67 Facts About Mahela Jayawardene

Denagamage Praboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene is a Sri Lankan former professional cricketer and captain of the Sri Lankan national cricket team.

Mahela Jayawardene is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen from Sri Lankan cricket.

Mahela Jayawardene was the first Sri Lankan in the history of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup to score a century which he did with his 100 runs against Zimbabwe in the 2010 tournament.

Mahela Jayawardene made his Test cricket debut in August 1997 and his One Day International debut the following season in January 1998.

In 2006 along with his teammate Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene made the highest ever partnership in First-class cricket, scoring 624 runs for the third wicket in the first test match of Sri Lanka's home series against South Africa.

Mahela Jayawardene appeared in 652 international matches representing Sri Lanka in a career spanning for about 18 years.

Mahela Jayawardene is the first player in the history of Sri Lankan cricket to score over 10,000 Test runs and is the second Sri Lankan player to score more than 10,000 runs in ODIs after Sanath Jayasuriya.

Mahela Jayawardene currently serves as the Chairman of Sri Lanka National Sports Council.

Mahela Jayawardene was a key member of the team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and was part of the team that made to the final of 2007 Cricket World Cup, 2011 Cricket World Cup, 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and 2012 ICC World Twenty20.

In 2006, Mahela Jayawardene was named by the International Cricket Council as the best International captain of the year and was nominated in 2007 as the best Test cricket player of the year.

Mahela Jayawardene worked as an international TV commentator in the first test at Headingley on 19 May 2016 between England and Sri Lanka.

Mahela Jayawardene serves as a board member in several unlisted public limited companies in Sri Lanka.

Mahela Jayawardene has been a vocal critic of Sri Lanka Cricket over the years especially after 2015 where the national side has suffered a significant decline.

Mahela Jayawardene was a fast bowler initially during his school days and later transformed as a top order batsman.

Mahela Jayawardene captained Nalanda College Colombo first XI cricket team in 1994.

Mahela Jayawardene developed his talents through the school cricket team, eventually becoming captain.

Mahela Jayawardene was runner-up for the best schoolboy cricketer award during the 1994 cricketing season.

Mahela Jayawardene made his Twenty20 debut on 17 August 2004, for Sinhalese Sports Club in the 2004 SLC Twenty20 Tournament.

Mahela Jayawardene was signed to play as an overseas player for Derbyshire for the first half of the 2008 English cricket season.

Mahela Jayawardene is the 69th Sri Lanka Test Cap, having made his debut against India at Colombo in 1997.

Mahela Jayawardene was at the crease when the previous highest Test score was surpassed.

Sri Lanka won the match, with Mahela Jayawardene hitting the winning run.

Mahela Jayawardene was the captain of the Sri Lankan national team during the England tour in 2006 in the absence of Marvan Atapattu.

Mahela Jayawardene is the first batsman to pass 350 in a Test without going on to break the world record.

Mahela Jayawardene surpassed the highest score by a Sri Lankan in a Test match, previously held by Sanath Jayasuriya's 340 in 1997 against India, coincidentally produced in a world record partnership.

Mahela Jayawardene was named in the World ODI XI by ESPNcricinfo for 2007.

Mahela Jayawardene was chosen as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2007.

Mahela Jayawardene's knock was named as the third-best ODI Batting Performance of the year by ESPNcricinfo.

Mahela Jayawardene is the only batsman in World Cup ODI history to score hundreds in both a semi final and a final of the tournament.

Mahela Jayawardene achieved this feat, by scoring a century in 2007 Cricket World Cup semi final against New Zealand, and a century in 2011 Cricket World Cup final against India.

Mahela Jayawardene was named in the 'Team of the Tournament' by ESPNcricinfo for the 2007 World Cup.

Mahela Jayawardene achieved this feat on 21 February 2009 by scoring his maiden Test century against Pakistan at the National Stadium in Karachi, Pakistan.

Mahela Jayawardene is the recipient of International Cricket Council's "Captain of the Year 2006", Captain of the "World One-Day International Team of the Year 2006", Wisden Cricketer of the Year 2007, and the record holder for the highest score by a Sri Lankan in Test cricket.

