Sri Lankan keeper-batsman also presents his views on sledging and depression in cricket
In the first part of his interview, Kumar Sangakkara spoke about the technical and mental aspects of batting. To take the conversation further, we picked the mind of the sagacious Sri Lankan wicketkeeper batsman on various other aspects of cricket, on and off the field.
Even after affecting 645 dismissals from behind the stumps in international cricket – currently third highest after Mark Boucher and Adam Gilchrist – Sangakkara maintains wicketkeeping doesn’t come naturally to him.
Here, he tells the tale of how he got into wicketkeeping in first place and the one man who helped him become one of the best keepers in the world.
Sangakkara also opens up about the aspects of the game that many top cricketers choose to tip toe around. He takes a pragmatic approach towards sledging and offers solutions to fight the increasing mental stress that modern cricketers are subjected to, that could result in depression.
The journey behind the stumps
You said that keeping didn’t come naturally to you. What made you take up keeping as a kid?
I wanted to play for my school XI and they were missing a wicketkeeper. So when the coach asked, ‘who wants to play?’ I put my hand up. The funniest thing is that in my junior career, I got hit in the head about four times while keeping and we weren’t allowed to wear a helmet while keeping. I went to the NCC, played my first year as a wicketkeeper and had a really good season behind the stumps.
Talk about how you developed as a keeper in your early days.
In school, I used to think you just go out there and keep. But there were two senior guys, Ashan Welagedara and Ramesh Tunivilla, who told me that this is not something that just comes naturally. You’ve got to work at it. In the side nets they used to spend a lot of time with me at the Under-19 level, bowling while I kept wickets and helping me get into the rhythm. That really helped to start with.
Then I met Ian Healy and Ian really changed my perception of wicketkeeping. He was absolutely brilliant, not only as a wicketkeeper – at which he was simply fantastic – but as a coach. He was able to make his point across, made me understand what the role requires and what it means to be a wicketkeeper. He made me realize it is so simple if you break it down and concentrate on those simple fragments rather than looking at the overall big picture. It was a huge revelation for me.
The beauty of Ian Healy is that he was commentating in Zimbabwe at this time and I was about four years into my international career. I just had a chat with him and he said, ‘Listen, why don’t I come to the nets and work with you?’ I was like, ‘Really? You’d do that?’ he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’ll come.’ He spent two-three days just coming to train with us, working and talking with me. I have been to other wicketkeeper coaches in Sri Lanka – great ones who were fantastic keepers during their time – but I’ve never met anyone who taught me as much about keeping as Ian did. I am very, very grateful to him. Since that time I started keeping in both formats and in that course I went through a season and a half where I didn’t miss a thing, although I was keeping regularly to Murali (Muttiah Muralitharan). I remember keeping to Anil Kumble in the Tsumani fundraiser game. Ricky Ponting charged down to Anil and missed it, and I had the bails off. I remember Ricky making a comment on the lines of ‘Didn’t think you’d get that!’ and I was thinking, ‘I didn’t think I would get it either!’ But it’s amazing how when you do your drills, when you practise and train your body, it just takes over, although it’s not an easy job.
Did it get a little difficult when you stopped keeping in Test matches?
It did get a bit harder because since then it has been a stop-and-start thing. Keeping is also about rhythm and reaction. So, since giving up the big gloves in Tests, I’ve had to retrain my body for it time and again. Also, as you grow older, your body position changes and you need to make necessary adjustments. It has become a bit harder. But in a one-day game, I’d rather be behind the stumps than anywhere else. It also comes with its pitfalls because everyone remembers a miss rather than a great catch. It is a thankless job but that’s the beauty of it. You accept the role and get on with the good and the bad of it. I keep working hard at it, try and work as much as I can, although probably not as much as I would like to. For the next few months, going into the World Cup, my wicketkeeping is going to be the key area for me to work on. I have to go into the World Cup with my top-notch keeping form because it is a very important role for the side and my own confidence. So, that is something I will be working really hard on.
What was the one aspect of keeping that you found the toughest and you had to work the hardest on?
It is to forget the hands; that keeping is all about having a good, strong and powerful body position, especially your legs and lower body. You have to have your head in the right position by moving your legs in line with the ball. The moment you get your head in line, your hands will always follow. I grew up being told that you have to have quick, agile hands to be a good keeper. But I realized that it’s such a myth. You don’t worry about your hands; just get your body and your head there, and the hands automatically follow. That’s one thing that Ian taught me and it has really made a difference in the way I think about wicketkeeping.
I once got Adam Gilchrist to talk about the current top wicketkeepersI once got Adam Gilchrist to talk about the current top wicketkeepers in international cricket. He said what stands out about you is your versatility – the way you adjusted to keeping in different conditions. How did you achieve that?
