Murali, Kumar top 900 point mark

CRICKET: Two of Sri Lanka’s most outstanding players Muttiah Muralitharan and Kumar Sangakkara have made history on the ICC Test Player Rankings following their team’s 3 nil series win against Bangladesh last week.

Off spinner Muralitharan became only the fourth Test bowler in history to reach 920 rating points and is the highest rated bowler for 24 years. He is now just two rating points behind of Pakistan great Imran Khan and is fast catching up on England’s Sydney Barnes and George Lohmann who are first and second respectively in the all time Test bowlers’ list.

Meanwhile stylish left hander Kumar Sangakkara is stamping his own mark on history as he enjoys a fine run of recent form that continued in two double hundreds during the concluded series against Bangladesh.

Sangakkara became the first Sri Lankan batsman to pass the magical 900 rating points mark and he has moved up to 22nd in the all time list for Test batsmen. He remains third in the current ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen but is continuing to close the gap on the two players currently ahead of him - Mohammad Yousuf and Ricky Ponting.

The 29 year old became just the sixth player in history to score double hundreds in successive Tests when he put the Bangladeshi bowlers to the sword last week in Kandy. Sangakkara is now level with fellow countryman Marvan Atapattu and Pakistan’s Javed Miandad with a total of six double centuries.