Sachin more consistent than Lara: Sanath Jayasuriya

Mumbai: The comparison between the two great batsmen of the modern era – Brian Lara and the man who surpassed his Test aggregate Sachin Tendulkar – will be made for a long, long time to come according to Sri Lanka’s star batsman Sanath Jayasuriya the Indian star is more consistent than the former West Indies skipper.

"In my opinion, Sachin is unquestionably the best player of the modern era. Brian Lara, the man he overtook yesterday, was his closest peer. But while Lara’s stroke-play was breathtaking and spoke of genius, Tendulkar wins over him for his astonishing consistency in a career spanning over 19 years," Jayasuriya wrote in this column for the Hindustan Times on Saturday.

"Right from the time he played his first game aged 16, he has scored runs like a machine against all opponents. Only in 2006, when he averaged just 24.27 did his form dip. And against the best in the world, Australia, he’s played some of his finest innings, averaging 56 with nine hundreds," he added.

"Sri Lankans have not been spared either. His record against us in 18 Tests is very impressive, seven hundreds at 64.38. And for us he has always been the prized scalp. Take Tendulkar and you are halfway to beating India. Now that is perhaps less true, but for over a decade it was how we thought," he said.

Sanath Jayasuriya - A Tribute to the Legend of Modern Cricket

Sanath Jayasuriya will not be remembered as a legend of the game, but he perhaps should be. There have been some notable retirements in recent times (Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Brian Lara to name just three) but the little opener from Matara deserves to be held in similar company.

He is of course still going strong in One Day Internationals (he signed off from Tests last December with a typically attacking half century) , so it is a little early for a career review. However, Jayasuriya's longevity (he made his international debut in 1989) earns special recognition, as his career does more than span eras; he helped start a whole new one in cricket.

Few will forget his impact at the 1996 world cup. Previously a lower order batsman and useful left arm spinner, he forged a devastating opening partnership with Romesh Kaluwitharana that revolutionised the way ODI cricket is played. Standard wisdom dictated openers should accumulate runs and keep wickets in hand for a late assault, but Sri Lanka's pinch hitters blazed away from the start, taking full advantage of the fielding restrictions that were in place during the opening overs.

This tactic became the batting blueprint in ODIs, although no one could carry out the plan as Jayasuriya has done. He is the second highest ever ODI runscorer and in consideration of his 307 wickets, is perhaps the greatest ever all rounder in the 50 over format. Three of the fastest ever ODI tons have come from his bat and his 17 ball half century against Pakistan in 1996 is the fastest ever 50. No one has hit more ODI sixes.

Jayasuriya managed to transfer this form into the Test arena. He is Sri Lanka's second highest Test runscorer and third highest wicket taker. He holds the seventh highest ever Test score and was a successful captain for four years, maintaining the progress Sri Lanka made under Arjuna Ranatunga.

Dropped after failing to reach 50 in 20 innings last year, he won back his place after lighting up the Indian Premier League (what a shane he will miss out on the Twenty20 era - the perfect batsman for the format). Only Geoffrey Boycott was older in scoring an ODI ton - what a contrast in styles ! - and we should enjoy Sanath while we still have him. No one will play his flicks, cuts and pulls with the same panache: a unique player with a unique style.

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FlashBack Wills World Cup 1996 | The success story of Sanath Jayasuriya

10 April 1996
From bits `n pieces cricketer to Master Blaster

One of the greatest success stories in Sri Lanka`s cricket history is the stellar role played by that stockily built left-handed all-rounder from Matara, SANATH JAYASURIYA, in winning the Wills World Cup for his country.

From total obscurity to world fame is the rags to riches story of this vastly talented cricketer.

When Jayasuriya entered the Wills World Cup, he was just another ordinary member of the Sri Lankan team. His name could hardly match up to such mega stars like Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Mark Waugh, Shane Waugh and the likes.

When the tournament unfolded and the matches started to take shape, there gradually emerged a new start on the horizon, but still he did not individually make a big impact because he was not scoring hundreds like the Mark Waughs and the Tendulkars. But what had everyone talking was the swiftness with which he was gathering his runs.

The manner in which Jayasuriya began smashing the bowlers to all parts of the field especially in the first 15 overs, brought about a new dimension to batting in one-day cricket.

When his little partner Romesh Kaluwitharana also started hitting the middle, pinch-hitting was its awesome best. The two carried the scoring rate to such dizzy heights that none of the other 11 teams in the competition could match. They could only watch in awe how these two wielders of the willow accumulated runs with such rapidity.

Although Kaluwitharana could not stay long to play a big innings like his partner, two of his partnerships with Jayasuriya put the contest beyond the opposition`s sights within the first seven overs.

Who could forget the opening stand of 53 in five overs against India at the Kotla grounds in Delhi or the 83 off 40 balls against Kenya in Kandy.