When I started, I used to catch the ball a lot closer to the body, like all Asian wicketkeepers do. Then I watched guys like Adam Gilchrist and Ian Healy, and adjusted my catching position, bringing my hands right in front. The Asian and English wicketkeepers catch the ball well under their eyes, which increases the chances of the ball doing something different and you missing it. When I started catching the ball while keeping a long distance between my eyes and hands, it changed so much. I also saw that the Australians don’t crouch too much. I modeled my position to fast bowlers on Gilly, in the sense of not staying down right from the start but staying relaxed and just touching the ground. Keeping to fast bowlers on non-Asian wickets is very consistent. You don’t have to stay down so much and it gives your body the freedom to move.
I noticed that Wriddhiman Saha’s keeping style is very similar, in that he doesn’t crouch down so much, which I think is very good. I try to adjust and am still doing so. Gilly is being very kind in saying that he hasn’t seen me make blunders because trust me, I can remember enough.
Someone like Gilly changed the way cricket looks at wicketkeepers. He got us the recognition of being all-rounders. He has also put a huge amount of pressure on traditional wicketkeepers, but on the whole, he has advanced our role hugely. The current and future generations of wicketkeepers have that man to thank to for the fact that now we are not just wicketkeepers but also batsmen in our own right.
You are excellent when it comes to reading the situation of the game. Did that quality help you become a better keeper or did you develop it because of being a keeper?
I think it’s both. Being a keeper, you get the first hand view of what’s going on – what the bowler is doing, how the pitch is behaving and what the batsman is doing. At the same time, if you have been a student of the game for long enough, the situation automatically hits you. You also have to understand that sometimes, when you’re playing, you have a tunnel vision – you only see what’s happening right in front of you. Your focus is right there in that very moment and you tend to miss certain other things that are obvious to someone on the outside. So, you’ve got to be able to strike a balance between taking a detached view and being right there involved in the action around you. It’s not easy to achieve that balance, but when you do, it opens your eyes and mind to so many aspects of the game. So, wicketkeeping does help you with your game.
For someone who has spent most of his career behind the stumps, did you feel incomplete as a cricketer when you gave up keeping in Tests?
That is true, especially for one-day cricket. It becomes a little difficult for me because I bat in the top order and sometimes, when the conditions are hot, it does become a bit tiring. But you can recover easily from that. It got hard for me do to that in Tests as the years went by because sometimes your body doesn’t do exactly what it is required to. But on the whole, going in to bat after keeping is a wonderful feeling because you know what’s happening and what exactly is coming your way. So, it has helped me a lot with my batting.
Cricket and aggression
“Psychological aggression” as you like to call it, is a quality every captain looks for in his keeper. You are one of the shrewdest in this regards. Did it come naturally to you or you developed it over the years?
I watched Arjuna Ranatunga lead the team from 1995 going into the 1996 World Cup. The aggression they projected and the arrogance that Arjuna had when playing against the Aussies was fantastic to watch. That’s when everyone realized that these guys are serious about their cricket and they are here to beat the opposition. The Sri Lankan team has taken so much abuse over the years and during Arjuna’s time it was the first time they said, ‘Listen, we are no pushovers. Let’s really believe in ourselves and stand up for ourselves word for word. Look them in the eye and compete with them, be it in verbal terms or otherwise’. Sourav (Ganguly) did just that with the Indian side and it was fantastic watching him inject that self belief in them. It was a knock-on effect from there.
When I came into the Sri Lankan side there were a lot of younger players who showed aggression on the field and I was one of them. I’ve had my run-ins with a lot of players both in and away from the subcontinent. But I have mellowed down a huge amount. Nowadays I don’t say much, just take a backseat and do my job.
If I had my time again, I would have done things a bit differently. I wouldn’t have been as aggressive and verbal as I was and would have worked a bit harder on my game. When you get involved in verbal battle with the opposition, you do it thinking you’re gaining respect in the sense that you’re competing and not backing down. But then you realize that returning a verbal barb is not always the best way to react. There are other ways you can impose yourself on the opposition, by absorbing the pressure, by doing the job even better than you normally would, and thereby, impacting the result of the game in your team’s favour.
Does sledging belong in the game?
Probably not. But the reality is that it has been a part of cricket since the game was first played. Maybe not intentionally but it has entrenched itself in this game since the time of WG Grace and Fred Trueman. This game has had its characters. Sometimes the line has been crossed and at times it has resulted in some of the funniest things ever said in cricket. We can have the argument whether it’s good or bad but it does add an aura to the game. We can talk about wiping it out of cricket but it will be a part of the game at some level.
Can you recall an incident when you, individually or as a team, really riled up an opponent with words?
One that pops in mind is when we were in South Africa in 2002 just before the World Cup. In the first Test we took massively huge amount of verbal barbs from them and some of them were quite offensive. So, in the second Test we made it a point that we won’t take it lying down. It was quite an ugly Test match – not one of the best I’ve played in terms of the spirit. But the funny thing was that when we did give it back to them, it really did affect the South Africans quite a bit and they concentrated more on playing us rather than the ball. We understood that that could be the way to go forward.
