Kumar Sangakkara Biography (Cricketer)

Major Team: World XI, Tallawahs, Jamaica, Kandurata Maroons, Kandurata, Kings Xi Punjab, Nondescripts Cricket Club, Marylebone Cricket Club, Quetta Gladiators, Warwickshire, Sunrise Hyderabad.

Kumar Sangakkara Childhood and Education

Kumar Sangakkara was born on 27 October 1977, in Matale, Sri Lanka. He is the youngest one in his family, he grew up in the Kandy, Sanga’s family house overlooking the town’s lake and near to Tennis Club, and this is favorite hideout of Kumar’s in his childhood. His father’s name is Kshema, also a keen sportsman, he was an eminent lawyer. Mr. Kshema is a very well respected person in the local community, his deep love of, law, literature, philosophy, and art was picked by his children. Kumar’s family has a strong educational background, Kumar’s sister Thushari received a degree at the University of Peradeniya, his other sister Saranga was a national tennis champion and played tennis for the Brown University in the US, and Kumar’s elder brother Vemendra held a degree at the Monash University. Saranga completed a fashion degree and worked as a business analyst for Price Waterhouse Coopers, she is now in Los Angeles.

Kumar as a boy was a voracious reader. Reading is his hobby and he still enjoys reading as his favorite author is Oscar Wilde. He also learned to play the violin. Kumar explored a broad range of subjects and also hobbies during his school era. In school, his favorite subject was English Literature, (GRC) Greek and Roman Civilizations but he always showed a great interest in Law. Kumar followed his father’s footsteps and he had enrolled to complete a Bachelor of Law at the University of Colombo, but he selected a tour to South Africa for Sri Lanka ‘A’ in 1998, due to the hectic schedule of the tour he left less time for his study and it was affected on his personal study, and he could not complete his degree. Kumar still wants to complete his degree in law after his retirement as a professional cricketer.

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Kumar Sangakkara’s early career

He has played cricket from the very early age of 7 years, but he was playing cricket seriously when he was around 12 years old, at that time he confidently secured a place for him in the Trinity College Under 13 team. Kumar was the senior prefect of Trinity College in 1996, he showed his talents at school in both field cricket and Tennis as well, and he is on the list of good students and good players, and his school’s principal Mr. Leonard De Alwis advised Kumar’s mother to encourage him to pursue cricket.

He is an all-around sportsman, cricket is his favorite sport to play but with cricket, he likes to play Tennis and Golf, at an early age as a child he played and showed his outstanding performances at table tennis, tennis, and good swimmer. At one stage Kumar represented Sri Lanka Schools in Tennis and he could continue tennis as a professional career but at the age of 17, he choose cricket instead of tennis and gave full focus on cricket, although it was the hardest decision for Kumar to choose one field as a career, in the end, he choose cricket and enjoyed this field more because team sport and fun. At the school stage, he was a prodigiously talented sportsman, although he did not gain a high profile in the school cricket circuit and he also did not play cricket for the youth teams of Sri Lanka.

Kumar’s Domestic Career

He plays his domestic career for the Nondescripts in Sri Lanka, in the Country Championships he played English country cricket in 2007 with Warwickshire. In the year of 2010, he was confirmed to represent Lancashire in the Country Championship 2010. However, he never played for the Lancashire as Kumar was unavailable due to international commitments. A terrorist attack on 3 rd March 2009 on the Sri Lankan cricket team caused to injured many players, including Kumar Sangakkara.

Kumar Sangakkara International Career

At the age of 21, the national selectors of cricket a year later picked him for the team of Sri Lanka ‘A’ in 1998-99 to the tour of South Africa. In this tour Kumar performed well, he could manage to gain a place in the team for the three-match home series in May 2000 against Zimbabwe. This match series against Zimbabwe, turned out to be a breakthrough tour for him as he cracked an outstanding 156 in a limited over series with not-out status. In this innings in which one 6 that smashed the window of the dressing room was observed by the National coach Dav Whatmore, it paved the way for Kumar’s inclusion in the One Day Internationals squad in July 2000 for the Singer Triangular Series with South Africa and Pakistan.

