A flamboyant batsman has just hit a double century against a resurgent New Zealand in Wellington.
Apart from ‘resurgent’, that sentence should hold no wonders. Surely it happens quite often that someone makes a double century in New Zealand against the home side?
But what is wondrous is Sunday featured Kumar Sangakkara’s 11th double ton. He is now just one double ton behind the greatest batsman in the history of cricket, Sir Donald Bradman. Read that again.
Now consider this: No other batsman apart from the two mentioned above has scored more than 9 double centuries. Brian Lara, another all-time great, has 9. Walter Hammond has 7, and so does Mahela Jayawardene, who has now retired. Surprisingly, Marvan Attapatu has 6 and then, a whole line of greats the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Len Hutton, Ricky Ponting, Greg Chappell, etc follow. Surely that puts Sangakkara in the league of all times greats? No?
The Sri Lankan achieved yet another record on Sunday though. He became the fastest batsman to reach 12000 runs in Test cricket. He beat Sachin Tendulkar, no less, and he did it in 23 fewer innings than Tendulkar. Yet we are not convinced about Sangakkara.
Okay, so he averages 58.92 at the moment. That is the best batting average for anyone who has scored 5000 runs and whose name is not Donald Bradman. That average is unlikely to fall too far down even in case of a form slump, because Sangakkara has indicated he does not have too much time left in his illustrious career.
There are several factors that make for a great batsman. There is technique, and Sangakkara cannot be faulted for his. There is consistency over years. There is performance outside home turf and then there is performance against good opposition outside home turf.
How well does Sangakkara do on these parameters? If we are to consider the period from 2009 to 2014, here is a list of Sangakkara’s yearly averages: 57, 99.28, 49.23, 51.13, 85.33, 71.90. That is six years of incredible consistency the likes of which even Tendulkar, Lara or Ponting could not achieve. In short, that is a six-year peak which has now entered its seventh.
Next come the away performances. From 2009 to 2014, Sangakkara averages 68.56 at home in Sri Lanka and 55.97 away. He has 22 scores over fifty in 49 innings at home and 16 scores over 50 in 35 innings away (including 7 centuries). Extremely impressive, again.
How are Sangakkara’s performances against Australia, South Africa and England in their home countries over this period? The left-hander’s performances in England and Australia make for good reading; in South Africa not so much. He has two centuries in England, though none in Australia (but a famous 192 in Australia came in 2007). He averages 52.60 in England and 50.66 in Australia. In South Africa, Sangakkara struggles, managing just 1 century in 6 innings for an average of 30. But then, the likes of Rahul Dravid struggled their entire careers in South Africa, which always remained a poor hunting ground for subcontinental batsmen. Even Tendulkar averaged just 36 there before his two centuries on the 2010-11 tour.
Nor did Kumar Sangakkara’s average wither when he was captain. Over the 2009-14 period, when he has an overall average of 62.82, Sangakkara scored 1601 runs at 69.60 as captain. Lastly, the batsman’s 2nd innings performances are a revelation. Eight of his 20 hundreds during the considered period have come in the second innings, with 7 coming in the 3rd match innings.
Note that here I have considered only the period from 2009 to 2014. This is because 2008 saw a relative slump in his form, with an average of 39.45. It could even be prudent to choose the period from 2006 onwards, which actually improves Sangakkara’s statistics. That’s a nine-year period of dominance, and we are into the tenth year now. Sanity dictates that no sportsman peaks for a decade. Sangakkara then, must have moved to a higher level of ability.
It has to be noted that Sangakkara played as a wicketkeeper-batsman for a lot of his career. His keeping certainly impacted his batting, as he averaged just 40.48 during the 2000-2008 period when he had to don the gloves. When his additional duties were taken away, Sangakkara flourished. It is incredible that the left-hander averages 69.85 when he did not keep wickets, with 31 centuries and 40 fifties in 143 innings – a 50-plus conversion rate of 50%! One wonders then, what could have been if Sangakkara had never kept wickets.
But there is one catch here – a lot of batsmen of the 2000s had the luxury of playing several matches against minnows Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, who in Test cricket are like lambs led to slaughter. When those two teams are taken out of the equation, Sangakkara’s average falls to 54.09. His away average further falls to 48.09 from 55.97. How do two acclaimed greats of the era – Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara – fare without Zimbabwe and Bangladesh?
Brian Lara’s average dimishes by just 0.35, falling to 52.53. He also averages 47.53 away from home. Statistics very similar to Sangakkara’s. Tendulkar’s average falls over two points from 53.78 to 51.01, yet his away average is higher than anyone else’s – 52. Sangakkara also has 4 doubles against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, while Tendulkar has 2 and Lara, zero.
It must also be remembered that Zimbabwe were not minnows in the 1990s, that the Bangladesh Test team did not exist and that there was a line of great fast bowlers bowling on considerably more helpful wickets. In the decade of the 90s, Tendulkar averaged 57.95 overall and 56.63 away from home – the best of all. Lara: 51.60 overall and 44.68 away from home.
The last factor that goes against Sangakkara is his performance outside the subcontinent, if he is to be considered a great like Tendulkar. Tendulkar averaged 50.90 outside the subcontinent, excluding Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, scoring 18 centuries. Lara though only averaged 48 for the West Indies outside the Caribbean, and this average was bloated by one series in Sri Lanka where he pillaged Muralitharan and Co for 688 runs in 3 games. He too, however, scored 16 centuries outside his home country. For Sangakkara however, the corresponding figures outside the Indian subcontinent are an average of 45 for just 7 out of his 38 centuries. He has also played just 34 of his 130 matches in this region, indicating that a huge number of games in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India may have improved Sangakkara’s average by leaps and bounds.
Where then, does Sangakkara rank among the pantheon of greats of a generation? On statistics alone, he does not rank as the greatest despite his average and continuing brilliant form. But one could argue that Sangakkara does belong at the level of Tendulkar, Lara and Ponting, or perhaps Kallis and Dravid, because his performance as a pure batsman is incredible. His consistency is unbelievable and even at 37, a decline does not seem to be on the horizon. As the cricketing world gushes over AB DeVilliers, Hashim Amla, a newly resurgent Steven Smith, Virat Kohli and David Warner, Sangakkara unfairly slips into the shade. Wherever you place him in the pecking order of modern greats, it cannot be denied that the Sri Lankan No 3 deserves enormous acclaim for his achievements.
