Mahela Jayawardene’s retirement will see cricket losing one of its best leaders

Mahela Jayawardene given a guard of honour during the first day of the Test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan at Galle

The first time I saw Mahela Jayawardene in action was against England in Australia during a tri-nation one-day tournament. That match is still remembered by many due to the tussle between Australian umpire Ross Emerson and Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga, but few tend to remember a young man’s valiant contribution which ensured Sri Lanka a dramatic win.

Jayawardene, the batsman

Amid a complete hopeless situation, a young lad remained calm and composed to notch-up a brilliant hundred and thus, I came to know about a young man named Mahela Jayawardene who could follow the footsteps of Aravinda de Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga in the near future. And the young man did carry on De Silva and Ranatunga’s legacy splendidly.

Since that knock at Adelaide, Jayawardene’s career started to flourish. His bat continued to essay some of cricket’s prolific knocks and gradually he became Sri Lankan cricket’s most valuable and respected player. With the bat in his hand, he had been an artist in an era when most of the batsmen were more addicted in bludgeoning the cricket ball. Very few sights in world cricket had been as pleasant as Mahela Jayawardene’s batting – his silken drives through the covers and wristy flicks off his pads have always been a cricket romanticist’s treat.

Then there were those cuts and dabs behind the stumps – both against the spinners and pace-bowlers and some well-timed strokes in the ‘V’ were pure gems. Blessed with an excellent hand-eye coordination, playing the ball late has been one of Mahela’s assets and he has been such a batsman who was the master in playing strokes all around the wicket.

Taking over captaincy

But, over the years, this little man’s brilliant captaincy and sound cricket brain kept on impressing me time and again.

This quiet and polite guy inherited Sri Lanka’s captaincy by default during the England tour in 2006 when the touring captain Marvan Atapattu was injured. In the first Test at Lord’s, the Lankans were all set to digest a heavy defeat and amid such circumstances, a captain needed to script something special to maintain the confidence of the team.

Jayawardene rose to the occasion and defied all the odds to score a brilliant hundred and ensured one of Sri Lanka’s greatest escapes in their Test history. His 119 in the second innings was a captain’s rearguard which converted a first-innings deficit of 359 runs into an overnight lead of 22 runs. With that knock Mahela answered his critics who always used to say that captaincy would affect his batting and with that Lord’s hundred the Lankans, who were written-off by many before the tour, rediscovered their self-confidence.

After a shoddy performance at Edgbaston in the second Test, the Lankans bounced back strongly at Trent Bridge to level the Test series and they returned home from England with their heads held high by beating the English team comprehensively in the one-day series. What was supposed to be a one-sided affair in favour of the hosts, turned out to be a memorable one for Sri Lankans and the credit must go Jayawardene who lifted up the morale of the team by leading from the front.

One of Sri Lanka’s greatest leaders

In the following years, as a captain, the right-handed batsman had been superlative. He stabilized Sri Lankan cricket and even his second stint as Sri Lanka’s captain in 2012-13 was highly significant as because during that time, Sri Lankan cricket was again in need of stability and again, Mahela installed self-confidence in the team.

The most striking thing about Mahela Jayawardene’s captaincy had been his innovativeness and attacking instincts. He was never that sort of captain who usually waited for things to happen, but more often than not, he used his brain to make things happen – suddenly there would be a wide third or fourth slip, a man at extra-cover or short mid-on or mid-off, a leg slip, some tricky bowling changes or a surprising shuffle in the batting order – Mahela’s brain always remained busy to bring his best for Sri Lankan cricket.

Even when he was not captaining the side, he was never shy to pass on productive advice to the captain and during such times his cricket brain never used to stop working. It always kept on thinking about new innovative ideas which made captains like Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews reap rich harvests. He was one of Sri Lanka’s most influential captains ever.

Describing Jayawardene, former Sri Lankan coach Paul Farbrace said: “As a leader, and a team man, there is no one you would rather have around than Mahela. Even when he's not captain, he's the leader of that Sri Lanka team, and I think Angie [Angelo Mathews] has learned a lot from him over the past few months. Everything he does is always for the team and for Sri Lankan cricket. There is not a selfish bone in his body. For any overseas coach, he's your go-to guy, because he's thinking about everyone in the team - the seniors, the juniors, support staff - everyone. He's a real people person and that's his great strength. He is a world-class player and a world-class person. Sri Lankan cricket will not realize how much he means to the team, until he's gone.”

Jayawardene will retire after the ongoing Test series against Pakistan. Another great player will leave the scene. You will keep on missing his artistic batting, but I shall always miss his unique and brilliant cricketing brain.