Cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya with his 27-year old Audi A4 that we won as Man of the match

Cricket players receiving cars as rewards for being the “man of the match” or “man of the tournament” has always fascinated car enthusiasts. However, this trend of offering cars as rewards to cricketers has decreased in recent times. Renowned Sri Lankan batsman Sanath Jayasuriya shared a throwback memory of receiving a car as a reward for his outstanding performance in the 1996 Cricket World Cup on his social media account.

Recently, Jayasuriya uploaded a picture of himself posing with a red first-generation Audi A4 on his social media. The picture has two parts. The left part shows him posing with the brand-new Audi A4 straight after it was rewarded to him after the 1996 World Cup. The right part shows Jayasuriya striking the same pose with the same car almost 27 years later.

However, unlike the brand-new condition in the left part, the right part shows the car in an old state with slightly faded paint. Even the front bumper is also seen with chipped-off paint at some spots. However, considering that this A4 is a 27-year-old car, we can believe that age has taken some toll on the car. Nevertheless, the car still looks like it is in running condition and should be decent enough to drive, if not as good as an all-new car.

In 1985, during the Benson and Hedges World Championship of Cricket held in Australia, Ravi Shastri received an Audi 100 as a reward for his outstanding performance against Pakistan. His exceptional performance in the series led to him being awarded the car.

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Jayasuriya won the car back in 1996

Jayasuriya was rewarded this car for his outstanding performance in the 1996 World Cup, which was won by Sri Lanka by defeating Australia in the final. In this tournament, Jayasuriya put up a great show as an all-rounder, scoring 221 runs and clinching seven wickets. After the final match, Jayasuriya was given this red Audi A4 as a reward for the “man of the tournament” title. After Jayasuriya uploaded this picture on his Twitter account, many netizens and car enthusiasts praised him for taking good care of the rewarded Audi A4 all these years.

This Audi A4 rewarded to Jayasuriya is the first-generation model of the sedan that was globally launched in 1994. The sedan was available globally with a choice of petrol engines ranging between a 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol to a 2.8-litre V6 petrol. It was also offered with a 1.9-litre four-cylinder diesel engine. However, it is not clear which engine powers the A4 rewarded to Jayasuriya. This version of the A4 never arrived in India officially. Instead, the first-ever official A4 in India was the third-generation version, which was launched in 2005.

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