Shane Warne's 50 greatest cricketers - Sanath Jayasuriya on No. 38

No. 38

Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka)

Test matches 107
Runs 6,791 at 40.42
Wickets 96 at 34.17

One of the greatest one-day players in the game, whose aggression in the opening overs of matches during the 1996 World Cup represented a serious development. For a small man, he is very powerful and his left-arm spin is underestimated. He has been a good foil for Muttiah Muralitharan.

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The list in full

50 Jamie Siddons
49 Darren Berry
48 Brian McMillan
47 Chris Cairns
46 Dilip Vengsarkar
45 Waqar Younis
44 Alec Stewart
43 Michael Atherton
42 Ravi Shastri
41 Justin Langer
40 Kapil Dev
39 Stuart MacGill
38 Sanath Jayasuriya
37 Stephen Harmison
36 Andy Flower
35 Michael Vaughan
34 Bruce Reid
33 Allan Donald
32 Robin Smith
31 Tim May
30 Kevin Pietersen
29 Shoaib Akhtar / Craig McDermott
28 Saeed Anwar / Mohammad Yousuf
27 Jacques Kallis / Shaun Pollock
26 Steve Waugh
25 Darren Lehmann
24 Brett Lee
23 Stephen Fleming
22 Martin Crowe
21 David Boon
20 Adam Gilchrist
19 Aravinda de Silva
18 Merv Hughes
17 Matthew Hayden
16 Andrew Flintoff
15 Graham Gooch
14 Rahul Dravid
13 Anil Kumble
12 Mark Waugh
11 Courtney Walsh
10 Ian Healy
9 Mark Taylor
8 Ricky Ponting
7 Muttiah Muralitharan
6 Wasim Akram
5 Glenn McGrath
4 Allan Border
3 Curtly Ambrose
2 Brian Lara
1 Sachin Tendulkar

Winning numbers

20 Australians in Warne’s favourite 50 (53 as it turned out). There are eight Englishmen, six Indians, five Pakistanis, four South Africans, three New Zealanders, three Sri Lankans, three West Indians and a Zimbabwean.

4,615 Test caps won by Warne’s elite, making an average of 87 each

18 Ashes winners for Australia

5 Ashes winners for England (Harmison, Vaughan, Pietersen, Flintoff and Gooch)

20 Members of a World Cup-winning squad. Three for India in 1983 (Vengsarkar, Shastri, Dev); six for Australia in 1987 (Reid, May, McDermott, S Waugh, Boon, Border); one for Pakistan in 1992 (Wasim Akram); three for Sri Lanka in 1996 (Jayasuriya, De Silva, Muralitharan) and seven for Australia in 1999, 2003 and/or 2007 (Lehmann, Lee, Gilchrist, McGrath, Hayden, Ponting and M Waugh).