Kumar Sangakkara received a standing ovation after he delivered a redolent and moving Cowdrey Lecture at Lord’s last night, recalling the horror of the terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team in Pakistan.
In a speech lasting more than an hour in the Nursery Pavilion, Sangakkara spoke about how the March 2009 violence in Lahore had reminded him of the sacrifices his countrymen had made when he was growing up during a time of bloody unrest in Sri Lanka.
Sangakkara revealed how he prayed for his life and how a bullet whizzed past his ear as terrorists raked the team bus which was taking them to the stadium. “We heard what sounded like fire crackers going off, he said. “Suddenly a shout came from the front: ‘Get down they are shooting at the bus.’
“The reaction was immediate. Everyone dived for cover and took shelter on the aisle or behind the seats. With very little space, we were all lying on top of each other. Then the bullets started to hit. It was like rain on a tin roof. The bus was at a standstill, an easy target for the gunmen.
“As bullets started bursting through the bus all we could do was stay still and quiet, hoping and praying to avoid death or injury. Suddenly Mahela [Jayawardene], who sits at the back of the bus, shouts saying he thinks he has been hit in the shin. I am lying next to Thilan [Samaraweera]. He groans in pain as a bullet hits him in the back of his thigh.
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“As I turn my head to look at him I feel something whizz past my ear and a bullet thuds into the side of the seat, the exact spot where my head had been a few seconds earlier. I feel something hit my shoulder and it goes numb. I know I had been hit, but I was just relieved and praying I was not going to be hit in the head.
“Tharanga Paranvithana, on his debut tour, is also next to me. He stands up, bullets flying all around him, shouting ‘I have been hit’ as he holds his blood-soaked chest. He collapsed onto his seat, apparently unconscious.
“I see him and I think: ‘Oh my God, you were out first ball, run out the next innings and now you have been shot. What a terrible first tour.’ It is strange how clear your thinking is.”
Sangakkara spoke about the impact of the race riots in Sri Lanka in the early 1980s when his father hid 35 family friends, all Tamils, in the family home. “I did not realise the terrible consequences of my friends being discovered.” He also also told how his first cricket coach cheated death during the communist insurgency. “He was was shot ... by insurgents. Despite being hit in the abdomen twice, he miraculously survived when the gun held to his head jammed.”
The former captain could be rebuked by Sri Lanka Cricket, who he claimed was run by “partisan cronies”. The former captain, who resigned after the World Cup final, said corruption at an administrative level threatened the future of the sport in the country.
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“After 1996 the cricket board has been controlled and administered by a handful of well-meaning individuals either personally or by proxy, rotated in and out, depending on appointment or election,” Sangakkara said. “Unfortunately to consolidate and perpetuate their power, they opened the door of the administration to partisan cronies that would lead to corruption and wanton waste of cricket board finances and resources.
“It was and still is confusing. Accusations of vote buying and rigging, player interference due to lobbying from each side and even violence at the AGMs, including the brandishing of weapons and ugly fist fights, have characterised cricket board elections for as long as I can remember.
“We have to aspire to better administration. The administration needs to adopt the same values enshrined by the team over the years: integrity, transparency, commitment and discipline.”
You can listen to the full speech here.