Sanath Jayasuriya's prospects surely needs a review

All thought that the world cup 2007 held in the Caribbean would see the end of players like Brian Lara, Inzamam Ul Haq, Glenn McGrath and Sanath Jayasuriya. Added to this was the fact that Sri Lanka made it to the finals of the world cup that year and the time for any great cricketer to retire would not have been better than this. However, all but Sanath Jayasuriya didn't make up his mind to retire from international cricket. It is confusing whether it is the greed for more individual records or was it the passion that was left in him still.

For someone like the West Indian great - Brian Lara this opportunity would have been welcome with both hands taking into account his team's caliber in all three formats of the game. It was the team which he was paying that restricted him from taking his prospects forward in international. On the otherhand, Glenn McGrath would also have waited for his retirement which he announced after his team's 5-0 Ashes victory in the preceding year. McGrath was just waiting for the WC to get over which see him one of the few to have played 4 WC finals and 3 WC victories.

Coming to Jayasuriya's case, Jayasuriya had absolutely no or little reasons to feature himself in the world cup 2011 which is four years from the 2007 world cup when all thought that it would be the last time that Sanath Jayasuriya would be seen in international cricket. It was after the 2007 world cup that Jayasuriya became the first player in history of one day cricket to have played 400 ODIs. It was after that he claimed his 300th wicket which uniquely identifies him as the lone player in history to have done a combo of 300+ ODI wickets and 10000+ runs.

And, in case Jayasuriya plays the world cup in 2011, he would be doing it for the 6th time that sees him in par with Pakistan's Javed Miandad and India's Sachin Tendulkar (who is likely to play in the sub continent). One has to also keep this fact in mind that Sanath Jayasuriya holds the record for scoring the most number of ducks in ODI cricket with his score being 34. However, one thing is for syre that Sri Lanka at present can manage even without the likes of Jayasuriya unlike India whose fate without Sachin Tendulkar would be as good as a person without a proper backbone.