If not for Sanath Jayasuriya’s dominance at the top of the order during the 1990s and early 2000s, Saman Jayantha might have had a longer stint in international cricket. A dynamic left-hander at the top of the order, he loved to take on the bowling from the word go and it’s this natural ability that made people sit up and take notice of him. Strong performances in the domestic circuit and with the Sri Lankan A side meant that he was always in the reckoning for a national call-up and it finally came in 2004 when he got picked in the ODI squad. Saman eventually ended up with just 17 appearances but there were enough instances on which the sparkle of his talent was visible, more so in the two fifties that he produced. He was also a handy off-spinner and was a good package to have in ODI cricket at that time. However, the southpaw was a late bloomer in cricket and hence, was already 30 when he made his international debut. At such an age, even a temporary slump in form backfires and that’s happened with Saman who continued to play First-class cricket till he was 40. After retirement, he shifted his focus to coaching.
Written by Hariprasad Sadanandan
