Cricket: Kumar right at home here in NZ

Sri Lanka's star batsman Kumar Sangakkara is relishing the opportunity to go up against his wicketkeeping opposite when the one-day series starts next week.

While not from the Australian mind-games school of targeting a player from the opposition before a series begins, the keeper-batsman admits he's impressed with Brendon McCullum.

"He's becoming very good for New Zealand. He's a very good player," Sangakkara said.

Jacob Oram was another player reserved for mention in what the 27-year-old described as a "good all-round team".

Sangakkara has toured New Zealand once before, in 2001 when the Sri Lankans defeated New Zealand 4-1 in a one-day series.

On that tour Sangakkara's personal figures didn't match up to the team's success, but the Black Caps bowlers can be assured of one thing: Sangakkara is a much better player now than he was then.

This year he has raised his level to that of the greats, scoring more than 1000 runs in the calendar year in both forms of the game. In one-day cricket he has scored 1009 runs at a rate of 56.1 and he has beaten that tally by 105 runs in tests, where he has averaged 55.7.

None of this sudden success has come by chance. Sangakkara - acknowledged as one of the fittest and most intelligent players to play the game - would be a disciple of the Gary Player mantra: The harder he works, the luckier he gets.

"I had an overall look at my batting technique, my scoring areas, then tightening up my technique in those areas," Sangakkara said. "I also learnt to play longer innings. I had been guilty of throwing away my wicket playing too aggressively at times.

"It was a lot of hard work and it's good to see it coming to fruition."

Sangakkara believes he will need to take his discipline to new-found levels to counteract the expected seam movement from New Zealand's wickets. He only needed to look to the wintry conditions outside Eden Park's indoor nets to understand that many of the pitches will be under-prepared.

"You need to tighten up your areas of scoring and tighten up your strokemaking," Sangakkara said. "I think you need to be a bit more conservative with your strokeplay at the start but I think the best way to play on any wicket is with aggression to put the pressure back on the bowlers."

Sangakkara must be the only member of the world's batting club who believes the odd bowler-friendly wicket is actually good for the game.

"When you look at all the wickets around the world, they're getting more and more batter-friendly, so it's nice for the bowlers to get a bit of encouragement."

That might be because he sees no advantage to New Zealand if the wickets have a green tinge.

"If you look at our attack, it is predominantly seam," he said, with just the hint of a smile.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY