• Affirms lack of interest in future political career 

Former Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardena recently spoke in jest about a probable future career path in politics, saying that he and his friends would have to contest one day under the ball guard symbol, as all other symbols were unavailable. 

Speaking at the Chamber of Young Lankan Entrepreneurs (COYLE) Leadership Forum 2024, Jayawardena said: “I hope that you all vote for me on the 14th!”

After a brief pause Jayawardena, 47, elaborated: “Everyone is wondering which party. A few of my friends – we thought we would try this out. We thought we would create a party and create some excitement, but unfortunately, all the names were taken. 

“Then we thought, ‘Okay, we’ll start with a symbol.’ The obvious thing – a cricket bat – it was taken a few years back. A cricket ball was also taken. We googled and saw they (the parties) had nothing to do with cricket. One of my friends said that the only thing probably available as a symbol will be the ball guard. And that was it, our nascent political dreams went away with that,” Jayawardena joked.

The former star batter, who retired from the game in 2015 after an 18-year career, did assert that he had no aspirations to contest an election for the foreseeable future.

“You are all safe, at least for another five years, I guess. There is no burning ambition on my part to be a politician,” he added. 

Jayawardena scored over 25,000 runs across all three formats of the game during his stellar career. 

(JK)