Jayasuriya vows to fight on, facing uncertain future in cricket

With his future as an international cricketer in serious doubt, veteran Sanath Jayasuriya vowed not to give in, saying his international cricket career is far from over. Members of the national selection committee, together with skipper Kumar Sangakkara, said on Thursday that they didn’t believe the 40-year-old has a future as an opener.

The selectors also said that there’s no guarantee that Jayasuriya will feature in all matches of the upcoming ODI series against India and his participation depended solely on conditions and the requirements of the team.

"I am not going to give up. I will keep fighting and the series against India provides me with an opportunity and I am waiting for that opportunity," the left-hander, into the 20th year of his international career told.

"No players’ place is guaranteed in the team. There aren’t free places available in the side and you have to keep fighting. Not just for me, it’s applicable to all the players. You have to consistently perform for the team," Jayasuriya added.

Jayasuriya lost his place in the side last year as well, but was called back to the side ahead of the Asia Cup owing to his good form in the Indian Premier League T-20 tournament and on that occasion he blasted twin hundreds in the tournament, including one in the final, where the rest of batting, with the exception of Tillekeratne Dilshan, failed miserably. Sri Lanka went on to win that tournament.

He also hit a hundred early this year against India and became the oldest player to score a hundred in an ODI just four months before his 40th birthday.

Source : The Island

Jayasuriya to drop down the order - Sangakkara

Sri Lanka, in their forthcoming tour to India, will like to erase the dubious record of never having won a Test match on the Indian soil.

As the men from the Emerald Isles prepare to embark on the tour, skipper Kumar Sangakkara has a short and simple message for his team.

"The attitude should be simple. The first thing we should start with is no complaints with anything," said Sangakkara.

The wicketkeeper batsman has asked his players to concentrate on their strengths and do what they do best, instead of complaining about the uncontrollables.

He urged his men to use their energy in focusing on their game rather than finding flaws in the conditions, pitches and other things about the tour.

The Lankan captain expects the series, which includes three Tests, two Twenty20s and five ODIs, to be “very exciting and also a daunting task” for his side.

Talking about the composition of his team, Sangakkara conceded that the old war-horse Sanath Jayasuriya will drop down in the batting order in order to accommodate young opener Upul Tharanga, who is likely to open the innings along side Tillakaratne Dilshan.

The 40-year-old Matara Marauder has opened the innings in 387 matches out of 441 that he has played, scoring 12,738 runs with an average of 34.

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Will this be the end of Sanath Jayasuriya's reign?

Sanath Jayasuriya, the oldest player in modern cricket is to miss his usual position as the opening batsman during the upcoming One day series in India.

Speaking at a press briefing held in Colombo this afternoon, the captain of the Sri Lankan team, Kumar Sangakkara said Sanath will bat at the number six position in the ODI series.

According to Sangakkara this decision was taken due to the need of an all-rounder in the middle order.

The cricket analysts say this would be the first step of removing Sanath Jayasuriya from Sri Lankan squad.

In the ODI series T.M. Dilshan and Upul Tharanga will open the batting for Sri Lanka, Sangakkara added.

However, it was reported that T.M Dilshan has sustained an injury during a practice session this morning, but expect to recover before the Indian tour begins.

Sri Lankan team will play five one day international matches against the Indian team during the upcoming series.

Source : Colombo Page

Sanath Jayasuriya's future under scrutiny

Sanath Jayasuriya's cricketing future has been put in the balance with Sri Lanka's selectors saying today that his days as an opener are effectively over and that following the upcoming tour of India he will be picked on performance alone. Jayasuriya, 40, has been picked in the one-day squad as an allrounder who can bat down the order and bowl left-arm spin.

"What we expect from Sanath is that he should win one in three games for Sri Lanka, which he was doing in the past," Ashantha de Mel, Sri Lanka's chairman of selectors, said in Colombo. "But now that has reduced and we are a little concerned about it. In the Champions Trophy in South Africa his performance was below par .That's the reason why we have gone in with the option of playing him as an allrounder."

Jayasuriya scored freely during the World Twenty20 in England this summer, where Sri Lanka finished runners-up, and ended as their joint second-highest run-getter with 177 at 25.28. However, he underperformed in the limited-overs fixtures against New Zealand and India at home and in the Champions Trophy.

