Mahela Jayawardene

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Mahela Jayawardene
Sri Lanka
Personal information
Full name	Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene
Born	27 May 1977 (1977-05-27) (age 31)
	Colombo, Sri Lanka
Role	Batsman
Batting style	Right-hand
Bowling style	Right-arm medium
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1995–	Sinhalese Sports Club
2008	Derbyshire
Career statistics
	Tests	ODI	FC	List A
Matches	94	261	172	320
Runs scored	7440	7232	12890	8828
Batting average	52.39	33.17	51.56	33.69
100s/50s	22/30	10/42	38/57	10/54
Top score	374	128	374	128
Balls bowled	470	582	2870	1203
Wickets	4	7	50	22
Bowling average	58.00	79.71	30.70	49.18
5 wickets in innings	–	–	1	–
10 wickets in match	–	n/a	0	n/a
Best bowling	2/32	2/56	5/62	3/25
Catches/stumpings	130/–	132/–	215/–	158/–
As of 25 March 2008 Source: [CricInfo]

Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene, known as Mahela Jayawardene (born 27 May 1977), is the captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team. He is a specialist batsman who has a Test average of over 50, and an ODI average in the 30s. In 2006, he was named by the International Cricket Council as the best international captain of the year. He is also known for his fielding skills in the inner ring, with a report prepared by Cricinfo in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the most number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman, with the fifth highest run-out/match ratio in ODI's.^[1]

[edit] Career

[edit] Early and domestic career

Jayawardene was educated at one of the leading schools in Sri Lanka, Nalanda College, Colombo. It was there that he learned to play cricket. He developed his talents through the school cricket team, eventually becoming captain. He was runner-up for the best schoolboy cricketer award during the 1994 cricketing season.

Domestically he has played for Sinhalese Sports Club since 1995. He was signed to play as an overseas player for Derbyshire for the first half of the 2008 English cricket season, however, his commitments to Sri Lanka and involvement in the Indian Premier League have prevented this. ^[2]

[edit] International career

Jayawardene made his Test debut in the record breaking Test in 1997 against India at R.P.S., Colombo. Jayawardene added 66 to their first innings score of 952/6, the highest ever Test score. He was at the crease when they surpassed the previous highest Test score. Early in his career he scored 167 against New Zealand and 242 against India.

Jayawardene's One Day International debut was against Zimbabwe at Premadasa in January 1998. They won the match, with Jayawardene hitting the winning run. In the next game Jayawardene scored a 74. It took only 11 matches before he scored his first century, which was against England in the Carlton and United World Series game at Adelaide. Jayawardene entered a pressure situation, with Sri Lanka struggling at 134/4, but made an innings of 120 runs to win the match.

Mahela is the 69th Sri Lanka Test Cap [Sri Lanka Vs India at Colombo 1997]

Jayawardene was captain during the England tour in 2006 in the absence of Marvan Atapattu. He led his team to 1-1 draw in the Test series and an emphatic whitewash (5-0) in the ODI series.

In the first Test of the 2006 Test series against South Africa, Jayawardene shared a world record stand of 624 with Kumar Sangakkara. This partnership, the highest for any wicket in first-class cricket history, and the first instance of a stand of 600 or more in a first-class or Test match innings, smashed the previous third wicket stance for Sri Lanka, surpassing 262 which involved himself along with Thilan Samaraweera. It also broke the previous record for the third wicket for all Test playing nations surpassing the 467 run partnership made by the New Zealand's Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones.

Jayawardene became the first Sri-Lankan captain to score a Test triple-century, making 374 off 572 deliveries with 43 fours and 1 six, the fourth highest individual score in Test match cricket and the best by a right-hander. He is also the first batsman to pass 350 in a Test without going on to break the world record. He also surpassed the highest score by a Sri Lankan in a Test match, previously Sanath Jayasuriya's 340 in 1997 against India.

He was also chosen as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2007. In the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Jayawardene hit one century and four half-centuries and was the second highest run-scorer in the list topped by Australia's Matthew Hayden. His century, which came against New Zealand helped Sri Lanka win the Semi-Final. Sri Lanka finished runners-up in the World Cup losing to Australia in the Final.

Mahela is the Recipient of International Cricket Council's "Captain of the Year 2006" inaugural award, Captain of the "World One-Day International Team of the Year 2006", Captain of the "Spirit of Cricket Award 2007" Team, Wisden Cricketer of the Year 2007, Record holder for the highest score (374 runs) by a Sri Lankan in test cricket.

[edit] Personal life

Mahela was born to Sunila and Senerath Jayawardene at Colombo in 1977. He had one younger brother, Dhishal whom he lost due to brain tumour, when he was sixteen. This affected Jayawardene psychologically, halting his cricket career for some time. Eventually he was persuaded to go on and set about rebuilding his career by his parents and teammates.

He is married to Christina Mallika Sirisena, a travel consultant.

Off the field, he has won praise for his personal contribution to the HOPE cancer project^[3]. With memories of Dhishal in mind, he became the leading campaigner of HOPE. Now, with the support of his team-mates, he aims to build a new 750-bed cancer unit at Maharagama, the country's only dedicated cancer hospital.

