Separamadu Lasith Malinga, is a Sri Lankan former cricketer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest limited overs bowlers of all time.
82 Facts About Lasith Malinga
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Lasith Malinga was nicknamed "Slinga Malinga" due to his distinctive round-arm action, sometimes referred to as a sling action.
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Lasith Malinga announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on 14 September 2021.
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Lasith Malinga changed the dynamics and landscape of death bowling in limited overs cricket through his technique and approach.
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Lasith Malinga is known for his ability to take wickets on consecutive balls, often through bowling in-swinging yorkers: he is the only bowler in the world to have two World Cup hat-tricks, the first bowler to take a double hat-trick, the only bowler to take 4 wickets in 4 balls twice in international cricket, the only bowler to have taken three hat-tricks in ODIs and only bowler to have two double hat-tricks.
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Lasith Malinga is the first bowler to take five hat-tricks across all formats of international cricket, and holds the record for most hat-tricks in international cricket.
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Lasith Malinga has been named as the official event ambassador for the World Twenty20 Championships by ICC.
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In September 2019, during the series against New Zealand, Lasith Malinga became the first bowler to take 100 wickets in Twenty20 International cricket.
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Lasith Malinga took a hat-trick to become the first bowler to claim two T20I hat-tricks, and four wickets in four balls, in the third over of his spell, while becoming the second bowler in the world to take four wickets in four consecutive balls in T20I history after Rashid Khan during the process.
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In September 2021, Lasith Malinga announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.
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Lasith Malinga often played cricket with friends on the sand banks and coconut groves by a river in his cricket-obsessed village.
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Lasith Malinga's father Separamadu Milton, is a retired bus mechanic who worked out of the Galle depot.
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Lasith Malinga had his education at three schools, namely Mahinda College, Galle; Vidyaloka College, Galle and Vidyathilake Vidyalaya, Thiranagama.
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Lasith Malinga had his primary education at Vidyathilake Vidyalaya in Thiranagama, a school situated near by his village.
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Lasith Malinga promptly returned to his natural action with success, and with great encouragement from Ramanayake.
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Lasith Malinga didn't pick up hard-ball cricket until relatively in his teenage but his talent was discovered by fast bowling coaches Champaka Ramanayake and Anusha Samaranayake.
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Lasith Malinga made his Test debut on 1 July 2004 against Australia at Marrara Oval In Darwin.
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Lasith Malinga was immediately successful, taking six wickets in the match Lasith Malinga was impressed by the friendliness of the Australian team in general, and in particular Adam Gilchrist who sought him out after the game to present him with one of the match stumps in the Sri Lankan dressing room.
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Lasith Malinga made his ODI debut in Sri Lanka's opening match of the 2004 Asia Cup against the United Arab Emirates, becoming the 123rd player to do so.
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Lasith Malinga developed into Sri Lanka's fastest Test bowler and a regular member of both their Test and One Day International sides.
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Lasith Malinga has earned a reputation for troubling batsmen with his lively pace and well-directed bouncer.
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Lasith Malinga announced his retirement from Test cricket on 22 April 2011 in order to prolong his career in ODI and T20 cricket.
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Lasith Malinga nearly took the final wicket as a ball shaved the stumps.
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Lasith Malinga was named in the 'Team of the Tournament' by Cricinfo for the 2007 World Cup.
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Lasith Malinga was named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by Cricinfo.
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Lasith Malinga was named in the World ODI XI by the ICC for 2012 and 2013.
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Lasith Malinga was named in the World ODI XI by the Cricinfo.
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Lasith Malinga was named in the 'Team of the Tournament' by ESPNCricinfo for the 2009 T20I World Cup.
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Lasith Malinga's spell of 5 for 28 against Australia was voted to be the second-best ODI bowling performance of the year 2011 by ESPNCricinfo voters.
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Lasith Malinga's spell of 5 for 31 at Pallekele against England was voted as the best T20I bowling performance of the year 2012 by ESPNCricinfo.
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Lasith Malinga was named in the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2012 T20 World Cup by the ICC.
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Lasith Malinga was appointed as the captain for the 2016 Asia Cup, where he was only able to play against UAE, with a match-winning bowling performance.
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Lasith Malinga returned home due to a prevailing bone bruise on his left knee.
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Lasith Malinga was named as the vice-captain of the Sri Lankan Twenty20 International team in October 2012.
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Lasith Malinga became captain of Sri Lankan Cricket Team in 2014 ICC World Twenty20 after Dinesh Chandimal received a ban.
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Lasith Malinga successfully led the team to win the world cup.
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Lasith Malinga's spell of 5 for 56 against Pakistan at Mirpur in 2014 was named as the best ODI Bowling Performance of the year by ESPNCricinfo.
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Lasith Malinga was nominated for his spell of 5 for 52 against the same opponents in the group stage game.
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On 14 December 2018, Lasith Malinga was appointed as the limited over captain for New Zealand tour.
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Lasith Malinga quit from all domestic and international cricket for a one-year after his T20I match against UAE in March 2016.
