Separamadu Lasith Malinga (Sinhala: සෙපරමාදු ලසිත් මාලිංග; Tamil: லசித் மாலிங்க; born 28 August 1983) is a Sri Lankan former cricketer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest limited overs bowlers of all time.

[15] Malinga grew up in modest circumstances in Rathgama, a coastal village situated 12 km (7.5 mi) northwest of Galle.

After passing the grade 5 Scholarship Examination in 1993, he entered Vidyaloka College, Galle for his secondary education, where he started his cricket career.

[18] A short-lived attempt to make Malinga's action more upright led to much reduced pace and failing accuracy.

[19] He didn't pick up hard-ball cricket until relatively in his teenage but his talent was discovered by fast bowling coaches Champaka Ramanayake and Anusha Samaranayake.

[21] He was immediately successful, taking six wickets in the match (Darren Lehmann twice, Adam Gilchrist, Damien Martyn, Shane Warne and Michael Kasprowicz)[22] He was impressed by the friendliness of the Australian team in general, and in particular Adam Gilchrist who sought him out after the game to present him with one of the match stumps in the Sri Lankan dressing room.

[23] Malinga made his ODI debut in Sri Lanka's opening match of the 2004 Asia Cup against the United Arab Emirates, becoming the 123rd player to do so.

Despite Malinga's lethal spell, however, South Africa proceeded to win the match by 1 wicket with 10 balls still left.

[31] During the 2011 Cricket World Cup, Malinga took his second career hat-trick in Sri Lanka's group stage match against Kenya.

[43] Even though Sri Lanka felt that Malinga would recover for the World cup matches, his injuries ruled him out of the Twenty20 squad.

[48] He became captain of Sri Lankan Cricket Team in 2014 ICC World Twenty20 after Dinesh Chandimal received a ban.

Due to these injuries, Malinga lost matches against England, Australia, and Zimbabwe Tri-series, where Sri Lanka involved heavy defeats in limited over cricket and went down in international rankings.

Though he recovered from injuries in late December, Malinga was unavailable to South Africa series after a bout of dengue.

With that, Malinga has taken 4 international hat-tricks, which is most by a Sri Lankan player and joint highest with Pakistani Wasim Akram.

[63] Due to his continuous injuries, he was not considered for the selection by the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2018 Nidahas Trophy.

He was left out from team selection process in late 2017 when the sports ministry directly intervened into Sri Lanka cricket by introducing the minimum fitness standards.

[65] Sri Lanka Cricket informed Malinga to play in the domestic competition and then he will selected for the upcoming international tours.

[66] But, due to coaching responsibilities in Mumbai Indians, Malinga also missed 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament.

[67] However, Malinga announced that he hope to join international squad for the South African limited over tour in Sri Lanka 2018.

[68] He however continued to work on his fitness and bowling with his mentor Anusha Ramanayake and following an impressive domestic season he was subsequently recalled to the national team for the 2018 Asia Cup.

[73][74] During South African series in early 2019, under the captaincy of Malinga, Sri Lanka suffered another big loss.

His best bowling figures ever is 6/7 for Melbourne Stars against Perth Scorchers in December 2012, the only six-wicket haul taken the Australian Big Bash League.

[103][104] He won the Purple Cap award (most wickets) in the fourth season of Indian Premier League with 28 scalps in 16 matches.

He has played 127 games for Mumbai Indians in the IPL and Champions League T20 and is the highest-wicket taker for the franchise with 179 scalps at an economy rate of 6.88.

He returned to Sri Lanka to feature in the Super Provincial One-Day Tournament before rejoining Mumbai after 10 April.

The very next day, he took a flight early morning to reach Kandy in order to play in a domestic List A match as part of the Sri Lanka Super Four Provincial Limited Over Tournament representing Galle for which he was named as the captain.

[122] He pulled out from participating in the 2020 Indian Premier League for personal reasons and James Pattinson was named as his replacement for the season.

Malinga has said that his unique round-arm bowling action was a result of learning to play cricket exclusively with a tennis ball.

[133] Typically, younger bowlers are encouraged to deliver the ball with their arm near vertical to remove or reduce direction variables.

[111] Mumbai Indians franchise revealed that Malinga would provide supportive role as a mentor and would be part of the coaching staff ahead of the 2018 IPL season.