Jayasuriya raised batting standards in limited overs competitions to new heights with his phenomenal stroke play. His pugna- cious hitting in the first 15 overs gave the opposing captain many nightmares, especially as the fielding side was allowed only two fielders outside the 30-yard circle.

Jayasuriya exploited the one-day rule so much that an exasperated England captain Michael Atherton said after the blitzkrieg in Faisalabad, that the one-day rules should be reviewed and changes made, if necessary.

Atherton`s beleaguered Englishmen were smashed for 82 runs off 44 balls in the quarter-finals and the forlorn England captain went to the extent of admitting that Sri Lanka used their first 15 overs as their last.

The manner in which Jayasuriya was collecting his runs, batting records in one-day competitions were in danger of being sur- passed. It was only a matter of time before they were replaced by Jayasuriya`s name in the record books.

He was within hailing distance of the fastest one-day hundred against England when he just threw it away. But less than a month later Jaysuriya did get the record when he hit a spectacular 134 off 64 balls against Pakistan in the Singer Cup one-day triangu- lar in Singapore on Monday. He completed his century off just 48 balls and whilst reaching that milestone, he also achieved two other records for the most number of sixes - 11 and, for the most number of runs in one over - 29.

When Jaysuriya was adjudged the `Most Valuable Player` in the Wills World Cup, the purists may have vetoed the choice. His two breathtaking knocks against India (79 off 76 balls) and Eng- land (82 off 44 balls) by themselves could not have made him win the award. But the wicket of Tendulkar and two more victims (Manjrekar and Jadeja) with his left-arm spin and the two catches he took to compensate for his failure with the bat at Eden Gar- dens made certain that there was really no contest for the Audi car.

In terms of runs scored, Jayasuriya`s 212 may have sounded a lit- tle weak. But considering he scored those in 161 balls and that his runs had such a dramatic effect on the opposition so as to put the fright in them, he was in a league of his own.

Mark Waugh (472 runs) and Tendulkar (458) with all those runs in the preliminary league stage still failed to make the same impact that Jayasuriya made to win the award.

"He has batted well, fielded brilliantly, and when given the ball, has come up with crucial wickets. What else can I ask of a player?`` quipped Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga when Jayasuriya won the award.

"He has been our consistent player and I am happy one of our boys got the award, he deserves it. We knew that both he and Aravinda were in contention along with Tendulkar and Mark Waugh. It`s a great achievement by Sanath,`` said Ranatunga, who could consider himself fortunate to have a utility player in the mould of Jayasuriya in his team.

The World Cup since its inception in 1975 have seen some spectac- ular batting from left-handers like Clive Lloyd, Alvin Kalli- charan and to a lesser extent New Zealand`s Mark Greatbatch in 1992. The World Cups have been generally dominated by right-hand batsmen and right-arm bowlers. Jayasuriya is the fourth left- hander to play a vital role in his side`s success.

He may not be a patch of Lloyd and Kallicharan`s batsmanship. They did not fling the bat in a predetermined manner. More impor- tantly, Lloyd packed his strokes with power and Kallicharan caressed the ball. Jayasuriya is a compulsive swinger of the bat. He lives by his wits at the crease. But that`s the way he has hammered and perhaps infuriated bowlers.

"We don`t instruct our batsmen how to go about a task. They have played enough cricket to understand situations,`` was Ranatunga`s wry comment.

Jayasuriya`s great success story is how he became a consistent unconventional opener. There has been a complete transformation in Jayasuriya since the days in which he played the negative role of firing the ball into the rough from round the wicket in Test cricket and as a mere prop in the late middle-order.

From a bits-and-pieces man who did enough to warrant a place in the one-day team, what has made Jayasuriya`s career far more re- markable is that he has adjusted so well to the task of giving bowling the charge when the ball is new, the fielders are in and the adrenalin is flowing. He is today a far more confident person who is capable of believing that he can take on the best at their own game and match, or better them, for sheer aggression. Those qualities were in full display during the Wills World Cup and, now in Singapore.

Jayasuriya came to the World Cup with 1776 runs from 98 one- dayers at an average of 19.73 - nothing exceptional for a batsman who was to prove how valuable he is to his team ahead of cricket personalities like Tendulkar and Mark Waugh. But the 71 wickets just about reflected his all-round ability. He held Sri Lanka`s record for the highest individual innings in one-day cricket - 140 and the best bowling figures - 6 for 20. However, the batting record was taken away from him by Aravinda de Silva who scored 145 against Kenya at Kandy in the Wills World Cup game.

For all his brilliant and entertaining exploits in the middle, Jayasuriya was not a specialist opener and a devastating one at that. The shift to the opener`s slot came in the Hero Cup match against Zimbabwe at Patna in 1993-4. Jayasuriya made 23, 27 and 18 in his first three games in the new position with Mahanama as his partner.

