Mystery spinner

Mendis gets ready to 'bowl everything' © AFP Enlarge

"Mendis bowls everything. With a smile on his face as he caresses the ball before delivering it, he bowls the offbreak, he bowls the legbreak, he bowls the googly, he bowls the flipper, he bowls a straight delivery, he bowls them with different grips and different actions, he bowls them with a different trajectory and at a different pace, he disguises them brilliantly. The result is that he mesmerises, or bamboozles, batsmen."
Tony Becca in the Jamaica Gleaner is impressed

"[Ramnaresh] Sarwan had problems picking him, and from the time we saw this, most of the batsmen retreated to the dressing room and had a close look at his hand on the TV monitor."
Dwayne Bravo recalls his first sighting

"I could tell you about his variations if I knew what they were."
Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss is mystified about his charge

"Mendis is unusual, freaky and has developed a ball which could be described as a 'flicker', which he releases with a snap of his fingers, which is very unusual compared to other orthodox spin bowlers."
Jerome Jayaratne, Sri Lanka Cricket Academy coach, makes a valiant attempt at deconstruction

"I have just seen the future of spin bowling - and his name is Ajantha Mendis."
Rob Steen thinks Sri Lanka's latest find is a keeper

"The 23-year-old, we were told, plays his cricket for the Sri Lankan army. I suggest he's going to make a right officers' mess of hundreds of international batsmen's stumps in years to come."
Mark Rivlin summons up a pun in praise on Sportingo.com

"Mendis is something special and for a while I've been telling some of the guys to look out for him."
Mahela Jayawardene isn't as surprised as the rest of the world