‘England will have a challenge – no Cook is a big factor’
Mahela Jayawardene is busy working on his restaurant but retains his passion for cricket
Mahela Jayawardene’s advice for tackling crabzilla, a 3,000 gram monster on sale in his Colombo restaurant, is straightforward. “Get messy and don’t wear white.”
Jayawardene is Sri Lanka’s crabzilla, their highest Test run scorer, who made 34 centuries in a 17-year career. His 11,814 Test runs were scored with grace and elegance and not a hint of crabbiness. It is hard to imagine him being messy about anything.
There has been a huge hole in the side since he and Kumar Sangakkara retired. The two remain team-mates but of a different kind, setting up a string of businesses together with interests from real estate, agriculture and renewable energy to the thriving Ministry of Crab, the restaurant where we meet for lunch.
It has been named in the top 50 Asian restaurants for five years running and England fans hoping to pop in during the Colombo Test next month will be disappointed unless they booked months ago, such is the waiting list.
There are plans to open franchises in Mumbai, Manila, Shanghai and Singapore. A London branch is in the pipeline too next year. The days of retired cricketers opening a fish and chip shop in Penzance, as Chris Old did in the 1980s, or running a pub, are long gone.
Jayawardene is busy. The businesses are doing well and have helped him “transition” from playing. But has he learned to cook a crab? “I know the technique,” he says. “Sanga is probably a better cook than me.” We don’t order crabzilla, Jayawardene picks something smaller instead. “It is all about the catch of the day,” he says.
Cricket is still central to his life and we talk about his disappointment over the state of scandal-hit Sri Lankan cricket, England’s batting and his work in the north of the island helping its recovery from war and his hope of unearthing its first Test cricketer.
He coaches Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League and Khulna Titans in the Bangladesh Premier League. He has had two stints as a batting consultant with England through his connection with Trevor Bayliss, who coached Sri Lanka when Jayawardene was captain.
But he has no involvement in Sri
Lankan cricket. He and Sangakkara are keeping their distance from a board hit by scandal and under watch of the International Cricket Council, which wants to take running cricket out the hands of the country’s politicians.
A match-fixing investigation has already resulted in Sanath Jayasuriya being charged with nonco-operation, and more is expected to come out.
“People have jumped the gun thinking it is fixing but it has not come to that level yet. I am hoping it is not that but it is a sad story because we [players] are given a lot of responsibility to do things right,” says Jayawardene.
“We just have to wait and see how things unfold. I still like to give him the benefit of the doubt and hope no foul play has happened. If it has happened, it is the last thing we need, particularly given the stature of the person involved. He has been an icon and a lot of young players grew up watching him.
“The ICC are here for a reason, so it does worry me. If Sri Lankan cricket is involved in anything, then this is the time to step up. I don’t know whether the uncertainty is affecting the national team but it is a great chance to clean it up. If the ICC are getting involved and willing to do that, then everyone has to co-operate because you are not going to go anywhere when there is corruption.” What Sri Lankan cricket needs is a figurehead like Jayawardene. “I have said I will only get involved with the right people. I do not get involved with the politics of cricket or personnel who are involved in politics. I was involved with the right people trying to do things right, but when you start doing that, other people realise they are threatened and take you away from it, so I have stepped back. I will always want to help Sri Lankan cricket but only in the right environment and with the right people.
“Right now it is not the time.” Despite all the problems, Jayawardene backs Sri Lanka to beat England because their Test record is so strong at home – they have lost only to Pakistan and India in the past four years. England’s lack of first-innings runs can be compensated for by seam bowlers in England, but he warns such a failure will be fatal on Sri Lankan surfaces.
“England will be challenged and not having Alastair Cook here is going to be a big factor. He plays well in these conditions and he is one of those dogged openers who never gives up. He will be missed, but others have to step up and take that extra bit of responsibility.
“Joe [Root] has a lot of challenges taking the captaincy. How is he going to play with that responsibility? Being a captain is one thing. Being the England captain is something else. He is a very light-hearted guy, he goes about joking, but it is about performances and how the team does under him.
“If they do not win, that is going to come back to the captain, so how will that affect his performance? We need to give him time to adapt to those challenges. As a batsmen he is brilliant in all formats but as a leader it is early days.”
On the day we met, Rangana Herath announced he would be retiring after the first Test in Galle, and the pitch is certain to give him a fitting farewell. Galle is Sri Lanka’s Gabba. How do batsmen survive?
“The tempo you have to play with in Galle is about batting long periods and being patient. That is
‘Root goes about, joking. As a batter, he is brilliant but, as a leader, it is early’
key in the subcontinent. You can’t get stuck. You have to find ways of rotating the strike. As long as you get into that tempo and rhythm, it is much easier to bat.
“Whether you like it or not, the Sri Lankan wickets are going to turn. It is impossible to prepare wickets in Sri Lanka that do not spin. It will not be dangerous turn but slow turn. That is the challenge for overseas teams.”
Jayawardene is satisfied Sri Lankan cricket will emerge from its trough. International cricket is a small constituency and it needs countries like Sri Lanka to be strong. There is untapped potential in the north, where cricket coaching programmes are only now starting to penetrate.
Sangakarra has raised funds for an initiative called Bikes for Life, which supplied 10,000 bicycles, the main mode of transport, so children can get to school. The Murali Harmony Cup cricket tournament is played every year and Jayawardene’s foundation visits every month. Five school cricket grounds have been built recently, and he sees real, raw talent. Most encouragingly it is girls who are doing well at cricket, something that separates the north from Colombo, where women rarely play any structured cricket.