Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2022

5 until, in the late 90s, they became a notable and respected force in the cricket world. In 1996 they won the T20 World Cup, powered mainly by the pinch-hitting of Sanath Jayasuriya in the rst few overs of their matches. is invariably enabled them to seize the momentum and Jayasuriya was duly appointed one of 1996’s ve Cricketers of the year on the strength of his performance in the tournament. In 1998 they had a successful tour of England, winning the one and only Test match at e Oval by a convincing 10 wickets. O - spinning genius Muttiah Muralitharan burst on the scene with match gures of 16- 220, then the h best match analysis in Test Match history. As we know well he went on to become the world record Test wicket taker with over 800 to his name. 2002 marked the rst tour to this country for Mahela Jayawardene who would go on to play 149 Tests over a 17 year period with 34 centuries in the process. Two years later Kumar Sangakkara emerged on the scene and from 2000-2015 he amassed 38 centuries in 134 matches. Such was his status in Test cricket that he was appointed president of the MCC for 2020 and, due to the Covid outbreak, this was extended to 2021. A few statistics now. As at 31 December 2019, 150 Sri Lankans had represented their country and 34 Test Matches had been played against England. Fi een have been won by England and eight by Sri Lanka, with 11 drawn. Only in recent years has the Test Series been elevated to 3 matches. In those 16 series Sri Lanka has won ve, all being in a one match series. Eight of their players to date have been named as one of the ve annual Wisden cricketers of the year, and ve of them are mentioned above. I have no doubt that Sri Lanka has added considerably to the richness of International cricket. eir cricketers conduct themselves in the most gentlemanly fashion, as do Sri Lankan people generally. Players and spectators alike made a big impression on me when I attended my rst Sri Lankan test in 2002 at Lord’s. is was a memorable occasion with four centuries being scored, two by each team. DPMD (Mahela) Jayawardene and Marvin Atapattu recorded rst innings centuries in a total of 555-8 declared. All out for 275 in their rst innings, England were asked to follow on and thankfully amassed 520-7 in their second, with centuries from Michael Vaughan and Mark Butcher securing a draw.