Stats: Mahela Jayawardene becomes the 1st Asian batsman to play 1000 matches across all formats

Veteran Sri Lanka cricketer Mahela Jayawardene who hung up his boots from international cricket very recently became the first Asian cricketer to appear in 1000 competitive matches across all formats (FC + List A + T20) yesterday while playing for the Central Districts in New Zealand’s domestic T20 league The Super Smash.

The experienced middle-order batsman who is currently opening the innings for the Central Districts in the T20 tournament could only manage 4 runs and was dismissed cheaply by Ed Nuttall. Jayawardene scored a brilliant century in only his 3rd match of the tournament but his innings went in vain as the Central Districts lost the game by a solitary run.

Jayawardene who made his Test debut for Sri Lanka way back in 1997 continued to impress at the highest level and went on to become one of the greatest batsmen Sri Lanka has ever produced. His mammoth 624 runs partnership with Kumar Sangakkara against the Proteas in 2006 where he ended up scoring 374 still remains the highlight of his illustrious and glittering career. He ended his Test career with nearly 12,000 runs and 34 centuries to his name. He was a good ODI player too and ended up scoring more than 12,000 runs in 448 matches.

He retired from international cricket in 2015 following Sri Lanka’s defeat to South Africa in the quarter-final of the 2015 ICC World Cup but continued to feature in different domestic T20 tournaments. He plays for Somerset in the English County and made a tremendous century during his last stint with the club in August. Jayawardene played for the Dhaka Dynamites in the BPL but failed to make an impact.

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He became the 15th player overall to appear in 1000 or more matches across all the formats. Some prominent names in the list feature former Caribbean legend Sir Vivian Richards and former English captain Graham Gooch. 13 out of the 15 members are Englishmen.

Here is the list of players who has played most matches (FC + List A + T20) in their career:

Stats: Sampath Bandarupalli