South Africa came to Sri Lanka in 2004 and we beat them 1-0 in the Tests and 5-0 in the ODIs by being very strong and aggressive against them. Graeme (Smith) was their captain and he had a chat with Marvan (Atapattu) to try and see whether we could play without that kind of aggression from our side. Eventually, we got to a point since when the two teams have gotten along exceptionally well.
You are one of the few batsmen who can rile up a bowler. How do you do that and do you have to ensure it doesn’t hamper your concentration?
Well, you try (smiles). But it’s funny when as a batsman you are riling up a bowler because at the back of your mind you know that you are going to get out at some point. All this guy needs to do is bowl one good ball, get me out and then he gets to laugh at me while I walk off. So, it is not a win-win situation for a batsman because even if you score a hundred and get out to this guy, he will ask you to take a walk.
There are people who can respond to the verbal jibes in kind and then get on with their job. But with some players it affects their concentration and the emotions get the better of them. So, if that is a problem for you, it’s always better to not respond in kind but in your own way. There are also players who, when they get worked up, it actually fires them up to perform better. So, I think you’ve got to find your niche and do what works for you.
The mental challenges of modern cricket
We have heard of many cases of depression among cricketers in modern times. Having played the game for so long, what do you think is the reason?
I think the most important thing is that people sometimes forget that cricket is played by human beings, people with emotions, people with weaknesses and strengths, both physical and mental. And that they are playing in an environment with extremely high pressures – high rewards and high risks. Your private and professional life is always in the public eye. People say that you know what you are getting into and the rewards are high enough for you to handle these pressures. But at the end of the day we are just normal people. Once we finish our cricket, what’s left is a common man.
We’ve become too professional and we’ve taken the human element out of the game. The element of fun is slowly dying down in cricket. We no more get the larger-than-life characters that we did in the past because now it’s more like being machine-like and emotionless. It is sad because cricket needs that kind of flamboyance and style. It is, after all, a sport and we sometimes confuse it with life.
The recent cases are those of Jonathan Trott, and we’ve had Thissara Perera, who had to take a bit of time off to really get his thoughts together. Thankfully, he has come back very strong.
How do you think this issue can be best addressed?
In Asia, we have a problem where we are not very comfortable talking about these things. We are ashamed to admit that we are going through a certain issue mentally and we try to hide it away. We always think that our coping mechanism is enough to deal with it, but it is true only to a certain extent. Once it exceeds your ability to cope, it comes out in various other ways. So, it’s important to identify these things very early and having a team where your teammates and management understand this. You should be able to talk about it openly and express your emotions. You should be able to take your families on tours and have your support system around you.
Another important thing is to have alternative careers, because very few people succeed at this level. Having enough options for them to build a second life away from the game is the responsibility of not just the players but also of the board that we sign a contract with. They should ensure that they are leaving the players better off as people once they have played the game.
The PCA (Professional Cricketers’ Association) in England does huge amount to prepare cricketers for life after cricket, to support them when they are dropped, injured, have some sort of financial calamity or any other stress that drives them towards depression. We are very, very far behind with schemes like that. We have got to correct that. It has to be a part of our cricketing makeup and structure. Put a value on them as people and not just as cricketers. If, as a manager, administrator and the board, you develop them as people, you will reap the benefits of that on the field. Leaving a healthy individual when they retire is such an important thing because real life starts after cricket.
As someone who has varied knowledge and interests outside of cricket, do you think most modern cricketers tend to lock themselves into the bubble of cricket?
It could be. When we are playing, a lot of things are done for us and we don’t do enough for ourselves. Even lifting our bag is taken care for us. We travel business class, stay in five-star hotels and are pampered in every way. Sometimes, you trick yourself into believing that this is how life is. But not every cricketer around the world is paid well enough or is successful enough to sustain that kind of lifestyle after cricket. It’s important to be practical about these things. To do that a player needs a great support structure from his family, management and board.
Is there a case for putting in place an education system for young cricketers where they are counseled on these things?
That’s an absolutely fantastic idea and I spoke to our board about it many years ago, to put in place a system where we bring in career guidance counselors to come and talk to our players and help them find what they are good at other than cricket. Then make them take courses in that field while they are under the contract with the board. There are still a lot of struggles in that regards but let’s see if anything changes in the future.
In this modern day and age, have sports psychologists become a necessity in cricket?
A Sports psychologist plays an important role but he doesn’t have to come in with the tag just to work on the mental deficiencies of players. He should also identify what is good in the players, why they are comfortable in coping with certain things, and then create an environment where each player thrives. At the same time the players also have to be very open and understand that this guy is there to help them.
Does it also help to have close friendships within the dressing room, a one similar to what you and Mahela Jayawardena share?
It is very important. You cannot be friends with everyone in the team – that never happens. What binds the team together is the common objective of winning. But if you have someone in the team you are really close to and can talk to about anything under the sun, it’s great. Also, it is equally important to have close friendships outside of the team – the friendships that have not come because you are a cricketer but good, strong and solid ones that last way beyond the game.
