Kumar Sangakkara comeback nothing more than a fool’s day joke

Reports’ coming out of Sri Lanka’s reputed Island newspaper – Kumar Sangakkara is all set to return to the national team and play the third ODI against Bangladesh scheduled to be played today, got a lot of cricket fanatics excited. Sangakkara, who retired from international cricket almost 2 years ago but still plays professional cricket in various T20 leagues, is still fit enough to play international cricket.

All the excitement turned futile on the realisation that the report was nothing more than an April Fool’s Day joke. The hoax report said that in a desperate attempt to get Sri Lankan cricket back on track, Chairman of Selectors – Sanath Jayasuriya, recalled Sangakkara back in the side which will surprise Bangladesh, who are leading the 3-match series 1-0.

There were clues in the report, especially in the last paragraph which said that the team for the third ODI remains unchanged from the last game. It is no surprise that Sangakkara was never a member of the side in the last game and hence he won’t be there in the decisive encounter too.

According to the reports of Island newspaper, Sangakkara who is playing cricket in England was warned before hand about the joke and had a good laugh about it yesterday.

People, who are still oblivious to this fact, must now know that Sangakkara, 38, is not going to make an international comeback. Sri Lanka, though, would mean serious business in today’s game where they face a possible prospect of losing a home ODI series to Bangladesh.

It will be a big opportunity for the Bangla Tigers to register their maiden series victory in the island nation after winning the opening ODI comprehensively. The 2nd ODI was washed out due to rain after Sri Lanka has posted a total in excess of 300 and looked in a commanding position before the weather played spoilsport.