If wealth of cricketing experience was something that could have been deposited in banks, the cricketers from India and Sri Lanka would have formed the creamy layer of a Forbes list and their congregation at Colombo for the three-Test series would be akin to that corporate thing they have in Davos in January every year.

Seven of the 11 active members in the 100-Test club are here and that includes the top four longest-serving present-day cricketers. Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan and Anil Kumble made their Test debuts in the late 80s or early 90s — that’s an era with which no other international team, besides India and Lanka, has any remote connection with. West Indies with 1994 debutant Shivanarine Chanderpaul in their side comes close, but that’s all.

Jayasuriya might have retired from Tests, but going by his recent T20 and ODI form, many here say a presidential intervention — and we aren’t talking about a cricket board official here — is on the cards, one that could see him wear the flannels again.

Add a few more 30-plus players such as Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumara Sangakkara to the names of Tendulkar and Jayasuriya and we have seven batsmen with more than 5000 Test runs. As for the aggregate run-count of these batting stalwarts, it’s an incredible 55,035.

What makes that number looks less intimidating is the fact that these batting stalwarts will be against the likes of Murali, Kumble and Chaminda Vaas — three bowlers with a Test wicket pool of 1686. Seven plus three is always 10 and, in this case, it’s pretty much a ‘Perfect 10’. Include 29-year-old Virender Sehwag to this list of those on the wrong side 30 and there’s the look of a Dream XI to it — a World XI selected by someone with a bias against pacers.

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