Thuppahi's Blog

Andrew Fidel Fernando, courtesy of ESPNcricinfo, where the title reads: “My father, my critic“

 Sanga with budding cricketers at Clayton, Melbourne

“My father, without the slightest doubt, was the most marvellous and exciting father any boy ever had,” says Roald Dahl’s Danny, in Danny, the Champion of the World. Almost everyone who remembers their father can recollect a time growing up when he stood at the centre of their universe. Kumar Sangakkara does too. When he was a child, his father, Kshema, would throw him balls and instruct him on technique in the backyard of their beautiful hillside home in Kandy. Kumar would move on to badminton and tennis with great success, before eventually circling back to cricket, but in countless hours of conversation and batting drills, for a long time he clung to every word his father spoke. When he won last year’s Cricketer of the Year, Test Cricketer of the Year and People’s Choice awards from the ICC, he recounted fondly the long days spent, just he and his father in the backyard, putting the building blocks of a famous technique together. Continue reading →