Sri Lanka have produced many great cricketers who earned fame in the international circuit with their outstanding performances like Arjuna Ranatunga, Roshan Mahanama, Aravinda de Silva, Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasith Malinga, Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara.
The mighty Sangakkara left international cricket after the second Test against India, which Sri Lanka lost by a huge margin of 278 runs.
In his last series, he managed only 95 runs in four innings, averaging 23.75 without scoring any fifty.
"I wish I could keep on playing but I know when the time comes you have to go and I know this is my time, now I am looking forward to a new innings with my family," Sangakkara said on his retirement.
Sangakkara finished his Test career as the fifth highest run scorer (12,400). Only four batsmen are ahead of him -- Sachin Tendulkar (15,921), Ricky Ponting (13,378), Jacques Kallis (13,289) and Rahul Dravid (13,288). His tally of 6,830 (average 60.44) in 75 Tests is the second highest by any batsman in Sri Lanka.
Mahela Jayawardene had managed 7167 (average 59.72) in 81 Tests.
He led Sri Lanka in 15 Test matches and showed more responsibility as he scored 1601 runs at an average of 69.60, hitting four hundreds and seven fifties.
Sangakkara proved his mettle against all Test-playing nations, but against Pakistan he was outstanding.
In his 23 appearances against Pakistan, he scored 2911 runs, averaging 74.64. His most centuries and fifties were against Pakistan, 10 and 12, respectively.
In ODIs, he scored 14,234 runs in 404 matches, averaging nearly 42 with 25 hundreds and 93 half-centuries.
He took 402 catches in ODIs and has 99 stumpings against his name. Overall he scored 28,016 runs in all three formats of the game.
After losing the World Cup 2015 quarter-final against South Africa, Kumar Sangakkara along with old friend Mahela Jayawardena had announced retirement from One-day Internationals.
Sangakkara said he wanted to retire from all formats of the game after Sri Lanka’s World Cup campaign but promised his board to be available for the back-to-back home series against Pakistan and India.
About the prospects of the Sri Lankan team after his retirement, he said, "Angelo is a fantastic captain, a fantastic cricketer. I think he is the ideal man to lead this team of youngsters."
Just after the second Test against India, Sangakkara received a pleasant surprise when the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena offered him a post of Sri Lanka High Commissioner to United Kingdom. "It was a surprise, I have to go and think about it… I don’t have enough experience or knowledge to do a job like that," Sangakkara said.
Sangakkara expressed his regret for not having won a World Cup despite playing two finals. He rated England 2014 his best overseas tour in which Sri Lanka won the Test series 1-0.
Jayawardena and Sangakkara were the backbone of Sri Lankan batting for more than a decade. They guided their team to many famous victories, including the WorldT20 in 2014.
Both players were part of the team that reached the World Cup finals in 2007 and 2011.
Sangakkara, 37, began his Test career as a wicket-keeper batsman, as Romesh Kaluwitharana’s replacement, but his batting overshadowed his keeping ability. In mid-2006 he scored runs at an average of 46.90. After that, Sri Lankan selectors decided he would be more valuable to the side as a specialist batsman. Sangakkara became Sri Lanka’s regular No 3 batsman.
Mahela and Sangakkara played 126 Tests together and scored 6554 runs in their partnerships, at an average of 56.50. They recorded 19 century and 27 fifty partnerships.
Mahela and Sangakkara established a world record partnership of 624 runs for the third wicket. Jayawardene and Sangakkara scored 374 and 287, respectively. It was the highest partnership ever, surpassing 576 runs scored by Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama against India at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo in 1997.
They also broke the Test record for the third wicket -- that of 467 between Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones, which they scored against Sri Lanka in Wellington in 1991.
They batted 293 times together in international cricket for a total of 13,368 runs, with 36 century stands and 62 of fifty. The highest ODI partnership between them was 179. The prolific Sangakkara was declared the ICC Cricketer of the Year in 2012.
Finding their replacement will not be easy for the islanders.