Sri Lanka's selectors have Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan in mind as the opening pair for the future and Jayasuriya's selection will depend on the requirements of the team depending on where they will play. "We have spoken to Sanath on the role he has to play," de Mel said. "He has the option to play as an allrounder. We have considered him for this tour only, after that his selection will depend on his performance. He has to perform to hold his place in the team for the World Cup."

de Mel said the selectors did not have a settled position for Jayasuriya, who was impressive as an allrounder during Sri Lanka's victorious World Cup campaign in 1996, and that his flexibility worked in his favour. "Especially in the batting power play having a spinning allrounder like Sanath is useful in the subcontinent because he can hit the ball. He might bat in the middle or in the top order depending on the situation," he said. "Also, the World Cup will be held in the subcontinent where his left-arm spin can become useful. He can perform that role because in South Africa in the game against New Zealand when they scored 300 runs he was the one who bowled ten overs for three wickets and 30 runs. He has done well in the subcontinent especially with his bowling."

Jayasuriya is the second batsman after India's Sachin Tendulkar to pass 13,000 runs in ODIs and also holds the record for being the oldest batsman to score a one-day century, at 39 years and 212 days against India in Colombo. Of the 13,377 runs he has scored in 441 ODIs, 2841 have come in 86 ODIs against India including seven hundreds at a strike-rate of 97.

Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara felt the main factor in Sri Lanka's poor ODI performances over the past two years has been an inconsistent batting line up. "The biggest let-down we had is our batting. We suffered because we had lots of batting position changes up and down the order," he said. "For the batting to improve you must give the players the confidence. They must know what role they are supposed to play. Role identification has been a big problem. Except for the openers no one knew what their role was in the side.

"We have never clicked in all departments those are things the team ignored for a while. The players have now started to realise that they take a lot of pride not just representing the country but to be up to the task that is required of them by the team."

Fielding was one of the key areas where Sri Lanka suffered during the Champions Trophy and to address the poor standards and improve them Sri Lanka Cricket acquired the services of Gavin Fingleson, a former Olympic baseball player.

"He didn't come and change but showed us how do things right. He showed us little points that will make us better and quick fielders, at the same time we also realized to be quicker on the field you've got to be fitter as a side," Sangakkara said. "We started doing a lot of work on fitness running. Gavin showed us a lot of drills and how you can gain that extra second advantage when going for a catch or trying to stop the ball. At the same time the most important point was to make sure at practice you do everything as perfectly, those are the habits we have to build on."

Jayasuriya – still Sri Lanka’s match winner

The master is still a match winner

The world’s best ODI player with a fantastic record not just in ODI’s but in Test’s too, Sanath Jayasuriya may be 40 plus but is still raring to go. Despite a rather modest return at home in the recent T20 games against New Zealand there is little doubt that Sanath Jayasuriya is still very much the Master Blaster and holds the key to a very great extent with regards to the success of Sri Lanka in the shorter version of the game and in the Champions Trophy in South Africa. Known for his attacking batsmanship with his liking for the upper cut and the pull Jayasuriya can be devastating when on song. All Sri Lankans will be naturally hoping that “Sana” as he is fondly known will be able to fire on all cylinders come the big event in South Africa as there is very little doubt that he is one of the most feared batsmen in world cricket.

Looking in to his beginnings Jayasuriya started his game as an aggressive middle order batsman and was always hailed as a future star for Sri Lanka. This was further confirmed when on a tour to Pakistan with the Sri Lanka A team Jayasuriya had the rare distinction of scoring back to back double hundreds, a feat which I am sure will be extremely tough to emulate! Especially for a visiting batsman in Pakistan!
Despite his brilliance in batting in the middle order Jayasuriya’s ascendancy to the openers spot was something totally unexpected. Having been asked to open on the controversial tour to Australia in the mid nineties, the great left hander since then has never looked back. It was on the same tour that both Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana another hard hitting wicket keeper opening batsman started the innovative batting approach to the first ten overs of a ODI game by smashing the bowlers to all parts of the ground giving the game a new dimension and definitely to the rest of the teams some food for thought in its approach to ODI cricket. Come 1996 Wills World Cup Sanath Jayasuriya received a major recognition being picked the most valuable player of the tournament, ahead of some big names such as Mark Waugh, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Sri Lanka’s own Aravinda De Silva, confirming his status as a rising star of the world scene.

