Sanga-froid at beginning of the end

Sangakkara attended his final practice session on Wednesday.

There’s a poignant few minutes during every Tamilian wedding where the father of the bride is left to his thoughts while his daughter leaves to change her saree for one final time. And he sits there all by himself, staring into the distance, not wistfully but more anxiously, as if he’s wondering how life is going to be now that the apple of his eye has moved on. For, upon her return is the part of the ceremony when the knot is tied, and she’s officially married.

Kumar Sangakkara had a similarly poignant moment of his own at the P’Sara Oval on Wednesday morning. He had just finished with his first round in the nets, and with the other batsmen still occupying the other ones, he chose a shaded corner, leaned against the metal hoarding stand and he had the same ‘father-of-the-bride’ look of vacuity. He remained there for 15 minutes.

Sporting farewells are unique. They’re filled more with separation anxiety than out-and-out melancholy. This is not the end of the world. It’s more like the culmination of a lengthy chapter, and the beginning of a new episode in the sportsperson’s life. He will miss the sport, and the sport will miss him. But both will move on.

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And it’s probable that his life and times with cricket flashed by as Sangakkara sat waiting his turn under a hoarding that had a giant image of him with a slogan that read, “A Gentleman beyond the game”. This was after all his final practice-session as a Sri Lankan cricketer. Never again would he don the pads and walk into the nets with the anticipation of playing a Test the next morning. Never again would he work on that one shot he wants to perfect so that it comes off fluently over the following five days. Never again.

But never did it seem like watching the last vestiges of a great, towering institution of this sport. Soon it was time for him to bat again. It was time to get back to business again. Like many great batsmen before him, it takes a lot to move Sangakkara away from the nets. He can bat, and bat, and bat for hours, against his own bowlers, net bowlers, bowling machine, whatever. Like always, the bat came down as studiously, and made a proper sound as it connected with the ball- No thwack, no dhob, a good old thud. But there was something different. So conscious has Sangakkara been about his aesthetics that you’ve rarely seen him not don a helmet or a cap while batting. But here he chose to bat in the spinners’ net without any headgear. It looked odd for sure. But maybe Sangakkara was already preparing to let his hair down, quite literally in this case.

In the zone

He then moved to facing the fast bowlers, and hardly a ball skipped past his bat. Most of the pacers were junior bowlers hoping to someday do what their beloved Sanga has achieved for 15 years, bring glory to their nation. And you could make out that this was one spell they would be telling their proverbial grandkids about.

Sangakkara was a tad late in joining his teammates at the P’Sara Oval on Wednesday. He had been held back by pre-arranged interviews and a photo-shoot. But as soon as he arrived, he waited no time in making the most of his time. He was soon edging catches to Kaushal Silva stood at a virtual leg-gully. He then rushed back to the dressing-room to get padded up. He kept getting interrupted by young and old alike desperate to get that final photograph with him in training gear. He obliged each one of them, greeting them with a smile and grinning widely for the camera without fail. There were wishes and congratulations. He acknowledged them all. He was getting delayed. But he still waited. He would soon have all the time in the world to pursue his future passions. Delaying his net session by a little wasn’t going to hurt.

The first person he walked to in the nets was coach Marvan Atapattu. Atapattu was the rock of the Sri Lankan batting line-up when Sangakkara walked into the team at the turn of the century. He was also considered technically the most accomplished. Then Sangakkara took over from him, and gave it a whole new meaning. He left a legacy that is likely to remain unmatched in Sri Lankan cricket history.

Finally after close to 45 minutes, it was time for Sangakkara to enter the net closest to the viewing area to face a support staff member chucking balls at him by bouncing it off a wet mat placed in the centre. Sangakkara spent close to 10 minutes there, then took off his helmet. Almost everyone present walked up and thanked him. Sangakkara simply nodded at them.

He then wiped the sweat off his brow, and walked away, not quite into the sunset but into the blinding hue of the unrelenting Colombo sun, which has always shone bright on his career, and promises to do so for five more days.