Mahela Jayawardene led Sri Lanka when the team won the "Spirit of Cricket Award" in 2007 and 2008.

Mahela Jayawardene was appointed as captain again after Tillakaratne Dilshan resigned from the captaincy in 2012.

Mahela Jayawardene was the captain of Kochi Tuskers Kerala in the Indian Premier League and the Delhi Daredevils.

Sangakkara agreed to his fellow countrymate and Mahela Jayawardene scored a blazing 110* off just 59 balls winning them the match in the second last over.

Mahela Jayawardene scored a few more entertaining knocks in vain including 44 against the Rajasthan Royals and 93* against the Deccan Chargers.

Mahela Jayawardene ended the tournament with a batting average of 43.90.

Mahela Jayawardene was the 6th highest run scorer for the tournament and highest for the Kings XI Punjab.

Mahela Jayawardene thus became the 4th player to score a century in an Twenty20 International match and the first Sri Lankan to do so.

Mahela Jayawardene was named in the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2011 World Cup by the ICC.

Mahela Jayawardene's knock of 103* against India in the 2011 World Cup Final at Mumbai was nominated to be one of the best ODI batting performance of the year by ESPNcricinfo.

Mahela Jayawardene's knock of 180 against England at Galle was nominated to be one of the best Test batting performance of the year 2012 by ESPNcricinfo.

Mahela Jayawardene led Sri Lanka to the final of the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 against the West Indies on home turf.

Mahela Jayawardene subsequently decided to accelerate the innings, but this only triggered a collapse.

Mahela Jayawardene resigned as Sri Lanka's T20 captain after the match and in 2014 announced his retirement from T20 cricket.

Mahela Jayawardene was selected in the 2nd XI of the 2014 ICC World T20 Cup by ESPNcricinfo.

Mahela Jayawardene was named as captain of the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2012 T20 World Cup by the ICC.

Mahela Jayawardene holds the record for the most catches in ODIs, taking 218 catches in 448 matches.

Mahela Jayawardene holds the record for the most runs in Twenty20 World Cups having scored 858 runs in 25 innings, at an average of 40.8 runs per inning, in the four ICC World Twenty20 tournaments held to date.

On 14 July 2014, Mahela Jayawardene announced his retirement from Test cricket after the 2014 Pakistan series.

Mahela Jayawardene played his final Test at his favourite ground, the Sinhalese Sports Club, where he scored 54 runs in his last test innings.

Mahela Jayawardene was caught on 28 in his last innings on home soil.

Mahela Jayawardene got his 8th ODI wicket by dismissing James Tredwell through a stumping, with Sangakkara behind the stumps.

Mahela Jayawardene only scored 4 runs and Sri Lanka failed to qualify for the semi-finals for the first time since 1999.

Mahela Jayawardene was born to Sunila and Senerath Mahela Jayawardene at Colombo in 1977.

Mahela Jayawardene had one younger brother, Dhishal, who died of a brain tumour, aged 16.

Mahela Jayawardene was married to Christina Mallika Sirisena, a travel consultant.

Mahela Jayawardene was appointed as the coach of the Mumbai Indians team replacing Ricky Ponting for the 10th edition of the Indian Premier League in 2017.

Mahela Jayawardene helped Mumbai Indians repeat the feat in 2019 and 2020, becoming only the second team ever to defend the trophy.

Mahela Jayawardene admitted that it was difficult as a father to not see his daughter for 135 days due to staying in quarantines and bubbles since June 2021.

Mahela Jayawardene was appointed by Sri Lanka Cricket as the consultant coach of Sri Lanka men's national cricket team, Sri Lanka national U19 cricket team as well as the Sri Lanka A cricket team starting with immediate effect from 1 January 2022 for a time period of one year.

Mahela Jayawardene's coaching stint would be split in order to make room for his coaching stints in franchise cricket for Mumbai Indians in the IPL and for Southern Brave in The Hundred.

In July 2021, he joined the board of Janashakthi Insurance PLC after accepting an invitation and it marked the first instance for Mahela Jayawardene to have joined a listed company.

Mahela Jayawardene has 34 test, 19 ODI and 1 T20I centuries.

Mahela Jayawardene is the first Sri Lankan and third overall to score hundreds in all forms of the game.