Sanath Jayasuriya had arrived and was ready to stay for a very long time in the game!

Since then Jayasuriya has definitely been the star of many Sri Lankan shows. Be it smashing one day hundreds or scoring the 340 against India at the Premadasa Stadium in that World Record Test score or the breathtaking double hundred against England at the Oval, when Sri Lanka won a test match for the first time in that country, Jayasuriya was simply all class. With his phenomenal record of almost 20,000 plus runs at International cricket with 42 hundreds and 99 half centuries plus his 417 wickets, he will surely be a very strong contender for the title “Sri Lanka’s greatest ever Cricketer”.

It will be with that background and pedigree that Sanath Jayasuriya will enter the ring against the world’s top bowlers, when the ICC Champions Trophy begins with the opening game against the top ODI team in the world, South Africa. Taking a much closer look at Jayasuriya’s skills at the advanced cricketing age of 40 it’s interesting to note the many changes he has adopted in his batting and how beautifully his game has been fine tuned. Sanath Jayasuriya is without an iota of doubt one of the hardest working cricketers in the world. When critics questioned his ability to cope with the short rising ball directed at the body or his horizontal shots at the top of the order, Jayasuriya’s reply was to let his broad bat talk and that he achieved with a lot of dedication and commitment which he still religiously pursues even now. One could only but marvel at Sanath watching him on the cricket field, either fielding so brilliantly with his running, pickups and even accurate throwing or stifling a batting line up with his left arm spin or simply smashing the bowling around.

Jayasuriya has challenged even the fittest men in the cricketing arena of Sri Lanka in that aspect. It is a clear indication that he is still able to deliver. With not many more Everest’s to conquer for this great left hander, I am sure he would want to call it a day when he is on a high. And one way of being on a high is to perform in the Champions Trophy in South Africa. Sanath we know you have done it in the past and we know you can do it again.

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The Matara Marauder - Forever young Sanath Jayasuriya

Sanath Jayasuriya is 40 years and 81 days today, but his current form makes it seem as if he is still in his 20s.

The balance that Jayasuriya maintains while playing his shots and the elegance with which he drives the ball to scorch it through mid-wicket is ample proof of the fact that he has not only lived to the tag of being the most experienced batsman in the game, but is still the best!

Although age catches up with most players, in the case of Jayasuriya it doesn't seem to have happened purely because of his dedication and determination to remain the best.

Watch Jayasuriya closely during training and it is evident that he puts in as much effort to maintain their fitness as they do to sharpen their skills

While Jayasuriya is at least a decade older than many of his team members, he does not shy away from competing with the youngsters during physical training. In fact, during the Twenty20 World Cup in England, he was seen performing more stretches than his team-mates.

Even in the nets, Jayasuriya's pull shots and on-drives are executed with incredible balance. His ability to pick the ball early on gives a feeling that he sights the ball better than others. Like Tendulkar, he too gets his pacers to bowl short at him and almost always gets behind the ball and hits it with immaculate perfection.

Off the field, he is a humble and simple cricketer with no airs of being the best in the game. During tours, he is hardly seen in the hotel lobby or even returning from late night parties. His main focus is performance.

Little wonder then that Jayasuriya has scored 13,433 runs in One-dayers. This Champions Trophy edition will be another opportunity to see him at his best.

Sanath Jayasuriya vs Sachin Tendulkar - Finals | The Greatest ODI Batsman Poll by ESPN Star

After weeks of polling by Cricket fans allover the world, The Greatest ODI Batsman poll by ESPN Star has come to the Grand Final stage.

The winner will be announced by ESPN during the Champions Trophy pre show on Tuesday, September 22, 2009.

Lets look at whom they both defeated in the Road to the Finals.

Sanath Jayasuriya beat :  Saurav Ganguly, Viv Richards, Saeed Anwar, Adam Gilchrist,Chris Gayle, Michael Bevan and Dean Jones.

