Marvellous Marvan

Marvan Atapattu, who announced his retirement from international cricket after a marvellous on Tuesday, is likely to link with Sydney grade club St George next month.

Reports say that the former Sri Lanka captain, who last week described Sri Lanka's selection panel as "Muppets" led by a joker, had been negotiating with the Sydney club and Channel Nine throughout the Hobart Test. He is expected to relocate with his family to Sydney before Christmas, and then get on the Channel Nine commentary team for the triangular one-day series involving Australia, Sri Lanka and India.

Atapattu, who scored a defiant 80 as Sri Lanka chased an improbable 507 runs to beat Australia in the second Test, had kept his place in the team for the Hobart match despite his outburst during the teams innings and 40-run defeat to Australia in the first Test last week, when he said, "Sri Lankan cricket, I think at this moment in time, is not going the way, the direction, it should be going. Especially with the Muppets, basically, headed by a joker."

He scored 51, 16, 25 and 80 in the just-concluded two-Test series against Australia.

The right-hand batsman, who will turn 37 on Thursday, had a difficult initiation in Test cricket, scoring only one run in his first six innings, starting in November 1990, but finished with 5,502 runs at 39.02 in 90 Tests, including six double-centuries.

He also played 268 one-day internationals for Sri Lanka but his greatest performances were in Tests.

Despite being hampered by a back problem, which forced him to miss of many matches and eventually relinquish the captaincy to Mahela Jayawardene, he converted six of his 16 Test hundreds into double-centuries, a feat bettered only by Don Bradman (12), Wally Hammond and Brian Lara (seven each).

A summary of the batsman's career:

- Made his Test debut against India at Chandigarh in November 1990 just after his 20th birthday and bagged a pair (duck in both innings).

- Had to wait for almost two years for another opportunity but managed the scores of 0 & 1 only (v Australia at Colombo SSC in August 1992).

- Got yet another pair in his third Test (v India at Ahmedabad in February 1994)-

- Did not score above 29 in his next 11 innings, before hitting his first Test century in his 10th match also against India at Mohali in November 1997- 7 years after his debut.

- Got a pair on two more occasions in his Test career and a total of 22 ducks - both are records for a top-order batsman.

- Has scored six double-hundreds in his career, including a highest of 249 (v Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in May 2004). Only three batsmen have made more Test double centuries: Wally Hammond (7),Brian Lara (8) and Don Bradman (12).

- Has batted at all positions excepting no.8 & 11 in Tests and number 10 & 11 in ODIs.

Atapattu in Test cricket

Performance against various opponents

Opponent	Mts	Inns	NO	Runs	Hs	Avg	100	50	0
Australia	11	21	1	625	133	31.25	2	2	2
Bangladesh	4	4	0	250	201	62.50	1	0	0
England	10	17	3	603	201*	43.07	2	1	2
India	14	22	1	791	108	37.66	2	3	4
New Zealand	8	13	2	298	127	27.09	1	0	3
Pakistan	13	25	2	728	207*	31.65	1	3	4
South Africa	12	23	0	601	120	26.13	1	4	4
West Indies	8	16	3	461	118	35.46	1	3	1
Zimbabwe	10	15	3	1145	249	95.41	5	1	2
TOTAL	90	156	15	5502	249	39.02	16	17	22

Performance at home & away

	Mts	Inns	NO	Runs	Hs	Avg	100	50	0
at Home	48	78	9	2671	223	38.71	8	7	11
Away	41	76	6	2773	249	39.61	8	10	11
at Neutral places	1	2	0	58	36	29.00	0	0	0

Performance at various positions

	Mts	Inns	NO	Runs	Hs	Avg	100	50	0
1st position	57	96	9	3958	249	45.49	14	12	13
2nd position	25	40	4	1359	223	37.75	2	5	3
3rd position	4	7	0	82	25	11.71	0	0	1
4th position	2	3	1	65	36	32.50	0	0	0
5th position	2	2	0	29	22	14.50	0	0	0
6th position	3	5	0	1	1	0.20	0	0	4
7th position	1	1	0	0	0	0.00	0	0	1
9th position	1	1	1	2	2*	-	0	0	0
10th position	1	1	0	6	6	6.00	0	0	0

Atapattu in One-day internationals

Performance against each opponent:

Opponent	Mts	Inns	NO	Runs	Hs	Avg	SR	100	50	0
Australia	27	27	1	712	101	27.38	63.34	1	4	2
Bangladesh	10	9	4	452	83	90.40	82.63	0	5	0
Canada	1	1	1	24	24*	-	171.42	0	0	0
England	20	19	2	520	132*	30.58	61.53	1	3	1
India	52	52	5	1570	118	33.40	69.13	2	11	3
Kenya	3	3	0	94	52	31.33	70.14	0	1	0
Netherlands	1	1	0	101	101	101.00	85.59	1	0	0
New Zealand	30	29	5	908	83*	37.83	67.40	0	8	1
Pakistan	48	47	4	1766	119*	41.06	67.48	3	12	4
South Africa	34	34	4	1164	124	38.80	70.84	2	7	0
West Indies	14	12	1	312	82*	28.36	59.09	0	2	0
Zimbabwe	28	25	5	906	103*	45.30	64.43	1	6	2
TOTAL	268	259	32	8529	132*	37.57	67.72	11	59	13

Performance at home & away

	Mts	Inns	NO	Runs	Hs	Avg	SR	100	50	0
at Home	75	71	11	2559	118	42.65	65.44	2	21	1
Away	94	92	13	3055	132*	38.67	71.49	6	17	3
at Neutral places	99	96	8	2915	103*	33.12	66.08	3	21	9

Performance at various positions

	Mts	Inns	NO	Runs	Hs	Avg	SR	100	50	0
1st position	42	42	5	1310	124	35.40	68.58	4	6	4
2nd position	50	50	4	1818	118	39.52	67.18	2	13	1
3rd position	120	120	12	4142	132*	38.35	66.33	4	33	6
4th position	9	9	1	328	100	41.00	72.56	1	2	1
5th position	27	27	6	857	87	40.80	74.45	0	5	0
6th position	2	2	1	10	6*	10.00	90.90	0	0	0
7th position	7	7	1	37	12	6.16	50.00	0	0	1
8th position	1	1	1	19	19*	-	45.23	0	0	0
9th position	1	1	1	8	8*	-	200.00	0	0	0