Sangakkara, cricket's new elder statesman

As Kumar Sangakkara prepares for the England tour with two Championship matches for Durham, Scyld Berry of the Telegraph profiles the Sri Lankan batsman and charts his rise as a batsman and a human being.

Sangakkara says he then had no intention of playing cricket for a living: he was working for a hi-tech firm in Colombo before starting his legal career. But one day in the Nondescripts dressing room everyone was asked about his ambition in cricket, and Sangakkara declared he wanted to bat for Sri Lanka. "There was a bit of laughter in the dressing room when I said that," he recalled.