He started his career as a batsman but subsequently, he became a Wicket-keeper. At the age of 22, Kumar made 35 runs in his debut match against Pakistan. In his 2nd match at “Galle” against South Africa, Kumar scored 85 runs from 115 deliveries. His outstanding performance at a very young age supports him for the secured position, Wisden observed that Kumar showed maturity in his performance beyond his years, Kumar ended like the start of the tournament by securing 199 runs at 66.33. This tournament was the begging of an international journey for Kumar to the very top.

In the Singer Series the victory of Sri Lanka, boosted their confidence ahead to play with South Africa for three-match Test Series. Due to well performances in one-day internationals, international Cricket selectors are encouraged to take the plunge with Kumar in the test match series too. The decision of selectors to select him was not wrong Kumar proved their decision by his good performances. His performances were more modest and finest. The hard-fought series between Sri Lanka and South Africa was drawn 1-1.

Against South Africa, a Test match was settled in South Africa, in this match series at the start of the game a fruitful partnership between Kumar and Mahela Jayawardena was seen. Kumar was selected as a special batsman and was moved up the order into the position of number 3. Kumar started the game brightly with 74 and 17, in Cape Town with 32 and 11 after that, he started the innings in place of Sanath Jayasuriya as he was injured, Kumar scored 98 runs at Centurion before becoming the victim of a bad lbw decision.

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Kumar nearly scored a magnificent 95 runs against England at Kandy, Sri Lanka. He lost his wicket against Robert Croft and was stumped. In August 2011, this year at one moment he gave an outstanding performance with 195 runs against India in Gale without losing his head. In this innings Kumar was at his top level, his performance proved that he is a free-flowing stroke maker and he has the talent to play with determination and confidence. Kumar waited for fifteen innings for his 1 st Test century, in November 2001 he made 140 against West Indies. At SSC against New Zealand, another century followed him, from here Kumar's international career was well started and truly running.

The first of Kumar’s eight double hundreds came in the Asian Test Championship final in 2002 against Pakistan. In this series Kumar was the cornerstone of the match series, he scored 230 runs from 327 balls with 33 fours and one six, this match Sri Lanka won by eight wickets. His brilliant performance won the hearts of his fans and as well as his team members.

Kumar made his another double century against Zimbabwe, 270 runs in May 2004, after a gap of 28 innings, this was another great effort by him and this was also a mini turning point of his career because he did not make a successful start to his Test career in Darwin against Australia with innings of two and a duck. Sangakkara performed well in both the Test matches and also the One Day Internationals. As a batsman, he is a connoisseur’s delight. Kumar was firmly established by now as the team’s number 3 in Test Cricket not only in Test matches but he was also as a regular player of the One Day International team.

A matching series between Sri Lanka and England was scheduled, England was one of the few states Kumar had hitherto not made a Test century and he was determined to get better his cricket record there. The series between them was much more difficult, against one of the strongest bowling attacks from English players, making this series tougher for the Sri Lankan team. Kumar made 119 brilliant runs in the second innings of the final test to save the game.

He continues to improve his talents and bring perfection in his every game, during 5 match ODI series he performed very well. In several dimensions, Kumar is a batsman who is unquestionably a world-class cricketer. With the batting and bowling, he was also a wicketkeeper for a fair time period and good enough to grip any situation and turned the direction of the game in his team’s favor.

Kumar’s best-ever Test Series

In August 2011, in the England series, in this series, Kumar failed to score a hundred in this Test match but he was still able to average 45 against a challenger or opponent that played much-improved cricket. After this series, Kumar played another series against Pakistan in UAE, in this series he managed to give his performance better and improved himself as a professional player. Kumar became only the 3 rd Sri Lankan cricketer who scores more than 500 runs in a series. He made the eight double hundred in this series, and he followed with scores of, 78, 30, 144, and 51. He became the 9 players in cricket history to reach 9,000 Test runs maker. After this tough schedule of the matches between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, a full tour of South Africa was scheduled that three Tests matches and 5 ODIs for Sri Lanka. In this match series one famous 208-run victory, which included Kumar’s brilliant second innings hundred enabled his team to set the South African team in an insurmountable run-chase.

Kumar Sangakkara World Cup Debut

World Cup 2003 which was hosted by South Africa, this was Kumar’s first World Cup, Kumar batted at No. 6 during the World Cup 2003 after both Hashan Tillakaratne and Arvinda de Silva were recalled for the world cup tournament, with the observation that might have been an inaccuracy as Sri Lanka was brittle at the top of the order and Sangakkara couldn’t score a big digit so low don the order. Kumar made 176 at the 25.14 and failed to score a single 50. After this tournament immediately Kumar moved up to the No.3 position, in this position he has since excelled, averaging near 40.

