The mere mention of Sanath Jayasurya's name is enough to scare any bowler in the world.  With 270 sixes at a imposing strike rate of 91.32 and a career tally of 13382 runs in one dayers at an average of 32.48, most bowlers and captains all over the world would be chalking out plans to dismiss or contain the destructive Jayasuriya much before the commencement of the series.  While Jayasurya has never had fear for any bowler in a international career spanning two decades, he lives under constant fear from selectors for he knows that he cannot afford to fail even in a single match, because one failure is enough to get dropped from the team.

Very much on expected lines Jayasuriya was dropped after just one failure in the ongoing series.  On the contrary Jayawardene failed in 3 matches averaging 14.66 in the ongoing series at a strike rate of 65.67 but he has been retain.  Even players not much known in international cricuit like Kandamy and Kapugedera have been persisted with inspite of repeated failure in the series and in their careers.

Jayawardene averages 32.01 in his ODI career  which is a shade lower than Jayasurya, but the thing which matters most in one dayers i.e. strike rate and that is nowhere in comparison to Jayasurya.  Jayawardene has a strike rate off 76.77 which means who is more of a anchor player than a match winner and yet he is preferred over Sanath Jayasuriya in the team who is a reputed match winner.  Jayasurya with more than 300 wickets has a reputation of performing the dual role of containing runs and picking up wickets and yet Jaywardene finds favour with the selectors over Jayasuriya.  A person with a reasonable knowledge of cricket finds it hard to explain how players who can come nowhere close to matching Jayasurya's skills find a place in the team

In 2006 Sanath Jaysurya was forced to retire from cricket by the selectors but was given a chance to make a comeback.  After his comeback Jayasurya was good enough to play 85 matches scoring 2757 runs at an average of 34.89 scoring as many as 9 hundreds. In addition he picked up 46 wickets at an average of 34.84.  Jaysurya should truly be complimenting for taking humilation in his stride and embarassing the selectors.

• Written by N R SATISH.
• In category Cricket.
• 14 years ago.

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