So no sooner had Sri Lanka announced the return to international duty of Sanath Jayasuriya that the veteran all-rounder declared the next ODI and T20 International versus England would be his very last. Let's face it, he will be 42 and his selection was only the result of Tharanga's positive drug test and Dilshan's injured thumb, so why not take control of his own destiny and retire yourself rather than be quietly dropped and put out to grass?
The last of his 110 Tests also came against England in 2007, so this will mean the same final opposition for the other formats, too. In that match at Kandy, he signed off with a second innings 78 on the way to setting Michael Vaughan's tourists a target they couldn't reach. Sri Lanka must hope for similar successes later this month.
After Murali's retirement and Chaminda Vaas off the international scene, Jayasuriya is the last survivor of the World Cup winning team which so memorably shook up the cricketing world order in 1996. His first four years in ODIs failed to register even a half-century and he was probably used more as a slow left arm bowler than batsman, but when promoted to open in 1994, he made his mark with 140 in a rain-affected match against New Zealand. His often brutal treatment of opening bowlers with the fielding restrictions in place caused the term 'pinch-hitter' to transfer convincingly from baseball to cricket. He may not really have been the first player to fulfill this role but none had done so with more panache and consistency over a number of years.
After the World Cup triumph, he struck three ODI centuries and nine fifties in 1997, with India bearing the brunt. His highest score of 189 came against the same opposition three years later, made all the more superb by the fact that, in reply, Ganguly's team were bowled out for a mere 54! The last of his 28 one-day centuries again came against India in January 2009 but this time in a losing cause. Apart from a 98 in September, the year was not a very productive one for Sanath and his career seemed to have ended after 444 ODIs in a Delhi damp squib just after Christmas - until now.
Perhaps it was his age but he never quite reached the heights in Twenty20 cricket although a strike rate of almost 130 is testament to his strength and skill at finding gaps or just hoiking the ball above fielder's heads. Nevertheless, his old skills as a bowler also make him a useful all-rounder for this type of game so England should not write him off. In fact, in one-dayers, his average and strike rate are better against England than any of the other major cricketing nations.
In Jayasuriya's case, statistics don't necessarily tell the whole story. His sheer length of career and number of appearances guaranteed him a huge volume of runs, and quite a few wickets, too, but his batting averages are nothing special. What did mark him out was the way he went about scoring those runs. He has been keeping his hand in back in Sri Lanka in inter-state competitions and, whist he is not the feared pinch-hitter he once was, it will be good to see him in action on the world stage a few more times and allow him to enjoy the send-off his contribution to Sri Lankan and international cricket deserves.
