Lasith Malinga

Lasith Malinga is one of the most flamboyant cricketers to have ever come out of Sri Lanka. From the bleached hair, eyebrow piercing, tattoos, to his round-arm action, everything he does makes page 3 news. Malinga learned his cricket on the beaches of Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka's west-coast tourist paradise, with a tennis ball that was shaved and then burned to make it harder. Born in Galle, and nicknamed 'Slinga Malinga' for his freakish action, he was first discovered by former Sri Lankan paceman Champaka Ramanayake,who was so impressed by Malinga's raw ability that he invited him to join the Cricket Foundation of Sri Lanka.

Malinga created ripples in the domestic scene with his deadly bowling and soon he was selected to tour Australia in 2004. He made his Test debut in the same series at Darwin and nipped out six wickets, including Darren Lehmann and Adam Gilchrist in the same over. He made his ODI debut in July 2004 against the UAE and has been a regular fixture in that format for Sri Lanka. One of Malinga's finest performance came when he took nine wickets against New Zealand at Napier in a Test, helping Sri Lanka level the series. The next best showing came at the 2007 World Cup when he became the first man to take four wickets in four balls in ODIs. He achieved this against South Africa and almost bowled his side to victory in one of the most sensational heists, but the last wicket pair ensured that South Africa scrapped home.

With a freakish action, Malinga slowly gathers speed as he approaches the bowling crease before winding up to hurl the ball at a great pace. His round-armish and slinging action makes it doubly difficult for the batsman to pick and once Stephen Fleming asked the umpire to change his belt and tie as he was having trouble spotting the ball against a dark background. Malinga has a devastating yorker which has shattered many a batsman's toes and stumps. He also has added a slower yorker to his repertoire. Malinga has a mean bouncer as well which rises sharply on to the batsman's head.

Slinga Malinga's patented toe-crushers which saw him snare four wickets in four consecutive balls in the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean had Sir Viv Richards gushing that Malinga was the best thing to have happened to Sri Lankan cricket after Aravinda de Silva.

Malinga had knee surgery after the CB series in 2008 which ruled him out for cricket for a longtime. He slowly made his comeback into the national side and has lost none of his pace or his searing yorkers. Malinga played for the Mumbai Indians in IPL 2 after he was picked up for 350,000 USD and was their main weapon along with Zaheer Khan. He picked up 18 wickets in 13 games - ending up as the 4th highest wicket-taker in the tournament.

In a decision to prolong his limited overs career, citing the heavy workload of Test cricket, Malinga announced his decision to give up Tests soon after the conclusion of the 2011 World Cup, wherein he garnered 13 wickets, including a career-best 6-38 versus Kenya. In August 2011, he also became the first player to take three ODI hat-tricks.

However, he continued to excel in the shorter forms. He also became the first bowler to surge to 100 wickets in the Indian T20 League, an indication that the mantle of Mumbai's chief marksman sits easy on him. In the interim, Malinga was named as the brand ambassador for the 2012 T20 Cup in Sri Lanka, where the hosts finished as bridesmaids again.

Two years later in 2014, Malinga accidentally led Sri Lanka to their maiden T20 Cup title as they finally shed their bridesmaids tag in Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene's farewell T20I clash. Finding himself thrust into captaincy after Dinesh Chandimal sat out to make way for Lahiru Thirimanne, the blonde pacer dished out lethal yorkers in the final, stifling India into submission.

His problematic left ankle kept him out of action till almost the end of 2014. After a corrective surgery, Malinga was supposed to return to the side for the ODIs against New Zealand in 2014-15, but the Sri Lankan think-tank didn't want to risk him. Malinga was included in the 15-man World Cup squad regained fitness before the tournament.

Malinga's performance in the 2015 World Cup was decent if not dominating. He picked up 12 wickets in the tournament but could not save Sri Lanka from bowing out in the quarter-final.

Little known facts about Malinga: His hair, which is a rage across the cricketing world is designed by Colombo hairdresser Nishantha Jayasekera who says that Malinga likes to stand out, and thus goes for unconventional styles.

Malinga was awarded the title of the sexiest cricketer in the whole world during the 2007 World Cup.

After seeing many doctors when he was laid low by the knee injury a mystery man called Eliyantha White who works with supernatural powers and herbs magically cured his injury in 5 days and brought him back to full fitness.

He has a superstition as well - he kisses the ball at the top of his mark, just before running in to bowl.