DON'T WORRY BE HAPPY: It dawned very early in Mahela Jayawardene's life that cricket is just a game. PHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
COOL as a cucumber is how many from the cricketing world see Mahela Jayawardene.
No doubt, there's a good reason for that calm and collected demeanour of the professional cricketer.
The former Sri Lanka international is a picture of serenity on the batting crease because his outlook on life changed considerably when he was in his late teens.
"I was 18 or 19 when that happened," the 38-year-old said last night from his hotel room in New Plymouth before making his debut tonight for the Devon Hotel Central Districts Stags in their sixth-round Georgie Pie Twenty20 match against the Canterbury Kings at Yarrow Stadium.
That happening was the tragic loss of his younger brother, Dishal, 16, to brain tumour in Colombo.
Understandably that cruel blow almost nipped schoolboy Jayawardene's budding cricketing career.
"It gave me a different perspective on life because he was so close - a very good friend and a very good cricketer as well," said the adroit batsmen who realised nothing seemed more important after the death of his brother.
When his parents, Sunila and Senerath Jayawardene, eventually persuaded him to return to pursue his passion after the hiatus the cricketer took that placid demeanour to the turbulent batting crease.
"I wasn't holding on to anything or chasing dreams. This is what life is about ... so you tend to keep things the same," said Jayawardene whose 18-year international career culminated after the ODI World Cup in March.
The right-hander had played 149 tests, averaging 49.84 runs an innings. He also had an impressive accumulation of 448 one-day internationals and 55 Twenty20 internationals.
"I enjoyed the highs and didn't go too low in my career so I kept a balanced state of mind."
The enormity of losing someone so close was phenomenal and would remain forever with Jayawardene. Adjusting, as such, wasn't an option.
"You tend to look at life in the same and that will be the same even when I'm done playing cricket."
That sense of existence is a well documented part of his life outside the high-octane cricket cauldron.
"I lead a different life. I try to help people, the needy and charities so that gives me a sense of fulfilment and how I should give back in better ways."
Jayawardene spearheads the HOPE cancer project in memory of his deceased brother, helping build a 750-bed unit at Maharagama, the country's first dedicated hospital to the disease.
"We've built another hospital in the north which is a 140-bed one for cancer," he said, pointing out he would be involved in another march in Sri Lanka next year to raise funds.
The Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology has helped secure the ex-international's services for CD so, consequently, he will do some promotional work for the educational facility that has ties with a Sri Lankan tertiary institution.
Jayawardene, who has just returned from the T20 three-match promotional tour of the United States where he played for the Sachin Tendulkar XI versus Shane Warne outfit boasting all stars of yesteryear, said his cricketing career was tapering off but he would play as long as his body complied.
"I realise somewhere it'll have to stop so I want to be involved in work off it which gives me immense pleasure."
His parents are proud of him and since retiring he is spending more quality time with wife Christina Mallika Sirisena and daughter Sansa Araya.
"My father is into cricket but my mother was a typical housewife but later on she was the expert and was giving advise in a good way," he said with a laugh.
Unlike fellow Sri Lanka captain Kumara Sangakkara, Jayawardene was not able to pursue a degree after high school.
"Sanga was studying law and two years into he stopped. It's also tough to do things because of the way things are set up in our country."
After three days of travelling, Jayawardene was content to chill out yesterday but was meeting CD coach Heinrich Malan last night to see where he would batting today.
"It's a young team so there's good and bad in a game but it's about consistency and execution," he said, mindful it doesn't become a burden as he prepares to embrace a new challenge in a new environment after six years of top level T20 that yielded a world title for Sri Lanka last year.
It's imperative, he said, not to be rattled in T20s.
With the young Stags wanting to pick his brains, Jayawardene considered himself lucky to have players such as Arjuna Rantunga and Aravinda de Silva to look up to.