Lasantha Rodrigo (born 28 May 1938) is a former

cricketer 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 ...

who played 14 matches of

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

Ceylon 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 ...

between 1959 and 1971.

Life and career

Lasantha Rodrigo was born in

Moratuwa Moratuwa ( si, මොරටුව, ta, மொறட்டுவை) is a large suburb of Colombo, on the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka, near Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia. It is situated on the Galle–Colombo (Galle road) main highway, south o ...

and attended Prince of Wales' College, Moratuwa, where he captained the cricket team in 1958 and 1959, and also captained the Ceylon schools team. His father, J. B. C. Rodrigo, was principal of Prince of Wales' College from 1933 to 1959. He made his highest first-class score on his debut, in the

Gopalan Trophy The M. J. Gopalan Trophy was an annual first-class cricket competition played between Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Madras (now Tamil Nadu) between 1952–53 and 2007–08. History The idea of the competition came about with the starting of a silve ...

match in 1958–59, when he scored 89. Batting at number three, he top-scored with 44 for Ceylon in their one-day match against the touring

Australians Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizens, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Australians, several (or all) ...

in April 1961. He toured India with the Ceylon team in 1964-65, playing in all three matches 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 ...

, but with only moderate success. He worked for Ceylon Cold Stores for 31 years as a mechanical engineer. Inability to take time off work to play cricket shortened his cricket career. In 2014 he was formally honoured 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 ...

for his services to cricket in Sri Lanka, and awarded 300,000

rupees Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...

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

, 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). Rodrigo lives with his wife Sweenie in Moratuwa, opposite Prince of Wales' College. They have a daughter and a son.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodrigo, Lasantha 1938 births Living people Sri Lankan cricketers All-Ceylon cricketers Alumni of Prince of Wales' College, Moratuwa Sinhalese Sports Club cricketers Sportspeople from Moratuwa Cricketers from Western Province, Sri Lanka