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Cricket is a game played between two teams, generally of 11 members each. In essence, it is single combat, in which an individual batsman does battle against an individual bowler, who has helpers known as fielders. The bowler propels the ball with a straight arm from one end of the 22-yard pitch in an attempt to dismiss the batsman by hitting a target known as the wicket at the other end, or by causing the batsman to hit the ball into the air into a fielder's grasp, or by inducing one of a number of other indiscretions. The batsman attempts to defend the wicket with the bat and to score runs - the currency of the game - by striking the ball to the field boundary, or far enough from the fielders to allow the batsman to run to the other end of the pitch before the ball can be returned. At least two bowlers must take turns, from alternating ends; also, there are always two batsmen on the field, each to take a turn as required. When all but one of the batting team have been dismissed - or after an agreed period - the teams' roles are reversed. After all the players required to bat on both sides have done so either once or twice (which can take from a few hours to five days) the total number of runs accumulated determines the winner. But sometimes there isn't one.

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Career statistics

Jayasuriya is also an extremely effective and canny left-arm spinner, especially in one-day internationals where his stock leg-stump darts are mixed up with clever variations in pace. Jayasuriya served commendably as Sri Lanka's captain for a successful tenure after the sacking of Arjuna Ranatunga in 1999. His leadership style was consensual in comparison to the Napoleon approach adopted by Ranatunga, and he soon built a happy and unified team. The huge responsibility of leading the team, though, started to show and by the 2003 World Cup, after a myriad of off-field controversies, it was clear that he had become a reluctant captain. He eventually resigned in April 2003.

Having stepped down, his position in the side was more vigorously debated and a one-day slump prompted several pundits to call time on his career. But Jayasuriya was far from finished, and he bounced back in 2004 with his most prolific year in Test cricket since 1997. The year included a blazing second-innings century against Australia at Kandy that nearly levelled the series and a marathon double-hundred against Pakistan at Faisalabad. Twin centuries followed during the Asia Cup 2004 and his form was impressive enough for Somerset to sign him up for a season of County Cricket in 2005. And in the Indian Oil Cup in 2005, Jayasuriya became only the fourth batsman to get to 10,000 runs in one-day cricket.

He retired in 2006, only to almost immediately retract his decision. After behind-the-scenes machinations which hinted at internal power struggles between board and coach, he was shoehorned into the squad for the Test series in England but did not play. He bounced back in typical form, however, in the one-day series that followed, showing he has a few more miles left on the clock.

At the age of 38, Jayasuriya scored 467 runs during the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies and was the oldest player in the World Twenty20 that followed in South Africa. He called time on his Test career during the first Test against England in Kandy in 2007-08, and bowed out with a cracking 78 in his final innings. His one-day career was all but over when he was omitted for the ODIs in the West Indies in 2008. However, a stirring performance in the IPL - finishing the third-highest run-getter with 514 runs - prompted his country's sports minister to intervene in his selection for the Asia Cup. He ultimately shaped Sri Lanka's title victory with a blistering hundred under pressure. In January 2009, during the first ODI against India, he became the second man to cross 13,000 ODI runs, and at 39 years and 212 days the oldest man to score an ODI century.
Charlie Austin February 2009

Cricket World