Sri Lanka’s cricketing ambassador Kumar Sangakkara missed out on a third successive LG ICC People’s choice award as he did make the minimum qualifying criteria of 10 test matches during the period between 12 July 2012 and 25 August 2013.
The star batman missed out on the nomination before the race began as he did not play the required number of matches during the qualifying period. Sri Lanka only played 7 test matches during the period while Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) cancelled an away test series in the West Indies (opted for an ODI tri series with India) and a home series versus South Africa to make room for the Sri Lanka Premier League (which was cancelled later on).
Incidentally, Sangakkara was the winner of the People’s Choice award in 2011 and 2012 and would have been in contention to bag a hat-trick and pinch himself a perfect piece of immortality considering his loyal fan base here in Sri Lanka and tremendous regard and respect from persons of other cricketing nations. In 2011, Sangakkara delivered an inspiring Colin Cowdrey Memorial Lecture at Lord’s which was lauded by the world cricketing community as one of the greatest speeches in cricket’s history. He has also acquired a global following for his charismatic persona, eloquent speech and stylish batting.
Sangakkara who is one his way to statistical history also misses out greatly by these test matches being cancelled as the opportunity for him to accumulate’ test runs eludes him.
Alastair Cook (England), Micheal Clarke (Australia), MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli (India) and AB De Villiers (South Africa) were announced as the shortlist for the ICC People’s Choice Award.
