Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene

Profile:

Mahela Jayawardene, now 25-years-old, has swiftly established himself as Sri Lanka's most exciting batting talent. Technically sound, possessed with a full range of strokes and a natural instinct to attack, his style has changed little since his prolific schoolboy days with Nalanda College. Fresh out of school, he started his Test career in 1997 with a fifty against India and then saved Sri Lanka the following year with a masterful 157 against New Zealand on a Galle minefield. A marathon 242 followed against India in the 1999 Asian Test Championship and after the 1999 World Cup he became vice-captain of the side at the tender age of 22. That prompted a period of underachievement before a golden year in 2001 when he averaged 56.64 in the 5-day game and was the only batsman to score 1000 runs in Tests and ODIs. Between tours he works for Seylan Bank as well as raising funds for the HOPE cancer project in Sri Lanka.