Sangakkara

[greg]

What a player.

You have to put him right up there with Ponting and Kallis as the best batsman in the world at the moment and when you consider that he has spent most of his career keeping wicket and he still averages nearly 57 it shows what a fantastic player he is.

I have just looked up his record without the gloves and he averages 94.57 before this game with 8 hundreds and 12 50's in 21 matches.Unbelievable record.

Even more amazing is the fact he has 6 double hundreds already and he is only 30.

Imagine the plaudits he would get if he played for a country who played more test matches.

[sittingduck]

I agree totally Greg, there's a really good story with him on cricinfo today too where he talks about how he wants to be remembered and how he wants to get to 30 centuries (he's got 16 so far).

[b3au]

when he averaged 43 people were saying he was a wasted talent.... now i know why they said it

[sanketh84]

oh crap yeah....he would be like a top class batsman who would be glorified, earning tons of money and be all over the TV if he were playing for india. what a knock in 2day's ODI in such trying circumstances. i thought his brilliant 192 in hobart vs australia was a treat to watch specially with wickets falling around him. he is surely one of those guys up there but his potential is also marred by lack of partners willing to support him. cricinfo article which says sangakarra deserves support. his situation is unfortunately like sachin tendulkar's during most of his playing career, winning matches single handedly. now i see that burden of sachin on poor sangakarra!!! what a reversal as srilanka once upon a time had superb batsmen like ranatunga, de silva, mahanama, tilakaratne, attapattu in thier middle orders and no one to boast of now!!!

[Rachael]

Originally Posted by greg

What a player

I've no quibble with Sangakkara being hailed as effective.... but let's not forget that he's basically manufactured: he's up there with Hayden and Kallis as the most successfully manufactured batsman of this era... but he's still not (and never will be) worthy of comparison with (amongst others) his truly exceptional captain.

The modern game plays into the hand of manufactured players... and raises the bar for natural talents... and Sangakkara is at the forefront of the bar-raising: he (like Hayden and Kallis) deserves huge plaudits. I do, however, despair when I hear any of the above compared to self-evidently superior talents like Yousuf, Clarke, Ponting and Bell (let alone the likes of Lara).

Bottom line: the Sri Lankan candidates for a world XI would be headed by two guys called Jayawardene (one being the most promising wicket-keeper of his generation) and by a remarkable spinner - Sangakkara's only the fourth most outstanding player in the Sri Lankan side!!!

[Nostromo]

Originally Posted by Rachael

The modern game plays into the hand of manufactured players... and raises the bar for natural talents... and Sangakkara is at the forefront of the bar-raising: he (like Hayden and Kallis) deserves huge plaudits. I do, however, despair when I hear any of the above compared to self-evidently superior talents like Yousuf, Clarke, Ponting and Bell (let alone the likes of Lara).

Forgive me, but this is the most nonsensical line of reasoning, if one could call it that, used to compare batsmen. The concept of what constitutes "natural talent" when applied to batting is highly variable. If one considers "by the book" style and grace, then there are a lot of batsmen who fell short of their potential despite their obvious talent - Graveney, Vishwanath, Gower etc. Ian Bell is quite a way from being considered as a world class player and he certainly does not have the figures to show for it - something that does matter, in case you missed the point. Simply calling successful batsmen as "manufactured" - whatever that is supposed to mean - simply because one does not like their style and cannot think of any other description to give vent is....well, silly at the very least.

[Aurelius]

Played very well today for 128. I didn't see the innings itself, but personally I regard Sangakara as being one of the most elegant batsmen in the world today. He's not pefectly orthodox, but he's a sweet timer who has plenty of time to play his strokes. He's certainly not what I (or Rachael) would call "agricultural" in the style of, say, Hayden or Afridi.

[Milo]

Originally Posted by Rachael

Bottom line: the Sri Lankan candidates for a world XI would be headed by two guys called Jayawardene (one being the most promising wicket-keeper of his generation) and by a remarkable spinner - Sangakkara's only the fourth most outstanding player in the Sri Lankan side!!!

I've lost count of the number of times you have summoned up the PWC/ICC ratings to make a point about the value of any player in test cricket. Would you please take a look at Sangakkara's ICC rating and tell me whether we should assess this as you have assessed many other players over time.

My take on Sangakkara is similar to that of Yousuf's. Modern cricket allows for a great period of form to impact on career figures in a very impressive way. If Sangakkara can score anywhere near as impressively in the next 12 months as he has in the last year or so (Someting Yousuf couldn't) then any attempts to criticise and just silly, Rachael.

[sanketh84]

the innings by sangy was just plain hardwork Aurelius as the indian bowlers never let the lankan side getaway at any point. i felt that the lankans should have started to take the risks earlier than leave all the hitting to the last 5 overs given the position they were in, with sangakarra taking more risks when he was struggling to run. he is a class act, he might not be nearly as elegant as yuvraj looked y'day but a very effective and sensible cricketer. in the end performance is what matters and i dont know if how elegant u look while batting should be a consideration

[Aurelius]

...and i dont know if how elegant u look while batting should be a consideration.

Maybe not- but it's not a bad trait.