Kumar Sangakkara's retirement will take the sheen off world cricket

Kumar Sangakkara has always been a subject of delight for the cricket romantics

"We remember not the scores and the results in after years; it is the men who remain in our minds, in our imagination”.

-Sir Neville Cardus

In the southeast part of the Indian subcontinent, there was an island named Ceylon which was a British colony from 1802 to 1948 and at first it did not include the Kingdom of Kandy but from 1817, the British possessions included the whole island of Ceylon. Ceylon gained independence on February 4, 1948, and in 1972 it was renamed as Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is a beautiful country with full of natural beauties. Sri Lanka’s golden beaches, green forests, waterfalls and the waves of the blue ocean are matter of great interest for the tourists and their cricket and cricketers have always been a subject of joy for the cricketing World. Like Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, the Sri Lankans are passionate for cricket. World cricket has been glorified more often by some of the finest cricketers from Sri Lanka.

The first recorded cricket match in Sri Lanka was way back in 1832 and in 1905 they started playing first class cricket. The Australian and English teams used Sri Lanka as a stopover during their long and strenuous voyages and during their short stay, they used to play cricket matches over there and thus, Sri Lanka’s first-class cricket was limited to games against the touring side. Perhaps, the tours of teams like Australia and England during those days had helped in developing a strong cricket culture in the island. Occasionally, teams representative of the then Ceylon played matches in abroad, especially in India.

Sri Lanka’s cricket culture is very well-founded. Alongside passion, there always existed the eagerness to learn the game and this accounted for creating a generation of cricketers who would make a mark in the cricketing fraternity not only by their cricketing abilities but from an intellectual perspective as well. Sri Lanka has gifted the world some of the most exciting, non-conventional and finest brains of the game.

Sidath Wetimunny, Duleep Mendis, Roy Dias, Aravinda de Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga, Muttiah Muralitharan, Chaminda Vaas and Sanath Jayasuriya instilled a culture which proved instrumental in creating a legacy which has been carried on by the likes of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Rangana Herath and the next generation of cricketers.

Man of the Moment - Kumar Sangakkara

Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara is one of the finest products of embellished Sri Lankan cricket culture and can be described as the symbol of precision and artistry of modern day cricket. Like his stroke-play, his vision towards life and its perspectives and opinions about cricket’s various issues is spick-and-span. Since he made his debut in 2000, his achievements only swelled by leaps and bounds. His impact on and off the field has been prodigious, which made him a valuable ornament in World cricket. But, more than his humungous amount of international runs, staggering batting average in Test cricket, leadership qualities, effective social works and MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture in 2011; his style of batting will always be a matter of great interest for the fans, especially the cricket romantics.

The story of Sri Lankan left-handed willow-wielders have always been either about brute force or sheer grit rather than elegance. In the history of cricket, the majority of the left-handed batsmen has been all about sumptuousness. Whenever the topic about a left-handed batsman crops up, delicacy, elegance and art are the words which automatically come into our mind. The common myth is, the left-handed batters themselves are made for artistry. But Sri Lanka didn’t fit well in this category until Sangakkara arrived on the scene.

Guard of honour for the legend

Sangakkara was cut from the curvaceous cloth. Being a gifted back foot player, the back foot stroke-play came naturally to him and gradually, he became astute on the front foot as well. His drive through the covers and extra-cover by getting down on his knee is a rapturous sight for the cricket romantics. Sangakkara’s cover drives are not just mere drives, but they are cricket’s most ravishing spectacles. Like the golden beaches of Sri Lanka, the tall palm trees which stand like a saint beside the beaches and the musical waves of the blue ocean, it ebbs away all the stresses of life.

And what about his back foot punches through the off side? At times, they were more attractive than his cover drives. They seemed to be like the lush green forests of Sri Lanka while the hook and pull shots were like the gushing waterfalls. His batting display has always been like a lost paradise – a paradise of tranquility and musical charm.

How enticing it would have been, had Sir Neville Cardus, who first placed the left-handers in a different aesthetic category, witnessed Sanga’s artistic batting. He would have gone on to write this about Sangakkara which he once wrote about Frank Wolley, “ His cricket is compounded of soft airs and fresh flavours. The bloom of the year is on it, making for sweetness. And the very brevity of summer is in it too, making for loveliness”. And his delightful heart would have written more lines like these, “His immense power is lightened by a rhythm which has in it as little obvious propulsion as a movement of music by Mozart”.

As the era of Brian Lara and Saeed Anwar came to an end, the cricketing World started to get crowded by the power-hitters. Left-handers like Mathew Hayden or Chris Gayle were murderers of the cricket ball while Graeme Smith was a prolific run scorer with less grace and elegance. Words like elegant cut, lazy elegance or graceful drive by the left-handers were almost getting lost from cricket. But thankfully, Kumar Sangakkara didn’t let grace and elegance vanish completely from cricket. With the bat, he always used to orchestrate a tender kiss between the bat and ball rather than a slap. The story of his batting has been all about the exotic love with the ball.

Sangakkara will retire after playing the second Test against India in Colombo. There is an ongoing debate about his greatness, statistical comparisons along with the little master Sachin Tendulkar, crunching numbers about his batting feats and gosh, the statistical analysis just don’t stop. But, for a single moment has anyone thought about the emptiness Sangakkara’s retirement will create? Are there any left-handed batsmen left in the cricketing World to carry on his legacy? Soumya Sarkar looks promising, but how far will he go in Test cricket remains a moot question.

In fact, there aren’t any worthy successors of Sangakkara at present. People will talk about his hundreds, batting records and so on in years to come, but none will talk about the joy of watching his batting. It’s a practical world devoid of romantic hearts. Sometimes, the eyes can’t fathom what the heart can see. The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. A cricket romantic feels the actual charm and romance behind the exhibition of a cricketer's skill.

Kumar Sangakkara the batsman is not only about statistics, but about sheer artistry and delight for the cricket romantics.

“Be an artist, in whatever little faculty possible. For the Earth, without ‘Art’ is just ‘Eh”

-Jasleen Kaur Gumber