Uda Walawwe Mahim Bandaralage Chanaka Asanka Welegedara, commonly as Chanaka Welegedara, ( si, චානක වෙලගෙදර; born 20 March 1981), is a former
Sri Lankan international cricketer who played all formats of the game.
Early career
An alumnus of
St. Thomas' College, Matale
St. Thomas' College, Matale ( Sinhala: මාතලේ ශාන්ත තෝමස් විද්යාලය), or (STC), is a secondary school for only boys; located in Matale, Sri Lanka,
History
The school was established in 1873 unde ...
and
Maliyadeva College
''විද්යා භූෂනං පුරුෂ භූෂනම්''
''Vidya Bhūshanam Purusha Bhūshanam''
, motto_translation = Science is the jewel of man
, location = Negombo Rd, Kurunegala
, city ...
,
Kurunegala
Kurunegala ( si, කුරුණෑගල, ta, குருணாகல்) is a major city in Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of the North Western Province and the Kurunegala District. Kurunegala was an ancient royal capital for 50 years, fr ...
, he proved the future prospects of entering national side with his bowling performances in school level. A left-arm fast
bowler by trade, he has a healthy
bowling average
In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...
in both
first-class and
List A
List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...
cricket, in the mid-to-low 20s. He has made appearances for
Moors Sports Club
Moors Sports Club is a first-class cricket team based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
History
Moors Sports Club was founded by members of Colombo Grand Mosque at New Moor Street in the Colombo neighbourhood of Pettah. Like most clubs founded during the co ...
and
North Central Province's cricket club, and was called up for the
Sri Lanka A squad for the match against
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
during
Sri Lanka's 2007 tour.
Legacy
On 6 April 2015, Welagedera recorded the best economical spell of Twenty20 cricket history against
Sinhalese Sports Club
The Singhalese Sports Club (SSC) is a first-class cricket club in Sri Lanka. Singhalese is the most successful club in Sri Lankan domestic cricket, having won the Premier Trophy a record 32 times to 2017. Although the name is correctly spelt wi ...
. His spell finished with 4 overs, 2 maidens, four wickets for just two runs (4-2-2-4), breaking the 4-3-2-2 spell of South African
Chris Morris. The record was later broken by Pakistani pacer
Mohammad Irfan
Mohammad Irfan ( Punjabi, ur, ) (born 6 June 1982) is a Pakistani cricketer who has represented Pakistan in Test, ODI and T20 cricket. Known for his height of 7'1" (216 cm), he is the tallest player to play first-class and internatio ...
with the figures of 4-3-1-2.
Early career
An alumnus of
St. Thomas' College, Matale
St. Thomas' College, Matale ( Sinhala: මාතලේ ශාන්ත තෝමස් විද්යාලය), or (STC), is a secondary school for only boys; located in Matale, Sri Lanka,
History
The school was established in 1873 unde ...
, he proved the future prospects of entering national side with his bowling performances in school level. A left-arm fast
bowler by trade, he has a healthy
bowling average
In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...
in both
first-class and
List A
List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...
cricket, in the mid-to-low 20s. He has made appearances for
Moors Sports Club
Moors Sports Club is a first-class cricket team based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
History
Moors Sports Club was founded by members of Colombo Grand Mosque at New Moor Street in the Colombo neighbourhood of Pettah. Like most clubs founded during the co ...
and
North Central Province's cricket club, and was called up for the
Sri Lanka A squad for the match against
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
during
Sri Lanka's 2007 tour. He made his
Twenty20
Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...
debut on 17 August 2004, for
Moors Sports Club
Moors Sports Club is a first-class cricket team based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
History
Moors Sports Club was founded by members of Colombo Grand Mosque at New Moor Street in the Colombo neighbourhood of Pettah. Like most clubs founded during the co ...
in the
2004 SLC Twenty20 Tournament
The 2004 SLC Twenty20 Tournament is the 1st season of the official Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Sri Lanka. 15 teams in total, five representing four provinces of Sri Lanka and a Sri Lanka Schools XI team participating in the competi ...
.
Legacy
On 6 April 2015, Welagedera recorded the best economical spell of Twenty20 cricket history against
Sinhalese Sports Club
The Singhalese Sports Club (SSC) is a first-class cricket club in Sri Lanka. Singhalese is the most successful club in Sri Lankan domestic cricket, having won the Premier Trophy a record 32 times to 2017. Although the name is correctly spelt wi ...
. His spell finished with 4 overs, 2 maidens, four wickets for just two runs (4-2-2-4), breaking the 4-3-2-2 spell of South African
Chris Morris.
The record was later broken by Pakistani pacer
Mohammad Irfan
Mohammad Irfan ( Punjabi, ur, ) (born 6 June 1982) is a Pakistani cricketer who has represented Pakistan in Test, ODI and T20 cricket. Known for his height of 7'1" (216 cm), he is the tallest player to play first-class and internatio ...
with 4-3-1-2 figures.
International career
On 18 December 2007, he made his
Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to:
* Test cricket
* Test match (indoor cricket)
* Test match (rugby union)
* Test match (rugby league)
* Test match (association football)
...
debut in the third test against
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
at
Galle
Galle ( si, ගාල්ල, translit=Gālla; ta, காலி, translit=Kāli) (formerly Point de Galle) is a major city in Sri Lanka, situated on the southwestern tip, from Colombo. Galle is the provincial capital and largest city of Souther ...
. Welagedara was selected in Sri Lanka's test squad for their 2008 tour of the West Indies, but had to wait until November 2009 for his second Test appearance, which came against
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, and he would go on to play all three Tests in the series. His first Test wicket was England's
Paul Collingwood
Paul David Collingwood (born 26 May 1976) is an English cricket coach and former player, who played in all three formats of the game internationally for England. He played for Durham County Cricket Club and was the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 win ...
.
He was included in Sri Lanka's
One Day International
A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...
squad to play against India in December 2009, making his debut on 15 December in
Rajkot
Rajkot () is the fourth-largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat after Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Surat, and is in the centre of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. Rajkot is the 35th-largest metropolitan area in India, with a population of ...
, and in a match where 825 runs were scored in 100 overs, he returned figures of 2/63 from his ten overs, claiming the wickets of
Virender Sehwag
Virender Sehwag (born 20 October 1978) is a former Indian cricketer who represented India from 1999 to 2013. Widely regarded as one of the most destructive opener, he played for Delhi Capitals in IPL and Delhi and Haryana in Indian domestic c ...
and
Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the India national cricket team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time, Kohli plays as a right-handed Batting (cricket), batte ...
. He also claimed a five wicket haul against India.
He was the first Test cricketer to boast six initials to his name. He played as constant player in the Sri Lankan Playing XI for 6 years after Lasith Malinga's resignation from the longer format.
Post Test Cricket
Welegedara moved to Australia in 2015 and started playing for a local Victorian Cricket team Westmeadows, for the 2015/16 Australian Cricket season. In his first season, he finished with figures of 146 overs, 27 maidens, 34 wickets, at an average of 13.38. Moving into the next season he has been made coach of Westmeadows.
See also
*
List of St. Thomas' College, Matale alumni
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Welegedara, Chanaka
1981 births
Living people
Sri Lankan cricketers
Sri Lanka Test cricketers
Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers
Chandimal, Dinesh
Moors Sports Club cricketers
Wayamba cricketers
North Central Province cricketers
Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club cricketers
Ruhuna cricketers
Kandurata Warriors cricketers
People from Matale