Looking at the stereotypes of the 10 Test-playing nations

#7 Sri Lanka

An island which keeps on producing mystery

If we look at the records of Sri Lanka and the records held by greats like Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene and if we introspect them closely we will find that majority of their runs have come in Sri Lanka on the flat pitches in the P Sara Oval in Colombo or the SSC also in Colombo.

One of the criticism which has been levelled against Sri Lanka is that they prepare featherbeds at home and which sucks all the interest out of the game. Do they then play for personal records more than the benefit of the team? We will never know, but unfortunately this tag will always go along with them.

If this is an unfortunate tag, there is one very special tag which goes along with Sri Lanka, and this is the ability of the tiny island to produce players with mystery. Ajantha Mendis, Lasith Malinga are prime examples of players who were different in what they did. They were not conventional by any stretch imagination. Not a bad tag one has to say!