A golden generation of Sri Lankan cricketers came to the fore with an astute leader in Arjuna Ranatunga, an explosive opening pair in Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana, classical exponents with the willow in Aravinda De Silva and Roshan Mahanama, the legendary spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and a world class seamer in Chaminda Vaas.
At the turn of the new millennium, Sri Lanka who had arrived on the international stage with a bang looked for the next generation to take their newly built legacy forward. While Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakarra and Dilshan became the pillars of their batting, the hunt was on to rope in world class bowlers in their ranks and strengthen the bowling which still had the great Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas.
With the seasoned customer Chaminda Vaas drawing a close to his glittering career, the Islanders were in desperate need for a seamer who could burden the mantle of leading the seam attack. It wasn’t an easy task to fill into the big shoes of Vaas who was hailed as one of the best seamers of his era.
Sri Lanka had some decent fast bowlers in the limited overs format in Dilhara Fernando and Nuwan Zoysa who had played second fiddle to Vaas in his prime, but they were a touch inconsistent to be hailed as front-line seamers.
Then came around this right arm pacer that was unusual in every manner possible. The cricketing fraternity for a very long time had not seen a speedster with a slinging action. About two decades ago in the 80s, Australian tearaway speedster Jeff Thompson was the best exponent with a low slinging action.
In the 90s, Fannie De Villiers and Waqar Younis attained a lot of success in the international arena with their javelin throwing like bowling actions. But now, Lasith Malinga had arrived and was destined for greater heights in what became a career full of accolades and achievements.
With a rather unorthodox action which kept most watching rather mesmerized , Malinga bowled with express pace and got to swing the ball both ways from nagging lengths.
Sri Lanka had got a lethal weapon in their bowling armoury who could wreck havoc in opposition camps. The best of batsmen found it tough to read those skidding deliveries off his hand and the 'Slinger' sent back the best with the willow back to the pavilion with unassuming ease.
While Malinga was a threat with the new ball, he arguably became the most dangerous limited overs bowler of his generation with the old ball. Malinga had undoubtedly become a match winner of sorts for the Islanders courtesy those menacing reverse swinging deliveries and toe crushing yorkers ran through the defences of many batsman, cartwheeling quite a few stumps. The amazing fact about his bowling was the accuracy with which he bowled those inch-perfect yorkers.
Sri Lanka relied on him heavily and he swung many a matches alongside the 'Old Wily fox' Muttaih Muralitharan in their favour with some terrific performances.
The sight of a seamer who had loads of zinc cream smeared around his face with those curly hair locks flying in all directions approaching the wicket and then hurling the red cherry with a side-on action became a noteworthy sight in international cricket.
He became the harbinger of the Lankan pace attack for over a decade, with the like of Nuwan Kulasekara, Parvez Maharoof, Angelo Matthews, Thisara Perera, Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Pradeep giving him good support from the other end.
As all greats of the sport do, Malinga stepped up his game at the big stages and big moments for his nation. He was Sri Lanka's strike weapon with the new ball in Four World Cups and came out as a true champion, scalping 56 wickets and standing third on the all-time list of wicket takers in the showpiece event.
Most of Sri Lanka's notable wins in a highly successful period where they reached two successive World Cups finals were largely on the back of Muttiah Muralitharan and Malinga's bowling heroics.
The Lankan pace ace had many records to his name with the most notable among them being picking up three hat-tricks in ODIs. He is also the only bowler to have taken two hat-tricks in the ICC World Cups.
In a career spanning almost a decade and a half, Malinga picked up a staggering 338 wickets in 226 ODIs, ending up as his nation's third highest wicket taker behind the legendary off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas.
The seamer bid farewell to a stellar one day international career, playing his last ODI against Bangladesh at Dhaka. The Lankan great finished off his career on a high picking up three wickets in his last outing donning the Lankan jersey.