Rex Clementine, in The Island, 2 October 2017 where the title is “I did it my way, Surrey’s tribute to Sanga”
English county Surrey have put out a video with visuals of former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara batting for the county with background music of Frank Sinatra 1969 hit ‘I did it my way’. Sangakkara returned to Colombo on Saturday after a sensational season for the south London county. Surrey finished third in County Championship. Sangakkara played three seasons for Surrey starting from 2015 and this was his last. This season, he was the first batsman to complete 1,000 runs. He finished the season with almost 1,500 runs at a Bradmansque average of 106.50 with eight centuries, including twin hundreds at Lord’s against Middlesex in May. He was the highest run getter this season.
Sangakkara over the three seasons played 64 games for Surrey and scored 5,239 runs with 19 hundreds. Each of Surrey’s players at the end of the video describe the Sri Lankan captain with some superlatives.
Surrey Director of Cricket and former England captain Alec Stewart calls him ‘Legend’ while captain Gareth Batty calls him ‘Unique’. Other players pay him tribute with words like – legendary, astounding, prolific, gentleman, majestic, humble, inspirational, role model, gracious, master and the king. The most preferred word of the players seemed to be – gentleman.
He turns 40 on the 27th of this month. ‘The Island’ wishes him all the very best!
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Ithin Dhan?
Sri Lankan cricket captain Kumar Sangakkara (R) and chief selector Aravinda de Silva talk i….. AFP PHOTO/Ishara S.KODIKARA
My warm congratulations Mr. Kumara sangakkara