Denagamage Praboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene ( born 27 May 1977), known as Mahela Jayawardene, is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer and a former captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team. He is a specialist batsman.

Jayawardene made his Test cricket debut in 1997 and his One Day International (ODI) debut the following season. In 2006 he made the highest ever score by a Sri Lankan in Test cricket, scoring 374 in the second Test of Sri Lankas home series against South Africa. He has a test cricket average of over 50 and a One Day average in the 30s. He is the first player in the history of Sri Lankan cricket to score over 10,000 Test runs. Despite his relatively low ODI average, Jayawardene is considered to be one of the best batsmen produced by Sri Lanka and is generally held in high regard as a legend of the modern game along with team-mate Kumar Sangakkara. He is one of only three Sri Lankans—the others being Sanath Jayasuriya and Sangakkara—to have scored more than 10,000 runs in ODIs.

Jayawardene was a key member of the team that won the 2014 World T20 as well as the team that made the finals of the 2007 World Cup, the 2011 World Cup and 2012 World T20.

In 2006, Jayawardene was named by the International Cricket Council as the best international captain of the year and he was nominated in 2007 as the best Test cricket player of the year. He is also known for his fielding skills in the inner ring, with a report prepared by Cricinfo in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the most number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman, with the fifth highest run-out/match ratio in ODIs. Statistics also reveal that c Jayawardene b Muralitharan is the most common bowler-fielder combination in the history of Test cricket.

Jayawardene led Sri Lanka to Pakistan for a Test series in March–April 2009. The series was conducted after the Indian team withdrew from playing in Pakistan, following the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. The first Test ended in a draw. Even though he scored a double century in the first Test, Jayawardene was to resign from captaincy after the second Test in the series. Sri Lanka was in a good position in the Test with Thilan Samaraweera hitting his second successive double hundred of the series and Tillakaratne Dilshan scoring a century. On their way to the Gaddafi Stadium for the third days play, the bus that carried the Sri Lankan players was fired at by 12 masked gunmen. Jayawardene, along with six other Sri Lankan cricketers sustained injuries. Six policemen that guarded the bus and two civilians were killed in the attack. He resigned from vice-captaincy after the teams World Cup defeat. He was appointed as captain again after Tillakaratne Dilshans controversial captaincy. He was the captain of Kochi Tuskers Kerala in the Indian Premier League. He now plays for the Delhi Daredevils as captain. He won the Spirit of Cricket Award 2013.This was the second instance of him winning this award.

On 25th Feb, 2014 in an Asia Cup fixture against Pakistan, Mahela Jayawardene became only the 2nd cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar to appear in 600 international matches.

Jayawardene was educated at one of the most prestigious schools of Sri Lanka, Nalanda College Colombo. At early age Mahelas father, Mr Senerath Jayawardene introduced him to Lionel Mendis Coaching Clinic run by Nondescripts Cricket Club in Cinnamon Gardens. It was there that he learned to play cricket. Mahel captained Nalanda College Colombo first XI cricket team in 1994. He developed his talents through the school cricket team, eventually becoming captain. He was runner-up for the best schoolboy cricketer award during the 1994 cricketing season.

Domestically he has played for Sinhalese Sports Club since 1995. He was signed to play as an overseas player for Derbyshire for the first half of the 2008 English cricket season. However, his commitments to Sri Lanka and involvement in the Indian Premier League prevented him from playing any part in the 2008 county season.

Mahela Jayawardene is the 69th Sri Lanka Test Cap, having made his debut against India at Colombo in 1997. Jayawardene made his Test debut in the record breaking Test in 1997 against India at R.P.S., Colombo. Jayawardene added 66 to Sri Lankas first innings score of 952/6, the highest Test score ever. He was at the crease when the previous highest Test score was surpassed. Early in his career he scored 167 against New Zealand and 242 against India.

Jayawardenes One Day International debut was against Zimbabwe at Premadasa in January 1998. Sri Lanka won the match, with Jayawardene hitting the winning run. In the next game Jayawardene scored 74. It took only 11 matches before he scored his first century, which was against England in the Carlton and United World Series game at Adelaide. Jayawardene entered a pressure situation, with Sri Lanka struggling at 134/4 in the run chase, but made an innings of 120 runs to win the match. The match is notable for Ross Emersons no-balling of Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing, which led the Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga to lead his team to the edge of the field and consider walking out of the match, as well as physical shoulder-barging by some players.

Jayawardene was the captain of the Sri Lankan national team during the England tour in 2006 in the absence of Marvan Atapattu. He led his team to 1–1 draw in the Test series and an emphatic 5-0 whitewash in the ODI series.

In the first Test of the 2006 Test series against South Africa, Jayawardene shared a world record partnership of 624 runs alongside Kumar Sangakkara. This partnership, the highest for any wicket in first-class cricket history, and the first instance of a stand of 600 or more in a first-class or Test match innings, smashed the previous third wicket stance for Sri Lanka, surpassing 262 which involved himself along with Thilan Samaraweera. It also broke the previous record for the third wicket for all Test playing nations surpassing the 467 run partnership made by the New Zealanders Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones.

Jayawardene became the first Sri Lankan captain to score a Test triple-century, making 374 off 572 deliveries with 43 fours and 1 six, the fourth highest individual innings score in Test match cricket and the highest by a right-hander. He is also the first batsman to pass 350 in a Test without going on to break the world record. He also surpassed the highest score by a Sri Lankan in a Test match, previously Sanath Jayasuriyas 340 in 1997 against India, coincidentally also produced in a world record partnership.

He was also chosen as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2007. In the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Jayawardene hit one century and four half-centuries and was the second highest run-scorer in the list topped by Australias Matthew Hayden. His century, which came against New Zealand helped Sri Lanka win the Semi-Final. Sri Lanka finished runners-up in the World Cup losing to Australia in the final..

He has scored centuries against all Test-playing nations. He achieved this feat on the 21st February 2009 by scoring his maiden Test century against Pakistan at the National Stadium in Karachi, Pakistan.

Fig : Jayawardene batting in a Test match for Sri Lanka in 2008