Sri Lankan wicket-keeper batsman Kumar Sangakkara will deliver the 11th MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at Lord's on July 4.
The former Sri Lanka captain will be the first person from his country to give the annual lecture and the first current international player to make the address.
The 33-year-old will also take over from former Australia wicket-keeper batsman Adam Gilchrist as the youngest man to deliver the MCC SoC Cowdrey Lecture.
Sangakkara will speak at the Nursery Pavilion at Lord's, the day after playing against England in the third NatWest One Day International.
Sri Lanka will also play England at Lord's in an npower Test match -- the second in their series against England -- starting on June 3. President of MCC Christopher Martin-Jenkins, who delivered the lecture in 2007, was delighted to have the first Sri Lankan delivering the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture.
"Sri Lanka have been so consistently successful in world cricket that it is very appropriate that a distinguished cricketer from this beautiful country should be giving the MCC SoC Cowdrey Lecture," Martin-Jenkins was quoted as saying in the official website of MCC.
"Kumar Sangakkara is widely respected in cricket not only as a brilliant player but as a highly intelligent one. His views on topical matters will be truly illuminating and many people will be looking forward to hearing what he has to say."
The MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture was inaugurated in 2001 in memory of the late Lord Cowdrey of Tonbridge, a past President of MCC, who - together with another former Club President, Ted Dexter was instrumental in the Spirit of Cricket being included as the Preamble to the 2000 Code of the Laws of Cricket.
Among other cricketers and renowned dignitaries who have delivered the lectures in the past, include Geoffrey Boycott, Imran Khan and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
