Lasith Malinga

Date of Birth: 28.08.1983

Batting Style: Right Hand

Role: Bowler

Bowling Style: Right-arm Fast Seam

Batting

Pos. Score

Bowling

Pos. Score

All-rounder

Pos. Score

Test Rankings

124 148

23 546

28 77

ODI Rankings

125 291

9 665

31 184

T20I Rankings

25 211

5 685

10 70

Lasith Malinga - The Record Holder For The Number Of Hat-Tricks

Lasith Malinga is a legendary Sri Lankan cricketer, bowler, former captain of the national team and ICC T20 World Cup 2014 champion with Sri Lanka. A two-time finalist of ICC Cricket World Cup tournaments in 2007 and 2011, and ICC T20 World Cup tournaments in 2009 and 2012, he was also part of the winning squad at the 2014 Asia Cup. Malinga holds numerous unique records and is widely regarded as the last representative of the “golden era” of Sri Lankan cricket.

Lasith Malinga: Biography And Sporting Career

Lasith Malinga, full name Separamadu Lasith Malinga, was born on August 28, 1983, in the port city of Galle, Sri Lanka. Lasith spent his childhood in Rathgama, a small coastal village located about 10 kilometers north-west of Galle. His family – his father, Separamadu Milton, an auto mechanic, and his mother, Swarna Thenuwara, a housewife – belonged to the middle class.

From the age of 11, the sandy beaches of Rathgama replaced a professional cricket academy for Lasith. This is what explains his unique sling bowling action: the soft sand did not allow the ball to bounce properly, and the future sportsman instinctively learned to fire the ball at tremendous speed on a low trajectory, almost parallel to the ground.

After receiving his primary education at Vidyathilake Vidyalaya and successfully passing his exams, Lasith continued his studies at Vidyaloka College. It was there that the young man first gained access to organised cricket infrastructure and proper training. Closer to the end of his studies, former Sri Lankan bowler Champaka Ramanayake noticed Malinga’s unusual technique.

“He (Ramanayake) is a maestro in coaching, and a truly humble man. He was on the verge of retiring when he spotted me in 2001. He told me that my bowling action was something special and he trained me with a pair of glued shoes in front of the wicket to bowl yorkers. I trained hard and he had the confidence in me to give me a match for his team, Galle CC. […] I delivered up to his expectations and claimed eight wickets in that match,” the online version of the Sri Lankan print publication The Sunday Times quotes the athlete as saying.

Later, thanks to Ramanayake’s support, Lasith Malinga moved to the prestigious Mahinda College in Galle – one of the strongest cricket schools in Sri Lanka. In his very first match for Galle Cricket Club, Malinga proved his reputation as a promising fast bowler, taking eight wickets. This eye-catching debut and his further success at club level could not stay under the radar of the country’s top selectors for long.

In July 2004, Malinga made his debut for the Sri Lankan national team in a Test match against Australia and immediately took six wickets. Interestingly, Australian batsman Adam Gilchrist, one of the greatest players of that era, later admitted that he had never seen anything like it and could not work out where the ball was coming from. Sixteen days later, Lasith played his first ODI match, and in June 2006 he made his T20I debut against England. Retelling the entire 16-year career of this outstanding athlete in one article is hardly possible, so let us focus only on his most significant achievements:

• 2007: became the first bowler in history to take a double hat-trick, meaning four wickets in four consecutive balls, at the ICC Cricket World Cup;
• 2011: took his second World Cup hat-trick, becoming the first bowler in history to claim two hat-tricks at world championships;
• 2011: took his third hat-trick during an ODI series against Australia; became the first and only bowler to take three hat-tricks in ODI cricket;
• 2012: was included in the ICC World ODI XI, the symbolic ODI team of the year;
• 2013: won the first of his four IPL titles with the Mumbai Indians;
• 2014: as captain of Sri Lanka, led the team to victory at the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh, beating India in the final. He also won the Asia Cup with the national team;
• 2019: became the first bowler to take 100 wickets in men’s T20 internationals; he then extended his own record by claiming a double hat-trick against New Zealand, becoming the only bowler to repeat this achievement.

Lasith Malinga’s retirement marked the end of an entire era in both Sri Lankan and world cricket. The bowler who changed the way people looked at bowling technique stepped away from the sporting stage gradually, saying goodbye to each format of the game one by one: Tests in 2011, ODIs in 2019 and T20 cricket, including franchise tournaments, in 2021.

After leaving elite sport, Malinga did not step away from the game. He has been actively passing on his experience to the younger generation. The veteran was appointed bowling coach of the Mumbai Indians and worked with the team during the IPL 2024 season. Later, on December 30, 2025, Sri Lanka Cricket officially announced him as fast-bowling consultant for the national men’s team ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026. Lasith is also in demand as a cricket commentator.

Lasith Malinga: Personal Life and Interesting Facts

As for his personal life, Malinga married Tanya Perera in 2010. He met his future wife during the filming of a commercial at a hotel. Tanya is a professional dancer and choreographer. The couple have two children: a son, Duvin Malinga, born in 2012, and a daughter, Ekeesha Separamadu, born in 2015. The family currently lives in Sri Lanka. Despite the fame and wealth he earned over the years of his career, Malinga remains a very humble man and often stresses that he values simple family moments above all trophies and records.

To wrap things up, here is a look at the legendary bowler through a selection of curious facts and impressive figures from his playing statistics:

• During his school years, Lasith was one of the best students in mathematics and seriously considered becoming a banker;
• His favourite dish is classic Sri Lankan rice with young jackfruit curry, known as polos curry;
• Malinga has a pretty good singing voice: his single Mama Pathuwe from the 2025 album Seda Salu has more than one million streams on Spotify;
• Lasith is a deeply religious Buddhist. Before every major life event, he visits a temple to receive blessings from monks;
• The athlete has two meaningful tattoos on his body: the date of his Test debut and the date of his historic world record – four wickets in four balls;
• He collects and breeds decorative koi carp, calling it his “main hobby”.

Lasith Malinga and his content team, Ninety9, actively stay in touch with their multimillion-strong fanbase through the athlete’s official social media accounts: Instagram – @malinga_ninety9, Facebook – @Official.Lasith.Malinga, YouTube – @lasithmalinga99.