Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara born 27 October 1977) is a professional Sri Lankan Test cricketer, a former one-day and T20 player, and former captain of the Sri Lankan national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He is also arguably the greatest Sri Lankan to play the game along with long time team mate and friend, Mahela Jayawardene and holds numerous batting records in the modern era across all formats of the game. A left-handed top-order batsman, he is also a record-breaking wicket-keeper, although he no longer keeps wickets at Test level. Currently, he is the second-highest run-scorer in ODI cricket and the fifth-highest run scorer in Test cricket. Sangakkara is described as one of the "most polished and prudent of batsmen" in cricket. Along with AB de Villiers, he has dominated the number one spot in the ICC Test batting rankings over the past decade. At 12 August 2015, Kumar Sangakkara was placed at number 5 in the ICC Test rankings.
Sangakkara was a key member of the team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and was part of the team that made the final of the 2007 Cricket World Cup, 2011 Cricket World Cup, 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and 2012 ICC World Twenty20. He won the Man of the Match award in the final of the 2014 ICC World Twenty20, where he helped the team win their first title. Sangakkara delivered the 2011 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture, which gained worldwide attention. He was the youngest person and the first active international player to deliver that lecture, which was widely praised by the cricketing community for its outspoken nature.
In terms of number of innings required, Sangakkara is the fastest batsman to reach 8,000, 9,000, 11,000 and 12,000 runs in Test cricket. He is also joint fastest to 10,000. He won the ICC Cricketer of the Year in 2012, Test Cricketer of the Year in 2012, and ODI Cricketer of the Year multiple times in 2011 and 2013. He has also won the LG People's Choice Award twice, in 2011 and 2012. Sangakkara has regularly featured in the World Test XI and World ODI XI, appearing six times and three times in them, respectively. He was selected as Leading Cricketer in the World in the 2015 edition of Wisden.
Along with teammate Mahela Jayawardene, he recorded the most partnership runs for the 3rd wicket in Tests, scoring 5890 runs surpassing the 5826 runs of Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, during the first Test match against Pakistan at Galle International Stadium. The two also hold the record for the highest partnership for any wicket in Test matches, scoring 624 runs for the 3rd wicket against South Africa in 2006. This still stands as the largest partnership for any wicket in first-class cricket, anywhere.
On January 29, 2015, Sangakkara became Sri Lanka's highest ever ODI run scorer, surpassing the previous record of 13430 runs held by Sanath Jayasuriya. In the same match, he also broke the record for ODI wicketkeeping dismissals, breaking the previous record of 472 held by Adam Gilchrist. He retired from ODIs on 18 March 2015, against South Africa during the quarter final stage of 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup. He has stated that he will finish his Test career in August 2015. He was named the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World in 2011 and 2015. He is one of two players to have won this award twice, along with Indian opener Virender Sehwag, who won the award in 2008 and 2009. In June 2015 Sangakkara announced he would retire from international cricket after the conclusion of the second Test against India in August.
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