Mahela Jayawardena, Sri Lanka’s legendary cricketer and mastermind behind many great victories for Sri Lanka Cricket didn’t experience bad days on the field often. When NewsWire asked him how does it feel when he missed a few catches of a player and then that player goes onto score big, Mahela recounted his memories fondly.
When the host took him to the memories of a test match back in 2003 against New Zealand, in which Stephen Fleming scored a double hundred after several catches of his were missed and asked what was it like, particularly when Social Media wasn’t there back in the day, Mahela replied:
“On that day, I remember I missed 4 catches of his and we overall missed about 6 catches of Fleming. Out of the catches I missed, 3 were rather easy ones and I remember Sanga was the wicketkeeper and he was laughing because of what I was doing that day. That is the only day I think I’ve been that bad on the field. Even Fleming remembers it very well to this date because it was his double hundred and that he gave me catches and I kept missing them. Murali usually doesn’t laugh it off when someone misses a catch, but that’s a day even Murali laughed it off”, Mahela said.
“When that happens, you go to the dressing room and think about what actually happened. I think it happens because of not concentrating enough on the game. But, you think about it and then you move on to the next day, trying to do better”, opined the current coach of IPL franchise team Mumbai Indians’ Coach.