Kumar Sangakkara recalls the time when Dravid picked Lara over Sachin

Former Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara is one of the stalwarts of the world cricket. He played the majority of his cricket alongside some other legends of the game. During his playing days, he was known to be a gentleman who had good relations with the players of the other teams as well. Sangakkara was good friends with legendary Indian cricketers, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.

Also, the bonhomie between Sachin and Dravid is not a new story either. The two players formed the backbone of the Indian team for almost a decade and a half. In one of the media interactions back in the year 2011, Kumar Sangakkara had recalled an incident when Rahul Dravid had picked another cricketer over Sachin Tendulkar as his favorite player!

It was a media interaction of the MCC where Mark Nicholas played the anchor at the event. He hosted Kumar Sangakkara and Andrew Strauss during the interaction. Sangakkara recalled the Tsunami relief match where he was in a team that played against a team which had both Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. He mentioned that Sachin came in to bat and was dismissed soon.

Slip fielder stands in awe

After Sachin, Brian Lara came in to bat. All this while, Kumar Sangakkara had one fielder in the slips standing next to him. Just when Lara came in to bat, Sangakkara said that the slip fielder chirped in quoting that Lara is his favorite batsman. A very amused Sangakkara asked him ‘not Sachin?’. The fielder was quick to respond in negation and watched Lara bat.

Mark Nicholas and the rest of the media got curious to know who that slip fielder was. Sanga noted that it was Rahul Dravid. The crowd present at the venue burst out laughing. Mark Nicholas then recalled his time with Brian Lara when Lara had scored 501 in a First Class game after having been dropped on 50.

Watch the video here: