Sangakkara earns Wisden 2011 double honour

London: The 2012 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack has chosen Sri Lanka’s former cricket captain Kumar Sangakkara as both the Leading Cricketer in the World for 2011 and one of the Five Cricketers of the Year.

Sangakkara, most revered cricketer both locally and internationally, has become the first cricketer to earn both honors for the first time since Wisden began naming a Leading Cricketer in the World in 2004.

Honoring the outstanding batsman and the wicketkeeper who led the team to the 2011 World Cup runner up position, commended his MCC Cowdrey Lecture last year and said Sangakkara has shown that a cricketer’s talents need not be limited to the field of play.

“Kumar Sangakkara saved the Rose Bowl Test for Sri Lanka with his maiden Test hundred in England, and - in earning a standing ovation for his MCC Cowdrey Lecture - showed that a cricketer’s talents need not be limited to the field of play.”

In 2011, no one came close to matching the 2,267 runs the 34-year-old Kumar Sangakkara scored in all international cricket, Wisden noted.  “Overall, no one made more than Sangakkara’s five hundreds or his 13 fifties and he now stands alone in topping 1,000 runs in both Tests and one-day internationals in a single year on three occasions. But Sangakkara had other virtues too. He had adaptability, scoring Test centuries in the damp of Southampton and the humidity of South Africa, and compiling a double-hundred in the stifling heat of Abu Dhabi. He showed leadership, captaining Sri Lanka to the World Cup final and taking over again for the Rose Bowl Test in England,” . Following the ICC World Cup loss to India Sangakkara resigned from the captaincy in May 2011 but agreed to continue as the Test captain for the series with England in that summer.  Presenting the MCC Cowdrey Lecture in July 2011, Sangakkara courageously delivered a scathing attack on the politically influenced and corrupted cricket board Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).  He was the first person from Sri Lanka to give the prestigious annual lecture and the first current international player to make the address.