Biography of Mahela Jayawardene:- Mahela Jayawardene stands atop the list of finest batsmen of modern day cricket, his ability to score runs with improvements lasted more whenever he stayed longer on the crease just like a fine wine as it gets better with time.
The legend was born on May 27, 1977, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was as good as one should’ve been in batting. His hunger for big scores never ended, he scored a century in the final match against India in ICC World Cup 2011. His prolific talent and tremendous hand-eye coordination led Sri Lanka to few great records and victories alike.
Jayawardene seemed sluggish at the crease; his 10,000+ runs in both the formats made him one of the greatest batsmen in history.
His captaincy was even better in ODIs, under Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka qualified for World Cup 2007 finals; his seniority helped Sri Lanka made it to the finals for two times in a row in ICC World Cup 2011, his century was even more impressive in the process.
Biography of Mahela Jayawardene
- Born:- 27 May 1977 (age 40), Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Spouse:- Christina Mallika Sirisena (m. 2005)
- Test Debut:- 2 August 1997 v India
- ODI Debut:- 24 January 1998 v Zimbabwe
Last ODI:- 18 March 2015 v South Africa
The biography of Mahela Jayawardene is entertaining, Mahela’s career was an absolute delight for cricket fans, and his elegance was loved by spectators all over the world.
See Also: Biography of Kumar Sangakkara
Contrary to his Test stats, Jayawardene had a little lesser average in ODIs, still he managed to produce some match-winning knocks against every test playing nations, and when it comes down to the big games, Mahela Jayawardene always made big scores.
Mahela Jayawardene Stats & Records
Mahela was the second-most capped International player in ODIs after Sachin Tendulkar. After Sachin’s 463 matches, Mahela Jayawardene appeared in 448 ODIs, scored 12,650 runs with a batting average of 33.37, his 19 centuries and 77 ODI fifties illustrate his class in the game.
In ODIs, Jayawardene has atop score of 144. In 149 test matches, Jayawardene scored 11,814 runs with a batting average of 49.84. Mahela pocketed 34 hundred and 50 half-centuries with the highest score of 374.
Overall, in 237 first-class games, Mahela surpassed 17 thousand runs with an overall batting average of 49.68, 51 centuries and 77 fifties in the vessel.
Mahela Jayawardene International Career
Jayawardene had an illustrious International career; he started his Test career against India at his home ground Colombo in 1997, a year later he was called for ODI squad against Zimbabwe in January 1998. Mahela had his career-best 3rd wicket partnership with Kumar Sangakkara that is also a world record for the3rd wicket.
Jayawardene was part of the squad that qualified for ICC World Cup 2007 and ICC World Cup 2011 finals, ICC World T20 2009 & 2012, and the one that won ICC World T20 2014.
Mahela Jayawardene scored his first International hundred against England at Adelaide. Jayawardene was always behind the scenes with his supporting knocks in ODI cricket and long and slow innings in test format. In 2006, Sri Lankan Cricket Board appointed Jayawardene as ODI and Test captain against England.
Against South Africa, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara shared thehighest-ever Test partnership at any position i.e. 624 in first-class history, the record they were beaten was only 467 runs.
Jayawardene scored 374 runs that made him the highest individual runscorer for Sri Lanka; he also became the most top right-handed run-scorer in International cricket.
Mahela was errorless in the whole inning; he never gave any chance to the opposition during his immaculate inning. For his brilliance in the series, Wisden announced him Cricketer of the Year for 2007.
In ICC World Cup 2007, Sri Lanka was the only Asian team to qualify for playoffs; they went on to play the final match of the World Cup under Mahela’s captaincy.
Mahela was also the secondhighest run-scorer of the World Cup 2007. He scored a century in both semifinal and final match and became the only player to do so.
In 2009, Mahela, after scoring century against Pakistan featured on the list of players scoring hundreds against all the test playing nations.
Following Jayewardene’s successful bet opening the innings in IPL 2010, it was decided that Mahela will open the innings in ICC WT20 2010. He scored 81 in the first match, in the next game, Mahela scored his first T20 International century against Zimbabwe becoming the 4th International player to score a century in T20i cricket.
In the very next game against West Indies, Mahela missed another century by 2 runs scoring 98 not out. Against South Africa in 2011-12 tour to South Africa, Mahela Jayawardene completed 10,000 test runs.
Mahela is involved in most run-outs in tests, his combination with Muttiah Muralitharan is best-ever regarding bowler-catcher ratio.
Mahela Jayawardenepensioned off from Test cricket after the 2014 series against Pakistan. He was bid farewell in the presence of thousands of spectators and his teammates.
Jayawardene played his last ODI against Australia in a quarter-final match that was lost by Sri Lanka. After retirement from ODIs, Mahela Jayawardene spent 2015 summer season with ECB as their batting consultant for the series against Pakistan.
Mahela Jayawardene Family and Personal Life
Mahela Jayawardene father Senerath Jayawardene was a die-hard cricket enthusiast, his father enrolled Mahela and his younger brother Dhishal Jayawardene to Nondescripts Cricket Club Colombo for cricket training, the club introduced some finest cricketers including Kumar Sangakkara, Russel Arnold, and Lasith Malinga.
Jayawardene married Christina Mallika Sirisena in 2005; both are blessed with a daughter Sansa Araya Jayawardene. Jayawardene is also an active charitable athlete; he started a cancer project named HOPE to help cancer patients in memory of his younger brother.
In 2011, Jayawardene initiated a cancer March that collected $2.6 Million for a full-fledged Cancer Hospital. With the dedicated money, a cancer hospital in Jaffna was made by the government that consisted 120 beds.
In 2016, Jayawardene along with his best friend and teammate Kumar Sangakkara conducted another walk to raise money for a cancer hospital. This time a total of 670 kilometers were covered in 28 days, and $5 Million arose in the process.