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Lasith Malinga was picked up to the Australian tour and played in the match against Prime Minister's XI.
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On 6 April 2017, during the second T20I against Bangladesh, Lasith Malinga took a hat-trick, becoming the second Sri Lankan and fifth overall to take a T20I hat-trick.
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Lasith Malinga was included to the ODI squad for 2017 ICC Champions Trophy in June 2017.
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Lasith Malinga played his comeback match against South Africa on 3 June 2017 at the pool match of Champions Trophy.
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Lasith Malinga was left out from team selection process in late 2017 when the sports ministry directly intervened into Sri Lanka cricket by introducing the minimum fitness standards.
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But, due to coaching responsibilities in Mumbai Indians, Lasith Malinga missed 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament.
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However, Lasith Malinga announced that he hope to join international squad for the South African limited over tour in Sri Lanka 2018.
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Lasith Malinga however continued to work on his fitness and bowling with his mentor Anusha Ramanayake and following an impressive domestic season he was recalled to the national team for the 2018 Asia Cup.
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Lasith Malinga was included in the squad for 2018 Asia Cup as the premium fast bowler with Suranga Lakmal.
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Lasith Malinga played the opening game of the series with Bangladesh and took two wickets in the first over of the match.
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Lasith Malinga finished the spell with 4 wickets for just 23 runs.
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On 13 October 2018 against England in the second ODI of the series, Lasith Malinga took his 8th five-wicket haul.
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On 21 June 2019, in the match against England, Lasith Malinga took his 50th wicket in a World Cup match.
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Lasith Malinga became the quickest to achieve the milestone with 26 innings in World Cups.
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Sri Lanka won their fourth consecutive World Cup match against England, and Lasith Malinga won the man of the match award for his match winning bowling spells.
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Lasith Malinga finished the tournament as the leading wicket taker for Sri Lanka, with thirteen dismissals in seven matches as the third-highest wicket taker of all time in World Cups.
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Lasith Malinga was named as the captain for T20I series against New Zealand, which composed of many young cricketers.
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Lasith Malinga took two wickets in the match, though Sri Lanka lost the match.
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Lasith Malinga is the only cricketer to have two take T20I hat-tricks and five international hat-tricks.
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Lasith Malinga then took the wicket of Ross Taylor to become the world's only bowler to take two four-in-four, where his first four-in-four came in 2007 World Cup against South Africa.
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Lasith Malinga finished his spell with 5 for 6 runs, and Sri Lanka won the match by 37 runs.
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Lasith Malinga won the man of the match award for impressive bowling performance.
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In November 2020, Lasith Malinga was nominated for the ICC Men's ODI and T20I Cricketer of the Decade awards.
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Lasith Malinga retired from all forms of cricket on 14 September 2021, ending his career as the leading wicket taker in T20Is with 107 wickets.
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Lasith Malinga announced his retirement through his official YouTube channel.
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On 20 January 2021, Lasith Malinga retired from T20 franchise cricket.
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Lasith Malinga has played for Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians since 2008.
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Lasith Malinga became their leading bowler in this format and leading bowler in the competition in terms of wickets taken.
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Lasith Malinga was one of the overseas players to represent Kent Spitfires in the English T20 competition in 2007.
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Kent went on to win the tournament beating Gloucestershire with Lasith Malinga playing a key part throughout the tournament.
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Lasith Malinga won the Purple Cap award in the fourth season of Indian Premier League with 28 scalps in 16 matches.
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Lasith Malinga chose Mumbai Indians over Southern Express in the CLT20 cricket tournament.
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Lasith Malinga picked up his 100th IPL wicket of his career during the 2013 Indian Premier League in a league stage match against Kings XI Punjab and became the first ever bowler to reach the milestone of 100 wickets in IPL history.
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In 2018 IPL Auctions, Lasith Malinga was not bought by Mumbai Indians due to his ineffective bowling in the recent past.
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However, on 7 February 2018, Lasith Malinga was named bowling mentor of Mumbai Indians ahead of IPL 2018.
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Lasith Malinga has played 127 games for Mumbai Indians in the IPL and Champions League T20 and is the highest-wicket taker for the franchise with 179 scalps at an economy rate of 6.88.
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Lasith Malinga contributed to the fourth title win for Mumbai Indians with a wicket on the last ball in the final where 2 runs where required thus giving Mumbai a win by 1 run.
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Lasith Malinga holds a unique distinction of picking up 10 wickets in two different formats across 2 nations within a space of 24 hours which he achieved it in 2019.
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Lasith Malinga pulled out from participating in the 2020 Indian Premier League due to personal reasons and James Pattinson was named as his replacement for the season.
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Lasith Malinga was the leading wicket-taker in the tournament for the Montreal Tigers, with thirteen dismissals in six matches.
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Lasith Malinga has said that his unique round-arm bowling action was a result of learning to play cricket exclusively with a tennis ball.
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Mumbai Indians franchise revealed that Lasith Malinga would provide supportive role as a mentor and would be part of the coaching staff ahead of the 2018 IPL season.