Sanath Jayasuriya’s father passes away at the age of 80

One of the most feared batsmen of his time, Sri Lanka’s left-arm batting all-rounder and former captain Sanath Jayasuriya was one of the main reasons behind his team’s dominance in the cricket world in the last 90s. He was a utility player who had the ability to smack the ball hard and is the only player to hold the prestigious record of scoring 13,000+ runs and scaling 300+ wickets in the One Day Internationals.

However, the legendary batting all-rounder is going through tough times as his father Dunston Jayasuriya passed away at the age of 80 on December 13, Sunday. Jayasuriya’s father was undergoing treatment for a prolonged illness for quite some time and breathed his last earlier today. His last rights will be held in Matara tomorrow (December 14, Monday).

“Dunston Jayasuriya passed away earlier today, he was undergoing treatment for some time now,” a source close to Sanath Jayasuriya told NewsWire.

Sanath Jayasuriya’s career at a glance

One of the most explosive Sri Lankan hitters of all time, Sanath Jayasuriya made his maiden appearance on the big stage on Boxing Day at Melbourne in 1989 against Australia in a One Day game while his Test debut was against New Zealand at Hamilton in 1991.

However, he played ordinary cricket for much of his early career from his debut in 1989 till 1995 as he never averaged more than 30 in ODIs and featured in only a handful of games in the purest format of the game for Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Jayasuriya rose to glory in ICC 1996 Cricket World Cup. His exploits with the willow and ball helped Sri Lanka in lifting their maiden World Cup and he was rightly adjudged as the ‘Man of the Tournament’.

He also donned the captain’s hat for Sri Lanka for 38 Test matches and 117 ODIs. Under his leadership, Sri Lanka made it to the semi-finals of the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup but after the loss in the marquee event, Sanath stepped down as the captain.

Jayasuriya finished his glorious international career with 6,973 Test runs and 98 wickets in 110 games along with 13,430 runs and 323 wickets in 445 One Day Internationals. The all-rounder also featured in 31 T20 Internationals scoring 629 runs at scalping 19 wickets.