The good thing about our Legends segment is that when we speak to those who have had their moments in international cricket, we get to know what takes place behind the scenes.
Farveez Maharoof’s interview will be on air soon and he recalled some interesting moments of his once promising career that never fully reached its potential due to a fair share of injuries. Maharoof did have his moments though and the most notable one was when he claimed a hat-trick in Dambulla against India.
The emergence of Angelo Mathews and later Thisara Perera saw Maharoof losing his place in the side in 2009. Yet, he made a comeback in 2010 during the Asia Cup and claimed a rare hat-trick. He went onto claim a five-wicket haul to make it a memorable comeback. Maharoof trapped Ravindra Jadeja LBW and bowled Praveen Kumar off successive deliveries when Zaheer Khan walked out to face the hattrick ball. As he was set to run in, Mahela Jayawardene, who was not the captain then, walked in and inquired what he intended to do. Maharoof had wanted to bowl a yorker, but Mahela had suggested that being a fast bowler, Zaheer would know what was coming his way.
Time to enact a new Sports Law
While urging the seamer to be realistic, Mahela had insisted on him trusting his instincts. Maharoof, however, by now was convinced that the yorker would not yield the desired results. So, he changed his mind and bowled an outswinger. Zaheer, as expected, played for the yorker and the ball took a faint edge and was smartly collected by the wicketkeeper – Kumar Sangakkara, who was also the captain.
Less than two years after he debuted for Sri Lanka, Mahela was named the vice-captain to Sanath Jayasuriya in 1999. Sidath Wettimuny, another brilliant thinker argued that he was grooming the team’s next leader. The move did not go down too well with several others who were leading candidates for the post given their seniority. Sidath sensibly pointed out that while there were no questions about the line of succession, giving the vice-captaincy to a younger player was more practical as it helped him to get a hang of what it requires to lead the side. Mahela was barely 22 at that point.
Arjuna Ranatunga too was quick to spot Mahela’s brilliance. He recalled how while leading Sinhalese Sports Club when two opposition batsmen were putting up a partnership, he would think of a move only for Mahela to come over and whisper the same thing to him at the end of the over.
The best of Mahela Jayawardene
So precious was he that despite a wretched World Cup in South Africa – 21 runs in nine games without a single double digit score – Sanath Jayasuriya never wanted to drop him. Sanath was right. That was during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa and by the next World Cup in the Caribbean in 2007, Mahela had become the captain and Sri Lanka went onto reach the finals.
His first stint as skipper heralded a golden era for cricket with many memorable wins overseas with the highlight being whitewashing England 5-0. He was positive and played to win. When he took over the side for a second stint in 2012, the killer instincts had slightly faded away, nevertheless he was effective.
Even when he wasn’t the captain, as in the case of Maharoof, Mahela had been part of the think tank of the team. The Mankading of Jos Buttler at Edgbaston created such an uproar that the Sri Lankans and in particularly Sachithra Senanayakae and captain Angelo Mathews, who did not withdraw the appeal, were booed every time they touched the ball. It was Mahela who turned up for the press conference as the heat turned on the Sri Lankans and he explained well that England had taken too much advantage with Buttler backing up too far on far too many occasions. Sanity prevailed from thereon.
Mahela was also bold. Picking Akila Dananjaya from total obscurity to make his debut in the World T20 despite little exposure in the domestic circuit was one such move. Mind you this was not a bilateral series but a global ICC event. Dananjaya was a net bowler and Mahela was having trouble picking his doosra during training and he felt that opposition batsmen would have a torrid time too. His intuition proved to be right.
The best of Mahela Jayawardene
The same attitudes and winning mindset have stood him in good stead as he has been hugely successful coaching Mumbai Indians in the IPL.
Post retirement from Test cricket, Mahela was drafted in by the Ministry of Sports to make recommendations to overhaul the country’s cricket structure. His recommendations were thought provoking indeed but they have stagnated and instead of cutting down on number of clubs engaged in the elite domestic tournament, we have gone onto increase teams, further diluting the level of competition in domestic cricket.
