Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara, widely recognized as one of the greatest wicketkeeper-batsmen in the world, has been inducted into the International Cricket Council (ICC) Hall of Fame.
The ICC today (June 13) announced a special edition intake of 10 cricket icons into the ICC Hall of Fame to celebrate the prestigious history of Test cricket, and to coincide with the first ever ICC World Test Championship Final.
“The 10 legends of the game to be inducted have all made a significant contribution to the history of Test cricket, and join an illustrious list of ICC Hall of Famers, taking the total number to 103 as a result of this intake,” the ICC said in a statement.
"Kumar Sangakkara is one of the finest wicketkeeper-batsmen that's ever been produced."
— ICC (@ICC) June 13, 2021
Sri Lanka great @KumarSanga2 is one of our special #ICCHallOfFame 2021 inductees 🙌 pic.twitter.com/TEg1HbuzID
Sangakkara is the second Sri Lankan cricketer to be inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame, after spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan made the list in 2017.
He has played 134 Tests, scored 12,400 runs at 57.40, took 182 catches and 20 stumpings, and was grace personified at the crease.
Sangakkara ended his career as the most prolific run-scorer his country had ever known, with double-hundreds flowing from his bat with consummate ease.
In 2014 he struck 319 and 105 in the same Test match against Bangladesh and in 2017 fell just 16 runs short of striking six successive centuries in first-class cricket.
The new inductees are as follows:
Early Cricket Era - Players whose greatest contributions to the game were prior to 1918
• Aubrey Faulkner (South Africa)
• Monty Noble (Australia)
Inter-War Era - Players whose greatest contributions to the game were from 1918-1945
• Sir Learie Constantine (West Indies)
• Stan McCabe (Australia)
Post-War Era - Players whose greatest contributions to the game were from 1946-1970
• Ted Dexter (England)
• Vinoo Mankad (India)
ODI Era - Players whose greatest contributions to the game were from 1971-1995
• Desmond Haynes (West Indies)
• Bob Willis (England)
Modern Cricket Era - Players whose greatest contributions to the game were between 1996-2015
• Andy Flower (Zimbabwe)
• Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)
-with inputs from ICC
