'2 more (cricket) years to go' : Sanga

One of Sri Lanka's best regarded cricketers, Kumar Sangakkara, has revealed that, as a former captain of the national team, when his team won, he would go to great lengths to give credit to everybody, and highlight every player's role. However, if there ws a loss, he made sure that the only person who was ever in the spotlight for it was himself, taking on its entire responsibility.

He also added that there was no right or wrong decisions when it comes to being a leader. It all just came down to execution.

Also noteworthy, Mr. Sangakkara reiterated a 2010 pledge that would see him only continuing to play cricket up to 2014 or 2015. Speaking to a packed house at the Taj Colombo's Samudra Ballroom, at a recent event organised by the Sri Lanka Institute of Directors, Mr. Sangakkara also lamented about the virtue of hard work, saying that, while he was not the most talented player, he did well because his entire game was built on the foundation of hard work, with his training regime encompassing almost eight hours and including conditioning and cricket practice. On the other hand, he also added that an element of luck was also required, especially early on in one’s career. It also emerged that Mr. Sangakkara initially got into sports playing tennis. But ultimately decided that cricket was his passion at the age of 13 years, which he is the first to admit is very late to take it up. However, he was supported a lot by his father who pushed him to succeed, particularly taking on a big role in his development as a player and, even to this day, giving him advice about the sport.