Denagamage Prabodh Mahela De Silva Jayawardena as a proud old Nalandian started his journey in cricket in 1997 with a world record winning test match.With that first step Mahela opened his carrier in cricket which lead to a lots of world records. In the first Test of the 2006 Test series against South Africa, Jayawardene shared a world record partnership of 624 runs alongside Kumar Sangakkara. This partnership, the highest for any wicket in first-class cricket history.Mahela made in 1998 and lead Sri Lanka to victory hitting the winning run.Mahela’s professional skills lead him to be the record holder for the highest number of catches in tests with 205 scalps, mostly taken in the slips.

Jayawardena was the captain of Sri Lanka team in 2006 and became first captain to score a triple century with another record as the highest score of a right hander.With  his dedication and honesty Mahela won the international Cricket Council’s “Captain of the Year 2006” inaugural award, Captain of the “World One-Day International Team of the Year 2006”,Captain of the “Spirit of Cricket Award 2007”.Proving true colours of a great captain Mahela lead Sri Lanka to the final of the 2012 World Twenty20 Cup against the West Indies.

After playing 138 test matches and 407 ODI s On 14 July 2014  Jayawardena ; legendry player of Sri Lankan cricket team  announced the retirement from test cricket after the 2014 Pakistan series leaving thousands of his fans shocked. “I am not getting any younger,” he said.

His fellow batsman Kumar Sangakkara added “All the innings he has played for Sri Lanka has been special ones but it`s more of Mahela the person that the dressing room will miss,”.

2014.08.18 Mahela closed his curtains in his test carrier leaving a huge loss in Sri Lankan cricket team which would be hard to fill soon.

Resources:

• http://sports.ndtv.com/cricket/photos/mahela-jayawardene-gets-perfect-farewell-gift-from-sri-lanka-18294
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahela_Jayawardene