Mithra de Silva Wettimuny (11 June 1951 – 20 January 2019) was a 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 who played in two

Test matches 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) ...

and one

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) in 1983.

Family

He was one of three brothers to represent Sri Lanka (all opening batsmen). His elder brother

Sunil Sunil (सुनील) is a first name for males, often found in the South Asian community. The Sanskrit word ' means "dark", "very blue", and is also an epithet of Krishna. Notable people * Sunil (actor), Indian Telugu film actor * Sunil (d ...

played in the

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and

1979 Cricket World Cup The 1979 Cricket World Cup (officially called the Prudential Cup '79) was the second edition of the Cricket World Cup. Organised by the International Cricket Conference, it was held in England from 9 to 23 June 1979. The tournament was once aga ...

s while his youngest brother Sidath scored Sri Lanka's first Test match hundred.

International career

Wettimuny originally came to prominence as captain of the successful Ceylon Schools team which toured India in 1969/70, a team which included future Test captains

Bandula Warnapura Bandula Warnapura ( si, බන්දුල වර්ණපුර; 1 March 1953 – 18 October 2021) was a Sri Lankan cricketer and former captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team. He played four Test matches and twelve One Day Internationals (ODI ...

and

Duleep Mendis Deshamanya Louis Rohan Duleep Mendis (born 25 August 1952), known as Duleep Mendis, is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and former captain of the team, who captained Sri Lanka to their first Test series victory in 1985. He was primarily a speciali ...

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 ...

gained Test status in 1982, and by then in his early thirties, Wettimuny's entire

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 ...

career incorporated nine matches in four countries in 127 days. His highest score was 55 on debut against

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

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in November 1982. He made his Test debut against New Zealand on 4 March 1983. He scored 17 and five runs in the two innings, respectively, in a match that New Zealand won by an innings and 25 runs.

References

External links

* 1951 births 2019 deaths Alumni of Ananda College Sri Lanka Test cricketers Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers Sri Lankan cricketers Place of birth missing {{SriLanka-cricket-bio-1950s-stub