A series to savour for the old-timers

Younis Khan, 37, two Tests out from a hundred, strides forward and presents an unyielding forward defence in the shade of a 420-year fort that has survived two sieges, numerous battles, and a tsunami. Hours later, Kumar Sangakkara, also 37, arrives for his first full training since landing in the country, and is similarly impregnable. He often is at this venue, where he became an international cricketer, and now seems destined to end his career.

The two men - both elegant, but one more polished and the other more amiable - are the last surviving bona-fide greats in their sides. Sangakkara is the final link in a chain that stretches back to the mid-nineties, when Aravinda de Silva was becoming the first outstanding Test cricketer from Sri Lanka. Younis' chain has been unbroken for much longer. He has played with Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamam-ul-Haq, and bats in a bloodline boasting the likes of Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas and Hanif Mohammed.

Though no others in this series might be called great, Sangakkara and Younis have been flanked in recent years by two of cricket's finest late bloomers. Rangana Herath was almost lost to international cricket until a Sangakkara phone call found him playing club cricket in England, at 31. He has since become Sri Lanka's best Test match-winner of the post-Muralitharan era. Misbah-ul-Haq has played 50 of 55 Tests after 33, yet is the most successful Test captain Pakistan have had.

Their teams are in transition and selectors on the hunt for talented youth, but it is this series' old men who still play cricket that warms the heart. A Younis sweep shot does not seem so much practiced, as inspired anew each time he plays it. Songs have already been sung of Sangakkara's cover drive, and screeds written on his thirst and his method. The two have had their share of standoffs with employers too, and come off more beloved for them.

The late-bloomers are not so stylish, but who in world cricket has more substance? Misbah is as savage as they come when the mood strikes, but is more often seen fashioning an escape from another top-order pit, one tuk-tuk forward defence at a time. Herath devised the carrom ball long before it came into vogue, but it is patience that has defined him. The long, undulating spells go unrewarded for a while, then his wickets come in a deluge. Misbah's abrupt wallops over deep midwicket can be like long-awaited monsoon rains as well - for the joy they so evidently bring to him, as well as for the runs he collects for his team.

And where would these series be without the graceful touches of older men who are at peace with themselves? In the most recent Test these teams played, Misbah directed his team to give not one, but two guards of honour to the retiring Mahela Jayawardene. On the second occasion, a laughing Younis flung his arm around Jayawardene as the match teetered. Elsewhere in that game, younger quicks Dhammika Prasad and Wahab Riaz were entangled in a skirmish as dull as it was boorish. In the series before that, Misbah had completed a frenetic Sharjah chase, then stroked an imaginary moustache in tribute to departing coach Dav Whatmore, even while younger Sri Lanka players griped to the umpires that the match should have been stopped earlier.

But, for all the memories, these are men marking time. Sangakkara's will to play Test cricket has weakened, though mind and muscle have plenty more to give. Younis has had reflexes erode, even if his desire is unbowed. Herath's knees almost audibly creak every time he pivots at the crease, and Misbah - the only one of the quartet who still tolerates captaincy - appears wearier for each new storm at the PCB.

The young men in either side have commanded the pre-series narrative so far. Raw talent is alluring, and the making of new stars is often exciting to watch. Maybe youth will have the headlines during the series as well.

But little can be as intriguing as the cricket the old-timers play, and the performances they coax from one another. Like Galle's fort, Misbah, Younis, Sangakkara and Herath are from a time gone by. Only, there is precious little cricket left from each one now to savour.