Jayawardene was the first Sri Lankan in the history of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup to score a century which he did with his 100 runs against Zimbabwe in the 2010 tournament.

In 2006 along with his teammate Kumar Sangakkara, Jayawardene made the highest ever partnership in First-class cricket, scoring 624 runs for the third wicket in the first test match of Sri Lanka's home series against South Africa.

Mahela Jayawardene currently serves as the Chairman of Sri Lanka National Sports Council.

[12] Jayawardene also worked as an international TV commentator in the first test at Headingley on 19 May 2016 between England and Sri Lanka.

He has been a vocal critic of Sri Lanka Cricket over the years especially after 2015 where the national side has suffered a significant decline.

[17] He became only the third Sri Lankan to be inducted to the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame after Muttiah Muralitharan and Kumar Sangakkara.

At an early age Mahela's father, Senerath Jayawardene, introduced him to the Lionel Coaching Clinic run by Nondescripts Cricket Club in Cinnamon Gardens.

However, his commitments to Sri Lanka and involvement in the Indian Premier League prevented him from playing any part in the 2008 county season.

[22] Mahela Jayawardene is the 69th Sri Lanka Test Cap, having made his debut against India at Colombo in 1997.

It took only 11 matches before he scored his first century, which was against England in the Carlton and United World Series game at Adelaide.

[24] Jayawardene was the captain of the Sri Lankan national team during the England tour in 2006 in the absence of Marvan Atapattu.

He also surpassed the highest score by a Sri Lankan in a Test match, previously held by Sanath Jayasuriya's 340 in 1997 against India, coincidentally also produced in a world record partnership.

In the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Jayawardene scored one century and four half-centuries and was the second highest run-scorer of the tournament, which was topped by Australia's Matthew Hayden.

Sri Lanka was in a good position in the Test with Thilan Samaraweera hitting his second successive double hundred of the series and Tillakaratne Dilshan scoring a century.

On their way to the Gaddafi Stadium for the third day's play, the bus that carried the Sri Lankan players was fired at by 12 masked gunmen.

Before starting their chase of 201 runs against Kolkata Knight Riders, Jayawardene expressed his desire to open the innings to captain Kumar Sangakkara.

Sangakkara agreed to his fellow countrymate and Jayawardene scored a blazing 110* off just 59 balls winning them the match in the second last over.

[40] His knock of 103* against India in the 2011 World Cup Final at Mumbai was nominated to be one of the best ODI batting performance of the year by ESPNcricinfo.

[45] Jayawardene led Sri Lanka to the final of the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 against the West Indies on home turf.

Having restricted the West Indies to 137/6, Sri Lanka were steadily making progress in chasing down the target with Jayawardene well set.

Halfway through their innings, captain Jayawardene noticed that the West Indies were slightly ahead on Duckworth/Lewis with a hint of rain in the air.

[50] On 31 March 2016, it was announced that Jayawaradene has signed for Somerset County Cricket to represent them in the English T20 league.

[51][52] On 25 February 2014 in an Asia Cup fixture against Pakistan, Jayawardene became only the second cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar to appear in 600 international matches.

His last One-Day innings in Sri Lanka was played on 13 December 2014 in the last match of England ODI series.

[55] Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews gave him the ball to take the final wicket.

He accepted the role and he was a part of the England coaching team travelling to the UAE for the series against Pakistan in October, up to the World Twenty20 in India.

[77][78][79] In October 2021, he served as a consultant coach of Sri Lankan national team and was part of the support staff during the first round of the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

[80][81] However, he opted to stay only for the first round of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in the UAE mainly due to the bio-bubble fatigue and for personal reasons.

[82][83] During his brief stint with the side during the World Cup, he was understood to have raised the standards of the players as well as the level of data analysis utilized by the team.

During his one-year deal as consultant coach of Sri Lanka national side, he would provide strategic support for players and management teams at SLC's high performance centre.