Sanath to be most capped player in Asia Cup

Chris Dhambarage

Veteran Sanath Jayasuriya is in line for another unique milestone when the ninth edition of the six nation Asia Cup limited overs cricket tournament gets underway in Lahore, Pakistan today.

The dynamic all rounder is well set to become the most capped player in the history of the Asia Cup tournament overcoming his countryman Aravinda de Silva who holds the present record with a total of 24 appearances.

Jayasuriya is currently placed second in the all time list having represented his country on 20 occasions since making his entry into the Asia Cup in 1990.

This means that he is easily the most experienced player competing in this event having played in five previous tournaments held in India (1990), Sharjah (1995), Colombo (1997), Bangladesh (2000) and Colombo (2004) respectively.

Jayasuriya will have the opportunity of playing in two first round matches against Bangladesh (June 25 at Lohore) and the United Arab Emirates (June 26 at Lahore) during the first round and a further three games in the second phase of the competition which will be worked off at the National Stadium in Karachi.

Altogether he will have a maximum six matches if Sri Lanka qualifies into the final (on July 6) and then he could go pass Aravinda de Silva and could finish with a tally of 26 appearances for his country.

This is a tremendous effort considering the fact that even the great Sachin Tendulkar has represented India in a total of 20 Asia Cup tournament matches since breaking into the scene in 1990.

Jayasuriya with a total of 842 runs at a splendid average of 46.77 is also slightly ahead over Tendulkar in terms of runs. Tendulkar of course will remain with a tally 799 runs to his credit as he has being rested for this Asia Cup in preparation for the up coming three Test series against Sri Lanka in July/August.

In fact if Sri Lanka qualifies to the final then Jayasuriya will also have the chance of equalling Tendulkar’s record for the most number of appearances in One day Internationals with 417 matches each.

Former captain and the present Chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Interim Committee Arjuna Ranatunga, Roshan Mahanama, Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas are the other Sri Lankan players who are among the top ten in the most capped players of the Asia Cup tournament.