However, he held the place only temporarily because he was once again shifted lower down the order on the tours to India and Sharjah that followed. It was not until the Pakistan tour to Sri Lanka in 1994-5 that Jayasuriya gained a permanency in the open- ing slot. Three consecutive half-centuries (77, 54 and 50) in the first three games revealed his potential.

Although Zimbabwe didn`t offer him much, the following tour to South Africa for the Mandela trophy saw him make a career best 140 in a rain-ruined game against New Zealand at Bloemfontein. Jayasuriya blasted six sixes and nine fours on his way to a 144- ball innings which was his first maiden one-day century. After a quiet start he destroyed the New Zealand attack and eclipsed the previous highest score by a Sri Lankan - 121 by Roy Dias against India at Bangalore in 1982-3.

Since playing in the company of Brian Lara, Jimmy Adams, Michael Atherton, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Shane Thomson, Chris Cairns, Mark Ram- prakash, Narendra Hirwani, Aaqib Javed, Basit Ali, Mushtaq Ahmed, Venkatapathy Raju and our own Romesh Kaluwitharana in the 1989 World Youth Cup in Australia, Jayasuriya, a product of St. Serva- tius College, Matara has come a long way.

He went to Pakistan with the Sri Lanka `B` team and displayed his potential with back to back double centuries in the unofficial Test series against Pakistan `B`. It seemed an international career was cut out for him.

But the road to attaining that had not been easy. Jayasuriya may have shed a few hairs getting there, but there is no doubt about his batting, which is hair-raising.

Sanath Jayasuriya signals end of Sri Lankan era

The modest masterblaster calls time...

It was an exit that brought to mind Mike Atherton's sheepish departure at The Oval in 2001. No-one knew for sure that this was his final innings in Test cricket, but the way Sanath Jayasuriya shyly saluted his standing ovation was telling in the extreme.

As he reached the rope after a pugnacious 78, he was met with a pat on the shoulder and a semi-embrace by the incoming batsman, Kumar Sangakkara, before Sri Lanka's uber-fan, Percy Abeysekera, chaperoned him to the pavilion steps beneath a giant national flag. The tongues had been set a-wagging and moments after the close came the confirmation we'd been expecting.

"This is the right time to retire," Jayasuriya confirmed. He had bowed out on this ground once before, against Pakistan in April 2006, when a nasty broken finger quite literally forced his hand. Though he reneged on that decision - with some success - in England later that year, this time, at the age of 38, there will be no coming back "There are some young guys coming up, and I wanted to go while on top," he said. "Life without cricket will be tough, but I will still be playing one-day cricket and contributing to the team."

On a day dominated by Muttiah Muralitharan, Jayasuriya signed off with a performance as full of fireworks as the hills around the ground that saluted his team-mate's world record. He fell short of his farewell century, but then Jayasuriya - possibly uniquely among specialist batsmen - has never relied on hundreds to get his point across. With forearms like pistons, he has bullied England's bowlers almost since the dawn of modern batsmanship. Spanking cameos have been his calling card, and rarely have they gone unnoticed.

The statistics tell you that Jayasuriya has been a fading force in Test match cricket - this was only his second half-century in 16 Tests stretching back to November 2004. The mind's eye tells you he was as dangerous in his final dig as he had been in his pomp, more than a decade ago, at the 1996 World Cup. James Anderson certainly won't forget the fury of his blade in a hurry - his fourth over was thrashed for six consecutive fours, only the third occasion that has been achieved in the history of Test cricket.

England, as is so often the case, have been the victims of his most devastating assaults. His ballistic 82 from 44 balls in the quarter-final against England transformed the parameters of one-day cricket - and set his side on course for their greatest triumph. His double-century at The Oval two years later was the performance that turned the Test on its head and paved the way for Murali's subsequent 16-wicket masterclass. And at Colombo three years ago, Jayasuriya flogged an exhausted attack for a quickfire 85, a cameo that was once again forgotten in the final reckoning as England tumbled to their third-heaviest defeat in history.

Today he finally called it quits. Michael Vandort will have a new partner at Kandy, most probably Upul Tharanga, who has himself been in the runs against England on this tour already. But somehow you know that the threat will not be the same when the teams line up at the SSC next week. As Murali marches on to ever greater heights, a fellow Sri Lankan legend leaves quietly by the side exit. It's arguably his quietest performance in a raucous career.

"He is the real Lankan hero, the day when Sana retires you will see the whole sri-lankans eyes full of tears, because he not only plays cricket on the pitch he also plays the heroism role in millions of peoples heart, he will be the lankan hero forever though he retires"

SANATH IS MY HERO

THE MASTER BLASTER

LOVE HIM TO DEATH

" I salute for his great contribution "

Sujan Rao.