Former Sri Lanka Captain Kumar Sangakkara was added to the ICC Hall of Fame for his extraordinary displays with the national team from 2000 to 2015. The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday announced a special edition intake of 10 cricket icons into the ICC Hall of Fame to celebrate the prestigious history of Test cricket and to coincide with the first-ever ICC World Test Championship final.
The 10 legends of the game to be inducted have all made a significant contribution to the history of Test cricket and join an illustrious list in theICC Hall of Fame, taking the total number to 103 as a result of this intake. Sangakkara is the second Sri Lankan cricketer to be inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame following in the footsteps of former legendary off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who was added to the list in 2016.
As elegant as they came, Sangakkara climbed from strength to strength across his 15-year international career. A T20 World Cup winner, two-time Cricket World Cup runner-up, and frequently number one in the ICC Test Batting Rankings, Sangakkara thrived in every format.
Bursting onto the scene as a wicket-keeper, Kumar Sangakkara went on to become one of the finest batters of his generation, excelling in all three formats.
As a keeper he completed 678 dismissals for Sri Lanka, including a world best 482 in One Day Internationals (ODIs) but it was with the bat that he really made a name for himself.
Proficient on both front and back-foot, Sangakkara’s Test average of 57.40 was the best of any player to score more than 10,000 runs and he was the quickest player to reach the milestone in terms of innings played. With his incredible appetite for runs, he notched up 38 Test hundreds, including 11 double-centuries. Only Don Bradman passed 200 more often.
In 2014, he set a record for the most international runs in a calendar year and in 2015, his final year for Sri Lanka, he scored four consecutive ODI tons. Not only is that the most consecutive tons in ODI history but he did it at a World Cup.
The special inductions of the ICC Hall of Fame from the following five eras join the ranks of the world’s greatest players: From the early cricket era, South Africa’s Aubrey Faulkner, Australia’s Monty Noble have been inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame. In the early cricket era players whose greatest contributions to the game till 1918 were selected.
In the inter-war era (players whose greatest contributions to the game were from 1918-1945), West Indies’ Sir Learie Constantine, Australia’s Stan McCabe were chosen.
In the post-war era (players whose greatest contributions to the game were from 1946-1970), England’s Ted Dexter, India’s Vinoo Mankad were inducted to the ICC Hall of Fame.
In the ODI era (players whose greatest contributions to the game were from 1971-1995), West Indies’ Desmond Haynes and England’s Bob Willis were inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame. In the Modern Cricket Era, Sri Lanka’s Sangakkara and Zimbabwe’s Andy Flower were selected.
The 10 icons inducted as part of this special edition were voted for by the ICC Hall of Fame Voting Academy, comprising living Hall of Fame members, a FICA representative, prominent cricket journalists and senior ICC figures. (ICC)
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