Amunugama Rajapakse Rajakaruna Abeykoon Panditha Wasalamudiyanse Ralahamilage Rajith Krishantha Bandara Amunugama, better known as Rajith Amunugama (born 22 April 1969 in

Mawanella Mawanella is a town which belongs to the Kegalle district in the Sabaragamuwa Province of Sri Lanka. It lies between Kegalle and Kadugannawa along the Colombo-Kandy road. The area consists of four administrative areas, namely Mawanella, Aranayak ...

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 ...

) 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. He was a left-handed batsman and bowled right-arm medium pace. His

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 consisted of 102 matches played mainly for the Tamil Union Club and Kurunegala Youth. He began his cricketing career for Sri Lanka Young Cricketers at the

1988 Youth Cricket World Cup The 1988 McDonald's Bicentennial Youth World Cup was an international cricket tournament played in Australia from 28 February to 13 March 1988. Sponsored by McDonald's, it was the inaugural edition of what is now the Under-19 Cricket World Cup, a ...

, where he played against New Zealand Young Cricketers and an ICC Associate Member team made of players from the non-Test sides. However, he had a forgettable tournament, scoring one run in his one innings and conceding 44 runs off eight overs. He was, however, a regular for various province teams in the

President's Trophy The Presidents' Trophy (french: Trophée des présidents) is an award presented by the National Hockey League (NHL) to the team that finishes with the most points (i.e. best record) during the NHL regular season. If two teams are tied for the mo ...

tournament, but after 1994-95 he struggled to get regular first team cricket. However, after taking eight

wicket In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. ...

s for 63 runs in a match in the Sri Lankan Cricket Premier League, his bowling figures were mentioned in the Notes by the Editor in the ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

2004''—not particularly because of the achievement, but because of the uncanny number of initials, which prompted the rhetorical question: "Is this an elaborate joke, along the lines of

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, or Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll (), is a large village and local government community on the island of Anglesey, Wales, on the Menai Strait next to the Britannia Bridge and across the strait from Bangor. Both shortened (Llanfai ...

?". Amanugama had also been mentioned in the 1992 Almanack, with match figures of 12 for 91 against Sebastianites, but then under the name of R. K. B. Amanugama, which according to the Wisden editor seemed to confirm the joke.

References

CricketArchive page on Rajitha Amunugama

1969 births Living people Sri Lankan cricketers Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club cricketers Wayamba cricketers Kurunegala Youth Cricket Club cricketers {{SriLanka-cricket-bio-1960s-stub