Action replay: Little Kumar Sangakkara bats to fame

Fortunately for Sharujan, a camera caught his shot too.

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As it was shown on the big screen, the shot caught the eye of Tony Greig, the late Australian commentator who could never resist anything Sri Lankan. “That’s a little Kumar Sangakkara. Have a look at that,” he bellowed in his inimitable tone.

By the next over, the producers had hastily arranged a split-screen showing the boy, in a helmet several sizes too big, and wielding a bat larger than him, and his idol playing the exact same cover-drive. A legend was born.

Four years later, few in Sri Lanka do not know Sharujan or — as he is called now — “Sharu, the little Sanga”.

Same goes for the sides touring Lanka. The boy, now 9 and still small for his age, was at Premdasa Stadium in Colombo last week to catch the Indian team in action, wearing a T-shirt proclaiming him as ‘The Little Sanga’.

“They all know him, from Virat Kohli to R Ashwin and the others. He’s missing Mahendra Singh Dhoni. In fact, every time Sharu walked up to him for an autograph with a bat, Dhoni would ask him to show his cover-drive to him,” says a smiling Shanmuganathan. A wedding photographer by profession, he now spends most of his time escorting his son to daily cricket practice and matches.

Just then, Kohli edges a delivery into the slips and is out. “He should have played it closer to his body,” Sharu remarks, before adding the obvious, “Like Sanga does.”

Recalling their life before that momentous shot at the Sinhalese Sports Club, Shanmuganathan says, “Those were tough days. I used to work in a tea plantation before moving to Colombo and becoming a wedding photographer. We lived hand-to-mouth.”

Shanmuganathan loved cricket, and it passed on to his son. “All Sharu wanted even while a toddler was a bat and ball,” says Shanmuganathan, who also has an older daughter.

In 2011, when they went for that Australia-Lanka match, he was struggling to send Sharu to school. Shanmuganathan had approached St Benedict’s, but the fees was too high. “I didn’t have that kind of money.”

Even that changed with the cover-drive. “Once Sharu became Little Sanga, they came forward on their own to offer him admission,” Shanmuganathan says.

Sharu is now the star player in a junior team club, also pitching in as a leg-spinner. Shanmuganathan is at hand, photographing his son’s exploits, which can also be seen on YouTube.

“It’s not just the cover-drive. Martin Crowe was doing commentary once and noted how Sharu plays the hook shot, the sweep and even the flick just like Kumar Sangakkara. Even Kumar has acknowledged the similarity,” says Shanmuganathan.

Sharu counts a breezy 75 made against a “tough” attack as his best performance so far. But it was during a trip to Bangalore in May, where he represented the CCC School of Cricket against the Imtiaz Ahmed Cricket Academy in under-12 and under-14 matches, that he really came to the fore. Still not 9, he was named man of the tournament.

Shanmuganathan also tells proudly that Sharu has not let the fame or the game come in the way of his studies. “Everyone knows him in school and his teachers adore him. He has stood first in all but three of his grades so far, coming second once,” he adds.

Even that, Sharu says, comes from “Sanga sir”. “You know why I love to study? Because Sanga sir told me that only if I study hard will I succeed in cricket,” he says.

As Sangakkara gets ready to hang up his boots, Little Sanga is planning a grand farewell, though he won’t talk about his plans. As for life after, Sanga hasn’t thought about it. Ask him whether he likes any other cricketers, and his answer is a categorical, “No!”