Hettiwatte Hemantha Devapriya (born 12 April 1958) is a former

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 who played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for Sri Lanka. In September 2018, he was one of 49 former Sri Lankan cricketers felicitated by

Sri Lanka Cricket Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is the governing body for cricket in Sri Lanka. It was first registered with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Sports (Sri Lanka), Ministry of Sports as the Board of Cricket for Sri Lanka (BCCSL) on 30 June 1975 as a national spo ...

, to honour them for their services before Sri Lanka became a full member of the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

(ICC).

Early life

He was educated at CMS Sri Jayawardenapura College - Kotte and

Nalanda College Colombo ''Āpadāna Sobhinī Panñā'' , motto_translation = Character Illumines Wisdom , established = , founder = Patrick de Silva Kularatne , type = National , grades = 1 ...

and played cricket for the Nalanda college first XI team from 1976 to 79. After leaving school, Hemantha played cricket for

Colts Cricket Club Colts Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. They have won 6 first class tournaments of Sri Lanka domestic league as in 1991/92, 1999/2000, 2001/02, 2004/05, 2008/09 and 2011/12 and 2 Premier Limited Overs Tourn ...

in Colombo. His first-class appearances were for Sri Lanka Under-25s (1980/81), Sri Lankans (1981 in England), Arosa Sri Lanka (1982/83), Colts Cricket Club (1988/89 to 1995/96) and Southern Province (1992). The rebel tour to South Africa from October–December 1982 scuppered any aspirations of official international recognition.

Playing career

The wicket-keeper batsman made his debut against Australia in 1980 with an explosive 80 in

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 ...

and went on to score several top-notch half centuries against England during the 1981 tour. Devapriya has scored 1,761 first-class runs in a short career of 70 matches.

Coaching career

In 2016,

announced that him as head coach of the

Sri Lanka women's national cricket team The Sri Lanka women's national cricket team represents Sri Lanka in international women's cricket. One of eight teams competing in the ICC Women's Championship (the highest level of the sport), the team is organised by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), ...

. He replaced another former Sri Lanka wicket-keeper/batsman

Lanka de Silva Lanka de Silva (born 29 July 1975) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who played in three Test matches and 11 One Day Internationals in 1997. He is also the current interim head coach of the Sri Lanka women's national cricket team. Domestic care ...

who held the post since July 2015. He resigned from the role in June 2018, citing personal reasons. He was replaced by

Harsha de Silva Harsha de Silva ( si, හර්ෂ ද සිල්වා born 30 August 1964) is a Sri Lankan economist and politician. He is a Member of Parliament (Sri Lanka), Member of Parliament for the Colombo Electoral District, Colombo District and form ...

as the head coach of the Sri Lankan women's cricket team. Devapriya holds level III qualifications from the ECB and is a Level II Certified Coach in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

.. His coaching career spans over 15 years where he was the Head Coach of the

Colombo Cricket Club The Colombo Cricket Club (CCC) is a first-class cricket club in Sri Lanka. It is the oldest in the country, having been formed in 1863, and is headquartered at 31 Maitland Crescent, Colombo 7, close to the headquarters of Sri Lanka Cricket. Hi ...

, the NCC, the Fingara Cricket Academy and most recently Bloomfield C & AC.

References

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External links

Hemantha Devapriya
at

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

Hemantha Devapriya
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Devapriya, Hemantha Living people Sri Lankan cricketers Ruhuna cricketers Colts Cricket Club cricketers Alumni of Nalanda College, Colombo Sportspeople from Galle 1958 births Wicket-keepers