Bandula Warnapura
Bandula Warnapura
Main page

Bandula Warnapura

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Bandula Warnapura

Bandula Warnapura (Sinhala: බන්දුල වර්ණපුර; 1 March 1953 – 18 October 2021) was a Sri Lankan cricketer and former captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team. He played four Test matches and twelve One Day Internationals (ODI) during his international cricketing career from 1975 to 1982. He was a right-handed opening batsman and a right-handed medium pace bowler.

Warnapura captained Sri Lanka's first Test match, and also faced the first delivery and scored the first run for his team. He also had the rare distinction of opening the bowling and opening the batting in the second innings for Sri Lanka in their first ever Test match.

He captained Sri Lanka in all the Tests he played, although he could not lead his team to victory in any of them. However, Sri Lanka won the first ODI match he captained. He scored one half-century in ODI cricket.

Bandula Warnapura was born on 1 March 1953 in Rambukkana. Malinda Warnapura, who played for the Sri Lanka national cricket team, is his nephew. He was an old boy of Nalanda College Colombo. Bandula captained Nalanda College Colombo first XI cricket team in 1971. Warnapura has worked as an ICC match referee and an umpire, and was also a certified cricketing coach. He served as the coach for the Sri Lanka national cricket team before he was appointed Director of Coaching in 1994. He became Director of Operations of Sri Lanka Cricket in 2001. He functioned in that post for eight years before he resigned in 2008. He was the Development Manager of the Asian Cricket Council. He has also refereed two Tests and three ODIs in 2001

He made his first-class debut against the Indian Universities in 1970. He rose to prominence at first-class level for his blistering knock of 154 against Pakistan Under-25s during the 1973–74 season.

Warnapura was the first Sri Lankan Test cricket cap and got the opportunity to lead the Sri Lanka national cricket team in their very first Test match, which was played against England in 1982. The five-day match started on 17 February 1982 at the Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium. Warnapura and English captain Keith Fletcher made the toss in the morning, which was won by Warnapura. He elected to bat first, and opened the batting for Sri Lanka with Sidath Wettimuny. He faced the first delivery of the match, and scored the first Test run for his country. According to a local newspaper, he was even the first Sri Lankan batsman to get hit on the chest. However, he was dismissed for only 2 runs, when he was caught by David Gower off the bowling of Bob Willis. The first player to bat in a Test match for Sri Lanka had faced 25 deliveries during the 35 minutes he batted. During the Sri Lankan second innings, Warnapura made 38 runs off 155 deliveries – the second highest score in that innings. England won the match, and Warnapura's 38 would remain as his highest Test individual score.

Warnapura was unsuccessful in his second match, played against Pakistan in March 1982, scoring just 13 runs in the Sri Lankan first innings, and getting out without scoring in the second. He could not play in the second match of the series due to an injury. In the next match, also against Pakistan, he scored 7 and 26 in the first and second innings respectively. Both matches were lost by Sri Lanka.

Warnapura's fourth and last Test match was against India in September 1982. He was unsuccessful again, scoring just 4 in the first innings and 6 in the second, and the match ended in a draw. During his Test career, Warnapura captained the Sri Lankan side in all four matches he played. He had scored a total of 96 runs, with an average of 12.00.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.