A century of Test Matches is a huge moment for any cricketer for there have been so few who have reached the landmark in the 130 years of Test cricket. This week Mahela Jayawardene became just the 48th player to play 100 Tests and the exclusive club has just three other Sri Lankans, Murali, Vaas and Jayasuriya. It’s even special when considering that Sri Lankan stalwarts like Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva played only 93 Tests although their careers spanned for nearly two decades.

Although it was a huge moment, it didn’t attract the credit it deserved, partly because the Test was played away from home and it was against the lowly Bangladesh.

For that matter, no Sri Lankan cricketer has been given a reception worthy to celebrate his 100th Test cap. The first Sri Lankan to play 100 Tests also did it against Bangladesh at P. Sara Stadium while the second man to cross the milestone, Muttiah Muralitharan, also played his against Bangladesh and this time the location was the little known Bogra. While Vaas was lucky to play his against England at Kandy with much media attention, personally it turned out to be a bitter experience for him as there were media reports that he was snubbed by the Board Chairman.

Of the four Sri Lankans, Jayawardene is the youngest and quickest to reach the milestone. While Murali did it when he was 34 having played 14 years of Test cricket, Jayasuriya reached the milestone when he was 36 having played 15 years of Test cricket with Vaas getting there at the age of 33 having played 13 years of Test cricket. Jayawardene reached the milestone at the age of 31 after just 11 years in Tests.

Jayawardene was lucky that he came into the side at the right time. No doubt he was earmarked for greater things while still at school and he went onto make his debut soon after turning 20 and from the very start made an impression as a Test cricketer. On debut as the senior Sri Lankans were making merry at the expense of an Indian attack on a flat R. Premadasa wicket, he went onto post a half-century as Ranatunga’s side piled up a massive 952 for six.

Next year, playing only his third Test, he posted twin half-centuries against New Zealand, but his rise to prominence actually came in the next Test in Galle where he made a monumental 167 on a difficult pitch where there was only one other half-century was scored.

The selectors realizing his potential named him vice-captain to Sanath Jayasuriya when they made complete overhaul to the set up after a poor World Cup in England.

But from thereon his form slumped and soon he was relieved of the duty, but he has always maintained that the leadership role has never affected his batting. When Jayasuriya quit the captaincy, he was named Marvan Atapattu’s deputy and when the captain failed to recover from a back injury in 2006 he was named as the captain of Sri Lanka’s tour of England and made an immediate impact.

His greatest moment, perhaps, came at Lord’s that year. Jayawardene had already scored a hundred at the game’s headquarters in Sri Lanka’s previous visit to that country in 2002 and this time his century was worth even more as he bravely batted to ensure a draw. His second innings 119 was pure class and it was an absolute treat to watch.

Sri Lanka lost the next Test in Birmingham, but did remarkably well by squaring the series when they won the final Test in Nottingham. Then Sri Lanka went onto hand England an embarrassing 5-0 whitewash in the ODIs and at the age of 29, Jayawardene was making tremendous progress and immediately afterwards, in the next series against South Africa at home, his popularity reached great heights.

Jayawardene is now the highest run scorer for Sri Lanka in Tests with almost 8000 runs to his name and his 24 Test hundreds is a Sri Lankan record, four better than Aravinda de Silva’s 20 and only Arjuna Ranatunga (38) has scored more half-centuries than Jayawardene (32). His average of 52.36 is just behind Kumar Sangakkara’s stupendous 54.27; he has played 22 Tests fewer than the Sri Lankan captain. His 374 against South Africa is also the highest individual score by a Sri Lankan and the fourth highest in Test history.

In ODIs, meanwhile, Jayawardene has scored 7580 runs and only Atapattu (8529), de Silva (9284) and Jayasuriya (12,719) have scored more runs than him.

It’s a safe bet to say that Jayawardene would become the first Sri Lankan to go pass 10,000 Test runs and pass Jayasuriya’s ODI aggregate.

In his Cricinfo column, Kumar Sangakkara paying tribute to his captain said, "this inspirational man has led us so honestly, unselfishly and intelligently in the last three years."

Although under Jayawardene Sri Lanka have gone from bad to worse in ODI cricket in the last 12 months, he has argued that the team is in a process of rebuilding and that performances can suffer in those circumstances. Many supporters will give him the benefit of the doubt as not too long ago he won the ICC Captain of the Year award over Ricky Ponting, Graeme Smith, Stephen Fleming and Michael Vaughan.

