The next morning he appeared for breakfast in his training gear, his right hand, the top hand, bandaged up tightly. When they arrived at the ground he insisted on a painkilling injection. With the score on 73 for 8 with Murali the next man, desperate times called for desperate measures.


Thousands - Sri Lanka's Test matches, sadly, attract more than a few hundred spectators - turned up in hope that he would make one last thrilling appearance. We would have been happy to have just stood in salutation to a wonderful career as he walked on. But batting would have been madness - far madder than his breathtaking heroics last year when he guided Sri Lanka to a crucial win against India in Dambulla a few hours after dislocating his shoulder - and the doctors persuaded him not to take the chance, perhaps saving him his one-day career in the process.

It was a sad and undeservedly disappointing finale for a man and cricketer who has done so much for both Sri Lanka and the game of cricket, spreading its popularity to corners previously untouched by cricket's bug. And his ill-fortune was then compounded by Sri Lanka's hasty slide to defeat. Pakistan were faced with a potentially tricky 183-run chase but they cantered home in the end to clinch a 1-0 series victory, their third in the island.

It just wasn't Sri Lanka's day. First, we all woke up to the reality that even Jayasuriya couldn't bat without a thumb, then Sri Lanka were left with the problem of an ailing strike bowler as Farveez Maharoof was unable to rise above the flu to recreate the probing metronomy that helped dismantle Pakistan in Colombo. The new ball beat the bat a few times but whenever the edge was found it dropped agonisingly short. Sri Lanka simply had to make inroads with the new ball and when they didn't the pressure on Pakistan was punctured. Kumar Sangakkara's brilliant airborne catch to dislodge Kamran Akmal gave them brief hope but Younis Khan quickly reasserted Pakistan's control.


Muttiah Muralitharan was the only possible salvation then but it was not to be his day either as Daryl Harper - an umpire that the Sri Lankans frequently report for being substandard - turned down a series of strong lbw shouts. Muralitharan is used to the frequent super-caution of international umpires when it comes to his lbw decisions, but his exasperation can be excused when his deception is nullified during such crucial spells.


Pakistan built up an unstoppable momentum and the victory was clinched far sooner than anticipated. Sri Lanka had fought hard for the much of the series, indeed they had dominated for much of the series, but Mohammad Asif's superb fast bowling with the new ball on Tuesday evening turned out to be the difference between the two teams. In a fairer world the series scoreline would have been a draw but, as Jayasuriya now knows, life can be cruel.

Charlie Austin is Cricinfo's Sri Lankan correspondent

© Cricinfo
 

chipmonk

U19 Debutant
Bradman's mirror image
By: Ian Chappell
April 11, 2006

There was a short period in 1996 just after Sri Lanka’s incredible World Cup victory when Sanath Jayasuriya gave cricket fans a glimpse of what it must have been like to watch Sir Donald Bradman bat in the 1930’s.

For a few glorious days in Singapore, Jayasuriya was seeing the ball like a water melon and everything the Pakistani bowlers delivered was despatched either to or over the boundary.

His first innings brought the flashing left-hander a century off a mere forty eight deliveries; bettering the previous best by a margin of 14 balls. He commenced scoring that day with a ******* of runs and it quickly became a raging flood.

He hit 12 off the first over from no less a bowler than Waqar Younis and Sunil Gavaskar commented; “He can’t keep scoring at this rate.”

By the end of the third over with the score close to 50, I queried Sunil, “Are you sure he can’t keep scoring at this rate?”

Exhilarating cricket

Jayasuriya’s century came from the first ball of the 16th over, not that it made any difference where skipper Aamir Sohail put the fieldsmen. One powerful pull shot sent the ball zooming over the trees, where it bounced on the road and was last seen heading up the steps of City Hall.

It was exhilarating cricket and deliveries short and full were treated alike; an abbreviated but quick stroke delivered by those blacksmith’s forearms and Jayasuriya would punch yet another boundary.

The humble Sri Lankan finished with an amazing 134 off only 65 balls and when he was finally dismissed by off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq he was accorded a standing ovation. For an encore he blasted a half century off only seventeen balls five days later and that record remains until this day.

Despite Jayasuriya’s whirlwind knock Sri Lanka lost the final to Pakistan but when the team departed later that night via a crowded Singapore Cricket Club main bar, the gathering, which included a handful of ex-international cricketers, all stood to applaud a slightly embarrassed entertainer.

Special moments

It was one of those special moments that you remember for the rest of your life; the hair on the back of my neck stood to attention as Jayasuriya walked through that room.

Although Jayasuriya provided cricket fans with many more electrifying innings he never again quite reached that level of thorough domination. That is no disgrace because only Bradman ever regularly achieved such complete mastery over bowling attacks.

These days the dismantling of new ball attacks comes less often and rarely lasts long enough for another tilt at a record breaking century. However, he did recapture some of the magic at the SCG earlier this year to give Australian crowds a final glimpse of what Sanath Jayasuriya was really like.

Jayasuriya has wisely decided to close the book on his Test career; one that he admitted the other day only took off after he scored a fighting century at the Adelaide Oval in early 1996. That was the innings he convinced the selectors he should open for Sri Lanka and it will forever be marked in the fast bowler’s diary as a black day.

Unfortunate exit

Unfortunately for Sanath, a kindly soul with a ready smile, there has been no glorious finale to his worthwhile career of entertaining cricket fans. A few stitches in the thumb and a bleeding left-hand will be his memento from a last Test in Kandy. However, no disappointment can ever erase that glorious week in Singapore when Jayasuriya was a mirror image of Bradman.
 

JASON

Cricketer Of The Year
A brilliant piece of writing by Ian Chappell .

He has a sense of decorum in anything he does writing , commentating or interviewing or any other .

* Something his own sibling has failed to learn from * :laugh:
 

chaminda_00

Hall of Fame Member
JASON said:
A brilliant piece of writing by Ian Chappell .

He has a sense of decorum in anything he does writing , commentating or interviewing or any other .

* Something his own sibling has failed to learn from * :laugh:
Don't talk about Trevor that way :@
 

mefly

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
about time he retires, he is a legend but he is very old for a cricketer, 36 is just too old to be playing cricket
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
JASON said:
A brilliant piece of writing by Ian Chappell .

He has a sense of decorum in anything he does writing , commentating or interviewing or any other .

* Something his own sibling has failed to learn from * :laugh:
And that extends to making derogatory comments about just about all players on C9.
 

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