[edit] Quotes

• "There is so much uncertainty in cricket. One day you can get a hundred, the next day you can be dismissed for a zero. It makes you become practical about things. Teaches you to accept both success and failure. I think I have learnt a lot about life from cricket."
• "We should not play like Australia or India or England - we should play like Sri Lanka."

[edit] Player Statistics

[edit] Career Performance

An innings-by-innings breakdown of Jayawardene's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).

[edit] Test Centuries

The following table illustrates a summary of the Test centuries scored by Mahela Jayawardene

• In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career

[edit] One Day International Centuries

[edit] Awards

[edit] Test Cricket

Man of the Series Awards

#	Series	Season	Series Performance	Result
1	Sri Lanka in England Test Series	2002	272(3 Matches, 6 Innings); 2 catches	Won the series 2-0
2	England in Sri Lanka Test Series	2007/08	474(3 Matches, 4 Innings); 5 catches	Won the series 1-0

Man of the Match Awards

Man of the Match Awards – Mahela Jayawardene
	Runs	Against	City/Country	Venue	Result	Year
[1]	167	New Zealand	Galle, Sri Lanka	Galle International Stadium	won by an innings and 16 runs	1997
[2]	242	India	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	Match Drawn	1999
[3]	237/5	South Africa	Galle, Sri Lanka	Galle International Stadium	Match Drawn	2004
[4]	61/119	England	London, England	Lord’s Cricket Ground	Match Drawn	2006
[5]	374	South Africa	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	won by an innings and 153 runs	2006
[6]	13/123	South Africa	Colombo, Sri Lanka	P. Saravanamuttu Stadium	won by 1 wicket	2006
[7]	195	England	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	Match Drawn	2007
[8]	213*	England	Galle, Sri Lanka	Galle International Stadium	Match Drawn	2007

[edit] One Day International Cricket

Man of the Series Awards

#	Series	Season	Series Performance	Result
1	Khaleej Times Trophy(Pak, SL, Zim) in UAE	2001/02	252(6 Matches); 2 Catches	Won Khaleej Trophy by 5 wickets
2	Indian Oil Cup(Ind, SL, WI) in Sri Lanka	2005	230(5 Matches); 1 Catch	Won by 18 runs
3	Warid Series(Pak, SL) in UAE	2007	162(3 Matches)	Won the series 2-1
4	Afro-Asia Cup(Asia XI, Africa XI) in India	2007	217(3 Matches); 1 Catch	Asia XI Won the series 3-0

Man of the Match Awards

Man of the Match Awards – Mahela Jayawardene
	Runs	Against	City/Country	Venue	Result	Year
[1]	120	England	Adelaide, Australia	Adelaide Oval	won by 1 wicket	1999
[2]	101	Pakistan	Visakhapatnam, India	Indira Priyadarshini Stadium	won by 12 runs	1999
[3]	101*	England	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium	won by 66 runs	2001
[4]	116	New Zealand	Sharjah, United Arab Emirates	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	won by 106 runs	2001
[5]	63	Zimbabwe	Sharjah, United Arab Emirates	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	won by 79 runs	2001
[6]	96	Zimbabwe	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium	won by 59 runs	2001
[7]	106*	West Indies	Kandy, Sri Lanka	Asgiriya Stadium	won by 8 wickets	2001
[8]	94*	India	Dambulla, Sri Lanka	Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium	won by 4 wickets	2005
[9]	83	India	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium	won by 18 runs	2005
[10]	50	Bangladesh	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	won by 88 runs	2005
[11]	126*	England	Chester-le-Street, England	Riverside Ground	won by 8 wickets	2006
[12]	100	England	Manchester, England	Old Trafford	won by 33 runs	2006
[13]	115	New Zealand	Jamaica, West Indies	Sabina Park	won by 81 runs	2007 (World Cup Semi Final)

[edit] References

Mahela Jayawardene Home Page

[edit] External links

• CricInfo bio
• Interview - Mahela Jayawardene
• HOPE Cancer Project

v • d • e Sri Lanka squad - 1999 Cricket World Cup 1 Ranatunga (c) • 2 De Silva • 3 Jayasuriya • 4 Kaluwitharana (wk) • 5 Mahanama • 6 Atapattu • 7 Jayawardene • 8 Tillakaratne • 9 Vaas • 10 Chandana • 11 Upashantha • 12 Muralitharan • 13 Hathurusingha • 14 Kalpage • 15 Wickramasinghe • Coach: Dias

v • d • e Sri Lanka squad - 2003 Cricket World Cup 1 Jayasuriya (c) • 2 Atapattu • 3 Jayawardene • 4 Sangakkara (wk) • 5 De Silva • 6 Arnold • 7 Mubarak • 8 Tillakaratne • 9 Muralitharan • 10 Vaas • 11 Fernando • 12 Gunaratne • 13 Gunawardene • 14 Nissanka • 15 Buddhika • Coach: Whatmore

v • d • e Sri Lanka squad - 2007 Cricket World Cup 1 Jayawardene (c) • 2 Atapattu • 3 Jayasuriya • 4 Tharanga • 5 Sangakkara • 6 Dilshan • 7 Arnold • 8 Silva • 9 Maharoof • 10 Vaas • 11 Fernando • 12 Malinga • 13 Kulasekara • 14 Muralitharan • 15 Bandara • Coach: Moody