Privileged to play for Sri Lanka for so long - Sangakkara

Ranjan ANANDAPPA

Former Sri Lanka and World Cup cricket captain Kumar Sangakkara said that playing in his 100th Test match is not an emotional one as such, but a privilege to have been a part of Sri Lanka to play so long in hundred Test matches.

He said "there were times when Sri Lanka did not play 10 matches for an year, and felt that we haven't played as many as we should have".

"It is an important milestone personally, but it is a Test match and at the end of the day it doesn't matter whether it is your first or hundredth Test match you are looking to win." quipped Sangakkara.

Referring to the absence of Australian fast bowler Ryan Harris due to injury, he said "it depends on who is going to replace him and how well that person bowls. Ryan Harris has been excellent in both Test matches and has shown discipline on those tracks and he caused us a few problems. So I feel that the Australians will have an able replacement coming in when Ryan is out, and it will be a new challenge for us."

He further said that he is not good at reading wickets and will know the state of a wicket only once he plays on it. "I have a look at the wickets, but I don't try to really read it too much, because they behave very differently to the way they look.

So I'd rather play on it and see how it goes. I love to play in Galle. It is my favourite ground. I played my first Test match there and it would have been nice to play my 100th there. But it does not matter where I play a Test match, because I love playing Test cricket. So the ground doesn't make much of a difference, as long as I am on the ground playing." he said.

Stressing on the point of his love for playing Test cricket, Sangakkara said "definitely, without a doubt, in Test cricket no one is going to talk as to how much you went for the IPL auction. But they will talk if you have thirty plus hundreds and got 10,000 runs or more. That will have your name in the record books for a longer time. The IPL is like a year end bonus for the players, and that's how it will remain. The players will always consider Test cricket to be the pinnacle of their profession."

Talking of the strength of the Australian side, he said "to combat them it should be a collective effort, every little bit counts.

One wicket here, one wicket there, 20, 10, 50, a hundred, every little bit counts when you are playing a side like Australia. So whatever we can get, we must get and try to maximize those opportunities and whatever advantages we might have along the way.