Sanath Jayasuriya

Who is Sanath Jayasuriya?

Sanath Teran Jayasuriya is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and a current member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka. Jayasuriya was an all-rounder, who had an international cricket career that spread over two decades. He is the only player to score over 12,000 runs and capture more than 300 wickets in One Day Internationals, and hence regarded as one of the best all rounders in the history of limited-overs cricket. He was named the Most Valuable Player of 1996 Cricket World Cup and Wisden Cricketers' Almanack broke an age old tradition by naming him one of Five Cricketers’ of the Year 1997 despite not playing the previous season in England. Jayasuriya was also the captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team from 1999 to 2003. He retired from test cricket in December 2007 and from limited overs cricket in June 2011.

Jayasuriya ran for public office at the 2010 Sri Lankan general elections and was elected to the parliament from his native Matara District. He topped the UPFA parliamentary election list for Matara district by obtaining 74,352 preferential votes. He is now serving as the deputy minister of Postal services in the UPFA government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa.