eparamadu Lasith Malinga, (Sinhalese: සපරමාදු ලසිත් මාලිංග born 28 August 1983) is a professional Sri Lankan cricketerand former ODI and T20I captain for Sri Lanka. He is a specialist fast bowler with a unique round-arm action, sometimes referred to as a sling action, which leads to his nicknames, "Slinga Malinga" and "Malinga the Slinga".[1] Considered as one of the great limited-overs bowlers in cricket, Malinga's dipping and slow ball yorkers are credited with much of his success.[2]
He is best known for his ability to take consecutive wickets, with in-swinging yorkers: he is the only bowler in the world to have two World Cup hat-tricks, the only bowler to have taken three hat-tricks in ODIs and the only player to have taken four wickets in four consecutive balls in any form of international cricket.[3] On 22 April 2011, he announced his retirement from Test cricket. He bowls at around a speed of 140 km/h (87 mph).[4]
He is the second highest wicket taker in all Twenty20 International cricket just after Shahid Afridi and highest wicket taker for Sri Lanka in Twenty20 Internationals as well. Malinga was the captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and was part of the team that made the final of 2007 Cricket World Cup, 2011 Cricket World Cup, 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and 2012 ICC World Twenty20. He was the captain of Twenty20 International side for Sri Lanka, until 7 March 2016, where Malinga stepped down from captaincy due to his continuous injuries.
Early years
Malinga grew up in modest circumstances in Rathgama, a coastal village situated 12 km northwest of Galle. He often played cricket with friends on the sand banks and coconut groves by a river in his cricket-obsessed village. He had his education at three schools, namely Mahinda College, Galle, Vidyaloka College, Galle and Vidyathilake Vidyalaya, Thiranagama.[8] Malinga had his primary education at Vidyathilake Vidyalaya in Thiranagama, a school situated near by his village. After passing the grade 5 Scholarship Examination in 1993, he entered Vidyaloka College, Galle for his secondary education, where he started his cricket career. Here Malinga was discovered by former Sri Lankan paceman Champaka Ramanayake. Champaka, so impressed by Malinga's raw ability, invited him to join the Galle Cricket Club.[9] Champaka also helped him to join the first XI cricket team of Mahinda College, Galle. Joining Mahinda College was the turning point of his cricket career and he was helped by some of its distinguished Old boys.[9] A short-lived attempt to make Malinga's action more upright led to much reduced pace and failing accuracy. Malinga promptly returned to his natural action with success, and with great encouragement from Ramanayake.
Style
Malinga's action has attracted great comment. The cricket reference text Wisden has noted that Malinga's delivery action is similar to "slinging". Resulting to his nickname "Slinga Malinga". Malinga has said that his unique round-arm bowling action was a result of learning to play cricket exclusively with a tennis ball.[11] Typically, younger bowlers are encouraged to deliver the ball with their arm near vertical to remove or reduce direction variables.
Sir Viv Richards admired Lasith Malinga's impressive bowling during the 2007 Cricket World Cup which was held in Caribbean, saying that Lasith Malinga is the best thing that happened to Sri Lankan cricket after Aravinda de Silva.
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