Sangakkara rues his lack of preparation

There is nothing more frustrating for a cricketer than to sit out a match through injury knowing fully well that he should have been out there in the middle helping his team beat the opposition. When the opponent you are playing against happens to be the best team in the world, the frustration can become two-fold.

For Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan vice-captain and their leading batsman, the past 14 days have been full of disappointment and exasperation. Bad luck arrives in many ways and for Sangakkara, one of the fittest players in the team, it came in the most unexpected manner.

Against Cricket Australia Chairman's XI, in Sri Lanka's opening match of their tour of Australia, Sangakkara had to wait for three-and-a-half hours before going out to bat. He had faced only three deliveries before disaster struck.

"We had a great opening stand in that game [Jayasuriya and Atapattu put on 195]. I was sitting around doing a few stretches while waiting to go into bat. It was a cold day and I should have probably paid a little more attention to warming my muscles up before I went in," Sangakkara said.

"It [hamstring] went off on the third ball I faced. As soon as it happened, I knew I had pulled something. I felt a completely new sensation which I had never felt before. I hoped it was nothing serious.

"I wanted to make use of a runner and keep batting, but Tommy [Simsek, the physio] was smart enough to realise that I had to come off the field quickly enough. It stopped the bleeding and the injury to the muscle and at that point I was pretty lucky to have Tommy around with his experience knowing exactly what to do. I walked away to the dressing room angry and disappointed that it had happened," he said.

Sangakkara blamed the injury partly to his negligence and to the fact that he had to wait for a long time before going out to bat. "It was an unusually cold day in Adelaide. We had a fantastic start and I can't remember in the last two years when I had my pads on for so long waiting to go into bat. It was also a practice game. Sometimes when you are in that situation you can forget to pay attention to some of the other details that are important. Usually I have a routine that I follow with my stretching.

"Fitness is something that I take a lot of pride with. I've been working very hard on it, in my weight training, my running and my conditioning. You can have all of those perfectly planned but a little slip-up somewhere can be costly.

"When you don't get injured for some time you kind of feel invincible. When you start thinking like that, you think your body is fine. Suddenly you get one [injury], you feel really bad. Tommy said that it has made me come crashing down to earth. From now on, I know I've got to pay a little more attention to making sure my muscles are warm when I go out to bat," he said.

In his 67-Test careers, it is only the first time that Sangakkara has missed a Test due to such injury. "I looked to this tour [of Australia] for a long time. Australia is a place I love to come to and play cricket. To sit out and watch the other guys get on the field and be involved in the competition, I feel a bit jealous.

"Cricketers have to sit out at certain periods of their career. I had to do that through injury this time. But I have an opportunity to contribute by having a chat and encouraging our players from outside making sure that everything is taken care of off the field. I am still involved in it but I rather be out on the field."

Good news being that Sangakkara is making good progress and is hopeful he will be fit enough to be selected for the second Test starting at Hobart from November 16.

"The key was the first 24 hours after injury. I had ice on every two hours on the affected area to curtail the bleeding into the muscle. I didn't get any sleep that night icing the area for a minimum of 20 minutes every two hours. I did it throughout the night till about seven in the morning. That's what set about the foundation for a good recovery.

"I am back to about 70 percent speed-wise. I've been batting for three days with absolutely no pain or any other sensations. It is just a case of making sure that I am 100 percent with running between wickets to stand a chance of playing because the pressure of running against the ball and the fielders is when you put extra stress. That's when a recurrence of a hamstring injury can take place. I've got to make sure that there is no chance of that happening because we've got Test cricket coming up a week after we get back to Sri Lanka."

Asked how the team took up his loss, Sangakkara said: "There was a lot of support from the team. They were very disappointed for me and it was nice to have all the guys coming and saying 'well, hard luck we would love to have you, take care of yourself'. The other thing is that it presented a nice opportunity for someone to go and play a Test match for the country. It is good to see that we have the strength to refill the position. No player is indispensable and that is something I believe in very strongly."