Kariyawasam Tirana Gamage Dhammika Prasad ( si, ධම්මික ප්රසාද්; born 30 May 1983), or simply Dhammika Prasad, is a former Sri Lankan
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
er, and current
bowling coach of the
Nepal national cricket team
The Nepal national cricket team ( ne, नेपाल राष्ट्रिय क्रिकेट टीम) nicknamed The Rhinos and Gorkhalis, represents the country of Nepal in International cricket and is governed by the Cricket Ass ...
. He is a right-arm
fast-medium
Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...
bowler. He has represented Sri Lanka in
Test
Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to:
* Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities
Arts and entertainment
* ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film
* ''Test'' (2014 film), ...
,
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 ...
(ODI) and
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 ...
cricket and played domestic cricket for the
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 ...
and
Basnahira North.
Prasad has been continuously dropped from the squads due to many injuries to ankle, back, hamstrings and has not played any cricket after West Indies tour in 2015. In February 2021, he announced his retirement from international cricket at the age of 37.
Domestic career
Having begun playing cricket as a top-order batsman, Prasad became a fast bowler in his late teens and played in the
2002 Under-19 World Cup.
International career
In February 2006, he was called up to Sri Lanka's ODI and Test squads for the tour of Bangladesh after bowling at an average of less than 23 runs per wicket in the domestic first class cricket. He made his ODI debut on that tour, taking 2/29 in a 78-run win over
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 ...
in
Chittagong
Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...
.
Prasad's international career was subsequently affected by a back injury. He had to wait until August 2008 to make his Test debut, taking five wickets over both innings of the third Test of
India's tour of Sri Lanka, including those of
Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who captained the Indian national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the all time highest run-scor ...
, who Prasad said was his favourite player,
Rahul Dravid
Rahul Sharad Dravid (; born 11 January 1973) is an Indian cricket coach and former captain of the Indian national team, currently serving as its head coach. Prior to his appointment to the senior men's national team, Dravid was the Head of ...
, and
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 ...
. He played Test cricket sporadically over the following seasons. He took four wickets in the first Test of Sri Lanka's
tour of Bangladesh in December 2008, but was dropped for the second Test.
In 2009, he played in the second Test of Sri Lanka's
home series against
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
and the first Test of Sri Lanka's
tour of India, in which he injured his hamstring. In 2010, Prasad played in one Test against India and another against the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
, failing to take any wickets on either occasion.
In June 2011, Prasad was recalled to Sri Lanka's ODI squad for the tour of
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 ...
and
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. He played in two ODIs on the tour, taking two wickets against England and three against Scotland. He was named in the Test squad for
Australia's tour of Sri Lanka in August and September, but did not play. He did, however, make his international
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 against Australia, before playing in two Tests of Sri Lanka's series against Pakistan in the
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
.
He was called into Sri Lanka's squad for their
tour of South Africa in 2011–12 as a replacement for injured bowlers. He played in the third and deciding Test of the series, which Sri Lanka lost, taking two wickets for 156 runs, and also played in two ODIs.
He was part of Sri Lanka test team which secured their historic first ever test series win against England in England in 2014. He played a crucial role during the series win picking up fifer at Headingley and ended up with career best figures of 5/50.
Prasad was selected for the
2015 Cricket World Cup
The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 11th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was jointly hosted by Aust ...
original squad, but was unable play due to injury. So he was called off from the World Cup squad.
After World Cup, Prasad was brought back into the squad for Test series against Pakistan. In the second Test, he showed an impressive bowling performance where he took 3 for 43 in the first innings and then 4 for 92 in second innings. Due to Sri Lanka loss in the first Test at Galle, the second Test was a must win for the Sri Lankan team to level the series. Prasad provided the basis for the win and he earned the man of the match award for his impressive bowling performance in the
second Test
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...
at
P Sara Oval
Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium (Tamil: பாக்கியசோதி சரவணமுத்து மைதானம், si, පාකියසොති සර්වනමූත්තු ක්රීඩාංගනය) Colombo Oval o ...
.
During the
India Test tour in 2015, Prasad showed immense talent with the new ball, where he used to take up the wickets in very first over in each Test match getting rid of Indian top order. He was the highest wicket taker for Sri Lanka in the series with 15 wickets. Due to some heated altercations with Indian pacer
Ishant Sharma
Ishant Sharma (; born 2 September 1988) is an Indian cricketer who has represented India in Tests, ODIs and T20Is. He is a 6 ft 4 in tall right-arm fast-medium bowler. At the age of 18, Sharma was called to join the Indian squ ...
during the series, he was given a warning by ICC during the third test.
Personal life
Prasad attended
De Mazenod College
__NOTOC__
, motto_translation = Courageously and faithfully
, founder = A. Y. Keegerat
, established = 1914
, type = Government-aided private school
, affiliation =
, grades = 1–13
, principal = Janaka Fons ...
in
Kandana
Kandana ( si, කඳාන, ta, கந்தானை) is a suburb of Colombo in Western Province, Sri Lanka, north of the Colombo city centre. Due to the proximity to Colombo, Negombo as well as the Bandaranaike International Airport, the subur ...
, where he started playing cricket as a top order batsman. He is married to Nihari Kariyawasam. On 24 August 2016 Prasad announced on his
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
account that he and his wife were parents to a baby boy.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prasad, Dhammika
Sri Lankan cricketers
Sri Lanka Test cricketers
Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers
Sri Lankan Roman Catholics
Basnahira North cricketers
Sinhalese Sports Club cricketers
1983 births
Living people
Sri Lanka Twenty20 International cricketers
Wayamba cricketers
Basnahira cricketers
Ruhuna cricketers
Sri Lanka Schools XI cricketers
Colombo Stars cricketers
Alumni of De Mazenod College