As the man who boasts a higher batting average than Virat Kohli walked into a packed Dorset Cricket Society at Hurn Bridge on Thursday, a nervy excitement filled the room. Everyone in the sell-out audience anticipated the upcoming two-hour interview with the cricket icon and legend Kumar Sangakkara..
Sangakkara retired from international cricket in 2015 as the second-highest run scorer in all formats. He also captained his national team to not only one, but two World Cup finals!
A recent past MCC President and now chairman of the MCC's World Cricket Committee, he moved to live in rural Dorset two years ago and has already engaged with the Dorset 50s and the local cricket scene at Shillingstone.
In a detailed response to one of the first questions posed to him, he explained that in his childhood he also was proficient in tennis, swimming and badminton alongside cricket. He further stated that it was the team nature of cricket that made him prefer it over tennis.
Despite his retirement, his passion for the game was clear and his enthusiasm in asking further thought-provoking questions back to the audience was heavily appreciated by all.
One memorable response was to a question about the popularity of different formats of cricket. He replied that cricket, like all other sports, must be allowed to develop. He queried whether it would be better to maintain the more traditional parts of the game and slowly but surely lose the large audience cricket has, or to allow more radical formats (e.g. T20) to be showcased to win favour with the younger generation of fans.
Sangakkara spoke at length about his career on the international stage, playing in four World Cup finals and facing some of the finest bowlers of his era, Glenn McGrath, Jimmy Anderson, Shane Warne, but mention but a few. He gave the DCS audience a demonstration of how Muttiah Muralitharan bowled his doostra delivery and how he learned to read him from behind the stumps.
Lahore attack
The atmosphere darkened as Sangakkara spoke at length about the devastation of the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami which cost 46,000 lives in Sri Lanka and the impact it had on the cricket team. The most dangerous moment of his career was the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team whilst on their tour of Pakistan. He briefly joked that whilst the bus’ wheels were shot, time didn’t in fact move in slow motion but that everything seemed to occur at hyper speed.
He mentioned that in that moment of panic, his life really did flash in front of his eyes. As the gunmen shot at the bus, a bullet hit his teammate behind him. When he turned to see the source of the cry of pain, a bullet flew millimetres past his ear. He recalled he could see the dent in the seat beside him. Sangakkara noted that although he was in shock, he tried to accept this incident and move on. He commented that things in life could end at any moment, and therefore you should enjoy every second.
Since retirement, he has worked as a commentator for Sky Sports - with everyone enjoying his eloquence, deep understanding of the game, and ability to articulate insights which have made him a natural fit for the role.
Two years ago, Sanga served as President of the MCC and had some interesting views on the on-going Eton v Harrow saga. Next weekend he flies to the Pink city of Jaipur as coach of Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League.
From beginning to end the Dorset Cricket Society audience was spellbound. Whilst asking for autographs and pictures at the end of the afternoon, all attendees felt very lucky to have witnessed a very special talk from one of the greatest cricketers of all time.
Sangakkara retired from international cricket in 2015 as the second-highest run scorer in all formats. He also captained his national team to not only one, but two World Cup finals!
A recent past MCC President and now chairman of the MCC's World Cricket Committee, he moved to live in rural Dorset two years ago and has already engaged with the Dorset 50s and the local cricket scene at Shillingstone.
In a detailed response to one of the first questions posed to him, he explained that in his childhood he also was proficient in tennis, swimming and badminton alongside cricket. He further stated that it was the team nature of cricket that made him prefer it over tennis.
Despite his retirement, his passion for the game was clear and his enthusiasm in asking further thought-provoking questions back to the audience was heavily appreciated by all.
One memorable response was to a question about the popularity of different formats of cricket. He replied that cricket, like all other sports, must be allowed to develop. He queried whether it would be better to maintain the more traditional parts of the game and slowly but surely lose the large audience cricket has, or to allow more radical formats (e.g. T20) to be showcased to win favour with the younger generation of fans.
Sangakkara spoke at length about his career on the international stage, playing in four World Cup finals and facing some of the finest bowlers of his era, Glenn McGrath, Jimmy Anderson, Shane Warne, but mention but a few. He gave the DCS audience a demonstration of how Muttiah Muralitharan bowled his doostra delivery and how he learned to read him from behind the stumps.
Lahore attack
The atmosphere darkened as Sangakkara spoke at length about the devastation of the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami which cost 46,000 lives in Sri Lanka and the impact it had on the cricket team. The most dangerous moment of his career was the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team whilst on their tour of Pakistan. He briefly joked that whilst the bus’ wheels were shot, time didn’t in fact move in slow motion but that everything seemed to occur at hyper speed.
He mentioned that in that moment of panic, his life really did flash in front of his eyes. As the gunmen shot at the bus, a bullet hit his teammate behind him. When he turned to see the source of the cry of pain, a bullet flew millimetres past his ear. He recalled he could see the dent in the seat beside him. Sangakkara noted that although he was in shock, he tried to accept this incident and move on. He commented that things in life could end at any moment, and therefore you should enjoy every second.
Since retirement, he has worked as a commentator for Sky Sports - with everyone enjoying his eloquence, deep understanding of the game, and ability to articulate insights which have made him a natural fit for the role.
Two years ago, Sanga served as President of the MCC and had some interesting views on the on-going Eton v Harrow saga. Next weekend he flies to the Pink city of Jaipur as coach of Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League.
From beginning to end the Dorset Cricket Society audience was spellbound. Whilst asking for autographs and pictures at the end of the afternoon, all attendees felt very lucky to have witnessed a very special talk from one of the greatest cricketers of all time.
