Gayani Dissanayake ( si, ගයානී දිසානායක) (born 20 April 1994) is a Sri Lankan netball player and a former captain of the

Sri Lanka national netball team The Sri Lanka national netball team is the national netball team of Sri Lanka. The team is coached by Thilaka Jinadasa and captained by Chathurangi Jayasooriya. As of 21 July 2019, Sri Lanka are ranked 18th in the world. History Netball was f ...

who plays in the position of goal defense or goal keeper in international netball tournaments. She is the second most capped player for Sri Lanka after veteran

Tharjini Sivalingam Tharjini Sivalingam (born 30 December 1978) is a former Sri Lankan veteran netball player and former skipper of the Sri Lankan national netball team. With her staggering height of 206 cm or a fraction under 6 ft 9in, she has been reco ...

Career

Gayani made her international debut in 2011 after emerging from youth level. She became the vice captain of the national team in 2014 during the

2014 Asian Netball Championships The 2014 Asian Netball Championships was the 9th edition of the Asian Netball Championships. The competition took place between September 7-14 with the tournament being held in Singapore. Ten teams competed in the tournament with Singapore winni ...

. She continued as the vice captain of the side for the

2015 Netball World Cup The Netball World Cup Sydney 2015 (NWC2015) was the 14th edition of the INF Netball World Cup, the premier competition in international netball. It was held from 7–16 August, in Sydney, Australia, which secured hosting rights after defeating ...

, which was also her first World Cup appearance. Gayani was appointed as the captain of the team for a short tenure for the

2016 Asian Netball Championships The Asian Netball Championship is a netball competition held every two years with teams from across Asia competing. First 7 editions were held every four years, then changed to every two years starting from 2012. Sri lanka is the reigning champi ...

where Sri Lanka emerged as runners-up to Malaysia. She was also one of the key members of the Sri Lankan contingent which emerged as champions at the

2018 Asian Netball Championships The 2018 Asian Netball Championships is the 11th edition of the Asian Netball Championships was held in Singapore. The championships which was held at the OCBC Arena at the Singapore Sports Hub from September 1–9. In the final, Sri Lanka won t ...

beating Singapore 69–50 in the final, which also marked Sri Lanka's first Asian Netball Championships triumph since 2009. She was included in the Sri Lankan squad for the

2019 Netball World Cup The 2019 Netball World Cup (also known as the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 15th edition of the INF Netball World Cup. It was held from 12–21 July 2019 at the Liverpool Arena in Liverpool, England with matche ...

, which was her second World Cup tournament.

References

1994 births Living people Sri Lankan netball players People from Kandy 2019 Netball World Cup players 2023 Netball World Cup players {{SriLanka-netball-bio-stub