He has also had complete control of things and has stipulated what is needed of a Sri Lankan cricketer as you time and again witness exemplary behavior by local cricketers on the field. You hardly remember when a Sri Lankan was called up to the Match Referee’s room for excessive appealing, showing dissent or for any other misdemeanor and the end result has been the country winning back to back Spirit of Cricket Awards.

He also saved the International Cricket Council from an embarrassing situation after the world’s best match officials got the game’s rules wrong in the World Cup final and he won many admirers for agreeing to send his batters down in complete darkness in Barbados.

Cricket enthusiast will argue for years whether Jayawardene was a better batsman than Aravinda de Silva. The former great has said that the present captain is certainly a better player than him and Jayawardene has returned the complement by saying, "I have always said I won’t be able to replace him. Aravinda is Aravinda. With the amount of talent he had, I wish he had the same facilities and the same environment to play. I’m sure his record would have been much better."

But the thing that is certain is that when he retires, he would have broken all Sri Lankan batting records and made it extremely difficult for any other person to surpass him.

While he maybe ranked as one of the best batsman in the modern era along with Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Kevin Pietersen and Mohammad Yousuf, the same can’t be said of the way Jayawardene has handled things at times, which is unbecoming of a national captain and at times even childish.

Recently, we were giving him all the accolades possible for the way he led the side during the Test series against India. The clever manner in which he used the Review System was an indication that he was being smarter than Anil Kumble, the opposition captain and that he was able to make quick decisions, that helped Sri Lanka win the series.

A few weeks after the series we wrote in these pages that Jayawardene had masterminded a campaign to seek the intervention of leading politicians to keep their lucrative Indian Premier League contracts in tact. We also revealed that contrary to popular belief, the board had given permission only to play the inaugural edition of the IPL. He wasn’t available for any immediate comments on the issue and going by our previous experiences, where he had refused to speak anything relating to IPL contracts at press conferences, we went ahead and published the story. What followed was absolute mayhem.

Instead of following the protocol of clarifying or denying the news item, Jayawardene cleverly used his powers through the players’ association, which has tarnished its image in recent times due to the presence of a couple of bankrupt ex-cricketers, called both the print and electronic media for a media conference and insulted this paper publicly accusing us of running a campaign against him.

While that conduct was unbecoming of a national captain, the recent unconfirmed reports are causing more worries. Although Sri Lanka were initially due to play three Test Matches against Pakistan, later it was reversed to two and now there are accusations that the call for reduction of the Tests came from the captain himself. If the allegation is true, it’s a sad reflection on the national captain as Sri Lanka are getting into the trend of playing two Test series and fewer Test Matches. They played just six Tests last year and even Bangladesh played three Tests more than them.

Throughout his career, there have been a few occasions where Jayawardene has committed some costly mistakes.

In 2002, Jayawardene still a relatively young player in the side at the age of 25 revolted against the board refusing to sign the Ambush Marketing Clause introduced by the International Cricket Council to protect their sponsors. The players involved in the protest were all senior pros, Jayasuriya, Muralitharan, Atapattu and Vaas, who had already tasted a World Cup win.

In fact, Aravinda de Silva, one of the senior most players in that squad didn’t have any issues with signing the contract and so did Hashan Tillekeratne, but Jayawardene thought it fitting to rebel against the board. He came in for heavy criticism from the local media and the pressure created through public opinion eventually forced him to sign the contract. And the horrific tournament subsequently he had in South Africa has been well documented.

While the 2006 England series was the greatest moment in Mahela’s captaincy, it also was the start of a public spat with his former captain Jayasuriya. Jayawardene along with coach Tom Moody vehemently opposed Jayasuriya’s decision to reverse his retirement from Test cricket and one of the greatest players of our times was given a torrid time in England.

In recent months, his handling of the IPL and the proposed England series was completely unacceptable. Throughout, Jayawardene had repeatedly mourned the lack of Test Matches Sri Lanka were getting with stronger opponents and eventually when the opportunity came, he has kicking it away.

While applauding the national captain reaching the landmark of 100 Test Matches in record time, cricket enthusiasts will also hoping that saner council will prevail when addressing sensitive issues such as giving prominence to country’s assignments. Maybe, all the wrong is not his. The problem perhaps lies with his advisors.