Sachin Tendulakar beat : Aravinda de Silva, Brian Lara, Mathew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Abbas, Gordon Greenidge.

This being Sanath Jayasuriya Blogspot, I request all you fans to keep voting for Sanath Jayasuriya - The One who changed the way cricket is being played today !

Link to Vote : http://www.espnstar.com/games/the-greatest-odi/game/

40 year old veteran Jayasuriya breaks into ICC ODI Batting Ranking's Top 20

After the Tri Series Compaq cup moving up the order was Sri Lanka's veteran opener Sanath Jayasuriya whose series contribution of 141 has helped him return to the top 20. The 40-year-old from Matara has jumped four places to 17th spot.

However, Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara has failed to defend his 11th position and has fallen to 15th spot after scoring just 56 runs in three matches.

World Record for Sanath Jayasuriya – Most runs against a specific opposition

Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya has a world record to his credit – he now has most runs against a specific opposition in the history of one day games. He had an aggregate of 2714 runs prior to the start of the third game between Sri Lanka and India in the ongoing Compaq series.

When he was on 17 during the course of his knock of 98 in this game, his aggregate of runs against India stood at 2731 which was a world record for most runs by a batsman against a specific opposition in the history of one day games. At the end of this game, ST Jayasuriya’s run aggregate against India stood at 2812. The previous record was held by SR Tendulkar of India who had amassed 2730 runs against Australia.

ST Jayasuriya and SR Tendulkar are the only two batsmen in the world to aggregate 2500 plus runs against two specific oppositions. At the end of this game, ST Jayasuriya has an aggregate of 2812 runs against India and 2517 runs against Pakistan. SR Tendulkar on his part, has an aggregate of 2730 runs against Australia and 2611 runs against Sri Lanka. He scored 27 runs in this game

Jayasuriya still has a lot to offer - Murali

By Muttiah Muralitharan.

There is something about playing India that seems to bring out the best in Sanath (Jayasuriya). Having played with him for nearly two decades and having witnessed first-hand his fondness for their bowling, I was not surprised to see him confound his critics once again on Saturday night with a brilliant display. 
    

With no fifty-plus score since January, his critics in the local media were getting more vocal about his future as he is 40 now. However, we all know with Sanath that he is used to bouncing back and he takes just one knock to surge back to his best. As he showed, age is irrelevant if you are still fit and have fast reactions. 
   

 Sanath showed that fitness with his superb running. Playing One-day cricket in the Premadasa cauldron is exhausting even for young legs, but Sanath coped with that physical challenge easily. He also showed off the value of all his 437-game experience, settling the innings after the loss of Dilshan, Mahela and Sanga. 
    

Sanath’s effort shows that he still has more to give and as long as he can chip in with those kind of performances, he will remain a valuable member of our One-day unit. We have a mix of young and old in our team right now and both starred on Saturday. The performances of Thilina Kandamby and Angelo Mathews were just as heartening as Sanath’s knock. 
    

Our middle order has been a problem area for some time now. We’ve had players of ability, but no one has really settled. Now, though, Thilan Samaraweera is starting to shine and Kandamby is looking increasingly promising. The calm and mature manner in which he guided us in the final stages of the innings, especially in the final Power-Play, was very impressive. 
   

In Mathews we know we’ve also uncovered an all rounder of real substance: a top-class batsman, the best of which we are yet to see, and a canny seamer with a knack for taking key wickets, as he showed with his remarkable match bag of 6 for 20. He has the head for international cricket and I think he’ll mature into one of the best allrounders in the world. 
    

We were obviously delighted by our performance. But today’s game is the game that counts and we have to reproduce that form again. 
    

India were well below par, perhaps rusty after a long layoff and maybe even tired as they were playing back-toback games. I have no doubt that after a day’s rest, they’ll put together a much better effort. We were fortunate to win the toss on Saturday, but if we don’t on Monday then we have to be ready to overcome that disadvantage and restrict India to a manageable total. 
    

In the last series in February, we let them pile-up huge totals and the bowlers cannot let that happen in the final. Chasing anything above 250 will be tough.

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