Two of the finest exponents of the game during their playing days, Hashan Tillakaratne and Herschelle Gibbs will revive their rivalry after nearly two decades and will now coach their respective teams in the curtain raiser match of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) T20 Cricket Tournament on Thursday.
The Kandy Tuskers, coached by former Sri Lankan left-hander, Tillakaratne will be up against the Colombo Kings coached by former South African opener, Gibbs in the opening match of the tournament at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium in Hambantota.
Gibbs, now 46 and Tillakaratne (53) had the opportunity of representing their countries during the same era and they certainly build up a fierce rivalry both, in Tests and One Day Internationals (ODIs) whether it may be at home or away.
Gibbs of course, was more ruthless in his batting as he had the habit of punishing the bowlers from the start, which helped him to finish his career with over 6,000 runs in Tests and over 8,000 runs in ODIs.
In contrast, Tillakaratne turned out to be a more accomplished middle-order batsman but a tough competitor on the field with his trademark style of batting which earned him over 4,500 runs in Test cricket and over 3,500 runs in ODIs.
In fact, the best confrontation between Gibbs and Tillakaratne on the field was the 2002 Test series in South Africa where both players were in peak form for their respective countries.
Tillakaratne played one of his finest innings in the second Test at the Super Sport Park in Centurion while remaining unbeaten on 104 in Sri Lanka’s first innings score of 323.
Having batted at number five, Tillakaratne frustrated the opposition for more than five hours against a fierce pace attack comprising Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini, Steve Elworthy and Jacques Kallis.
However, a brilliant 92 from Gibbs overshadowed Tillakaratne’s fine effort as the home side went on to amass a massive 448 in reply.
Both Gibbs and Tillakaratne also had their share of agony and joy on the field and this was best displayed during the 2003, ICC Cricket World Cup clash at Durban.
South Africa and Sri Lanka figured in a dramatic tie on the Duckworth and Lewis scoring method in this rain marred Group ‘B’ fixture despite a top score of 73 from Gibbs.
The result also put South Africa out of the World Cup as Sri Lanka went on to secure their place in the Super Sixers stage.
Tillakaratne later, went on to coach the Sri Lanka Under-19 team, was Sri Lanka’s temporary batting coach and ended-up becoming a member of the National Cricket Selection Committee.
