Golden era of Sri Lanka Sangakkara, Jayawardane over

As Sri Lanka’s World Cup exit with a humiliating defeat from the hands of South Africa have ended two careers of fabulous cricketers Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardane.

When Sri Lanka were prepare for their series against Pakistan later this year, that was the first time for more than a decade selector have to scanned over with little more than a second thought, safe in the knowledge that two of their greatest ever players would fill the roles.

For most of this century, the partnership of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene has been the foundation upon which the Sri Lankan team has been built. Now, Jayawardene is lost to the international game, retired from all forms after an career that started in 1997.

On the other hand, Sangakarra is not done with red-ball cricket just yet – he will play on in Tests until later this year – while both men will continue to play in domestic leagues around the world.

Both legends took the retirement form Twenty 20 format in 2014 when Sri Lanka lifted the trophy for the first time and Sangakkara was the hero of the final match scoring the half century just at the right time for Sri Lanka.

They haven’t been forced into retirement because their performances have dropped to a point where selectors have considered other options. Quite the contrary. In the past two years, Sangakkara has averaged just under 60 in 66 ODIs – with 11 centuries and 20 fifties – compared to his overall career record of 25 hundreds, 93 half-centuries and an average of 42 from 403 matches.

He’s also averaged 73.50 in his past two years of Test cricket, with three centuries, two double centuries and one triple century. He went back-to-back-to-back-to-back at this World Cup, becoming the first man in ODI history to score centuries in four consecutive innings.

All four hundreds came at a run a ball or better, proving his game has not simply stood still as – to paraphrase Brooks Hatlen – the cricket world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.

Jayawardene has also maintained his impressive output in the past two years, averaging 35 at ODI level and scoring just under 60 per innings in his final 10 Tests before he retired from the longest form of the game in August.

His one major contribution at this World Cup came in the humble surrounds of Dunedin’s University Oval and was almost forgotten as the concurrent India-South Africa blockbuster at the MCG stole the world’s attention. With Sri Lanka in deep trouble at 4-51 in pursuit of Afghanistan’s 232, Jayawardene posted an even 100 – his 19th ODI century – to help guide his side to victory with four wickets and 10 balls to spare.

 They have batted 293 times together in international cricket for a total of 13,368 runs, with 36 century stands and 62 of fifty or more. By far their biggest partnership came, ironically, against South Africa in Colombo nine years ago, a 157-over union that spanned three days and yielded a world record 624 runs and individual scores of 374 and 287.

Sri Lanka will produce batsmen of their quality sometime in the distant future, but it’s doubtful they will be blessed with two at the same time who will dominate the game for as long as Sangakkara and Jayawardene have. The next generation of Sri Lankan batsmen – the likes of Dinesh Chandimal, Lahiru Thirimanne and Dimuth Karunaratne – will be picked in their place. But for as long as the memory of Kumar and Mahela is fresh in the mind, numbers three and four in Sri Lanka’s batting order will seem somewhat vacant.