Sangakkara laughs off talks of return

Dubai - The 38-year-old also brushed aside thoughts that these retired cricketers were taking this tournament lightly.

Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara laughed off talk of coming back from retirement and said that his main focus was to go out there and give his best every time. The elegant southpaw got the Masters Champions League off to a blistering start by smacking 86 for the Gemini Arabians. And along with South African Richard Levi and Australian Brad Hodge, scripted a comfortable 78-run win over the Libra Legends at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
This was after captain Virender Sehwag had clubbed the first ball of the MCL for a six. "Definitely not," Sangakkara laughed when asked about a possible return to the international fold. "It is nice to go out there and score some runs and I thought the way the openers set the tone with Viru hitting the first ball for six was outstanding. That really got us going and then it was easy for me to take some time to settle in and then start scoring. And then, Hodgey was outstanding in the middle," said Sangakkara.
The 38-year-old also brushed aside thoughts that these retired cricketers were taking this tournament lightly. "I don't think any of the boys who played out there or are going to play in this tournament want to look bad. I think they all want to perform at their best. You know, it doesn't matter whether some of us have retired or not, it is just the case of when you are in, you try and do your best possible job out there and then display your skills. It is no different for me," he said. Sangakkara was within sight of a century but holed out to Ian Butler at long off, off Ryan ten Doeschate, 14 runs short. "That was probably a ball that I could have hit through a bit more maybe and got another boundary or a six. You get disappointed when you get out, it doesn't matter how many runs you've scored. It's the same for every batsman I think and they just want to keep batting. And that's where the fun is in cricket when you are batting and batting for long periods of time," said Sangakkara.
Sangakkara also said that it felt a bit like the old days after he pulled off a stumping off former international teammate Muttiah Muralitharan. "In my mind it felt like the old days, but the body kind of protests a bit in between but you saw the skill displayed by Murali again. He is the kind of bowler who just can stay off cricket for a while and then come back and bowl with his eyes closed. He displayed a lot of skills, so did Saqlain, Kyle Mills upfront was very impressive and Rana Naved at the end was outstanding. So, we have got a good balance. Everything doesn't work well everyday so, hopefully we will be still up to it," he said.
Meanwhile, Jacques Kallis, who was named captain after Saurav Ganguly was ruled out of the tournament because of a back spasm said that they were outplayed but added that they can bounce back. "I think they (Gemini Arabians) played really well and I think they are probably the side to beat this tournament. There are still a lot of games to go and we will bounce back," he added.