Intro
The Melbourne Stars welcome one of the world’s biggest T20 stars to their team in Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga.
Malinga bowls with a distinct ‘sling’ like motion, which generates serious pace and disconcerts batsmen who struggle to pick up the ball's trajectory. He is well known for his swinging yorkers which have the ability to smash batsmen's toes and more importantly, produce big wicket-hauls.
Just like his hair, Malinga’s T20 record is one of kind – he has played 32 T20 Internationals for Sri Lanka and 112 T20s for various domestic teams - most notably the Mumbai Indians in the IPL. He has taken a mammoth 155 wickets in the format including best figures of 5/13.
Malinga’s highlight reel continues; he claimed the purple cap for the most wickets ever in an IPL season with 28 scalps in 16 matches in 2011. Later that year in Champions League cricket, he was the highest wicket-taker of the tournament claiming the golden wicket award and named Player of the Tournament.
Showing his stature on the world T20 scene, Malinga has been named as the official event ambassador for the World T20 Championships by the ICC.
With almost half of Australia’s Sri Lankan community residing in Melbourne, crowds are sure to flock to the MCG to see ‘Slinga’ spearhead the Stars' pace attack. The speedster and his family - wife Tanya and infant daughter - will relocate to Melbourne for the tournament.