Sangakkara, Sri Lanka's Paul McCartney

Writing in The National, Osman Samiuddin explains why he found it difficult to warm up to Kumar Sangakkara.

Nothing in life without curves can be truly beautiful and Sangakkara bats in straight lines, the elbows stiff like the upper lips of British royalty. His wrists might as well not exist. I will grant that Twenty20 opened a new vista on to his game, but in his recent, greatest years, a kind of bloodlessness defined his play. But, as a last resort, try placing Sangakkara through the prism of The Beatles, in particular, their leadership engine of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Lennon was quite obviously the edgier, more radical operator of the two, an unpredictable spectrum capable of producing great, stinking duds, but also unmatched hits. McCartney, always trying to please too many, was safe.