Kumar’s batting standard was too priceless to squander for the additional value he brought in as a stumper, as a specialist batsman Kumar averages near 70. Kumar with his double hundreds is behind Don Bradman’s 12 and Brian Lara’s 9 in double centuries.

Kumar and the 2011 World Cup

In ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, which was co-hosted by Sri Lanka, Kumar led his team, the Sri Lankan team played brilliantly, and almost in every match their performances were outstanding but unfortunately, the team stumbled at the final hurdle. Kumar led from the front, his average was 93 and he ends up as the tournament’s 3 rd highest run-getter, but the loss in the final was immense and that loss ranked as one of Kumar’s biggest disappointments.

Kumar stepped down as captain after this tournament, offering the space to the selectors to groom a successor to lead the Sri Lankan cricket team at the World Cup 2015 to be held in the state of Australia. Kumar’s decision wasn’t easy many of the people and his fans were in shock after this news, but Sanga decided a few months before the World Cup to hand over the captaincy. Kumar did offer to retain the captaincy of the Test games for the upcoming tough series against England and Australia, to assist the team’s newly elected leader but the selectors opted to start afresh.

Kumar Sangakkara as a Captain

In February 2009, just before Sri Lanka’s tour to Pakistan for the Two Test series, Mahela Jayawardena announced that he intended to retire from the captaincy of the Sri Lankan team prior to the ICC World T20. Mahela’s surprise announcement was soon followed by the undisputed appointment of the Sanga as the new captain for Sri Lanka in all forms of games. Murali was selected and appointed as Kumar’s deputy. Kumar quickly set for the captaincy as was expected, due to the solid building foundation laid by Mahela, with his own instinct and charismatic style, Mahela led the Sri Lankan team to the finals of the ICC World T20, held in England.

Kumar’s Speech

Kumar was the first active player to be invited and asked to deliver the lecture in the 11 the MCC Spirit Cricket Cowdrey Lecture, Kumar left a full house at Lord’s spellbound during a brilliant speech of 62 minutes, which was about the unique spirit of Sri Lanka’s cricket. Kumar’s brilliant speech received a standing ovation at the end of his lecture.

Kumar Sangakkara’s Personal Life

Kumar married Yehali in May 2003, and they have been happily married ever since they built their family home in Thalawatagoda which is in Colombo’s suburbs. On 29 June 2009, Yehali gave birth to twins just after Kumar’s return from the T20 finals, a son called Kavith Kshema Peiris Sangakkara and a daughter named Swyree Kaavya Peiris Sangakkara. After becoming a father a new and exciting chapter of Kumar’s life had begun, he has the responsibility of having twins.

Kumar’s career in IPL

Kumar made his debut in the IPL for the side of the Kings XI Punjab, the former Sri Lankan skipper who was captured by Deccan Chargers in the 2011 Players Auction. 2013 season of IPL he played for the new owners of the team from the Deccan under the banner of the Sunrises Hyderabad. Despite not providing a great season last year, he has the stuff to come back powerfully and lead his team ahead. Kumar said that the decision not position himself in 2014’s IPL auction was to raise the likelihood of getting a good contract in 2015.

Kumar Sangakkara Net Worth

Kumar’s net worth has been recorded at an estimate of $20.05 Million and his yearly or annual salary is around $10 Million. As a professional cricketer Kumar’s earnings come from his salary, he played for Sri Lanka national team, and also his participation in domestic cricket. Sanga is one of the highest-paid players in the IPL, and Kumar has been bought by different teams in the different seasons of IPL. Sri Lanka’s National Selection Committee 2014, announced a hike in the salaries of all the players and Kumar has been placed at the top of the list among other senior players.

Total Net Worth (calculated in 2016): $21 Million

Indian Premier League, IPL: $ 140,000

Kumar served in multiple positions for the national team of Sri Lanka, having a powerful batting style, including the captain, vice-captain, and wicket-keeper. Kumar’s talent bagged many rewards for him such as Cricketer, Test Cricketer, also the People’s Choice Award for the year 2012, ICC ODI Player of the Year 2013, and so many other awards he received.