Deshabandu Umagiliya Durage Upul Chandana (born 7 May 1972), popularly known as Upul Chandana, 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 who played both Tests and ODIs. He was more specifically a

leg spin Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...

bowler and was also an outstanding fielder. Unfortunately, Chandana was an unused squad player in 1996 world cup. Chandana is considered to be one of the best leg spinners ever played for Sri Lanka. He was also a competent lower-order batsman, having scored a total of seven half-centuries at international level.

School times

Upul Chandana started his cricketing career as a teenager at

Mahinda College Mahinda College is a Buddhist boys' school in Galle, Sri Lanka. The school was established on 1 March 1892 by the Buddhist Theosophical Society led by Colonel Henry Steel Olcott. As of May 2022 it is a national school providing primary and seco ...

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 ...

Domestic career

Chandana has played county cricket in England for

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Gloucestershire. Founded in 1870, Gloucestershire have always ...

and represented Nondescripts in Sri Lankan. He made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

debut on 17 August 2004, for

Nondescripts Cricket Club Nondescripts Cricket Club (also known by its initials NCC) is a first-class cricket team based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The team plays at the Nondescripts Cricket Club Ground. History The club was founded in 1888. The name "Nondescripts" is derived ...

in the 2004 SLC Twenty20 Tournament. Chandana joined the

Indian Cricket League The Indian Cricket League (ICL) was a private cricket league funded by Zee Entertainment Enterprises that operated between 2007 and 2009 in India. Its two seasons included tournaments between four international teams (World XI, India, Pakistan ...

, playing for the

Kolkata Tigers The Royal Bengal Tigers, formerly the Kolkata Tigers until the 2008 Edelweiss 20s Challenge, was one of the nine teams that played in the West Bengal Cup. The team was based in Kolkata, India and was captained by New Zealander Brendon McCullu ...

and ICL World XI, and with four other Sri Lankan cricketers was banned, but the decision was lifted on 2009.

International career

Despite making his ODI debut in 1994 aged 21, Chandana had to wait for five years to be included in the Test team. It came in the

Asian Test Championship The ACC Asian Test Championship was a professional Test cricket tournament contested between the Test playing nations of Asia: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It is not a regular event in the cricketing calendar and has so far been held ...

Final in March 1999 against Pakistan. Chandana bowled 47.5 overs in the first innings and finished with 6 for 179. Over the next few years he made sporadic appearances for Sri Lanka and in 2002 he was named as captain of Sri Lanka A, when they played an unofficial Test series against

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

and Chandana topped both the batting and bowling averages. This helped him work his way back into the side in 2003 and after a match-winning innings against

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

Bridgetown Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the capital and largest city of Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Island ...

, Chasing 313 for victory, he was promoted up the order to 5 and smashed 89 off just 71 deliveries with 6 sixes. Since then he was a regular player in the one day team for the next few years. When

Muttiah Muralitharan Deshabandu Muttiah Muralitharan ( si, මුත්තයියා මුරලිදරන්, ta, முத்தையா முரளிதரன், also spelt Muralidaran; born 1972) is a Sri Lankan cricket coach, former professional c ...

withdrew from the 2004 tour to Australia, Chandana came into the Test side as the main spin bowler. Despite being expensive, he took a

ten wicket haul In cricket, a ten-wicket haul occurs when a bowler takes ten wickets in either a single innings or across both innings of a two-innings match. The phrase ten wickets in a match is also used. Taking ten wickets in a match at Lord's earns the bow ...

in the 2nd Test at

Cazalys Stadium Cazalys Stadium is a sports stadium in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. It is situated in the suburb of Westcourt. The stadium is named after the social club which abuts the oval, Cazalys, which itself was named after Australian rules footballe ...

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

and is the only Sri Lankan bowler to take ten wickets in a test match in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Upul Chandana has the record for the highest test score when batting at number 9 for Sri Lanka(92). Chandana retired from international cricket on 15 October 2007 after Bangladesh tour. In an emotional press conference, he said that he was forced to take the retirement decision because of the politics that existed in the team selections.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chandana, Upul 1972 births Living people Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers Sri Lanka Test cricketers Gloucestershire cricketers Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club cricketers Nondescripts Cricket Club cricketers Cricketers at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Cricketers at the 1999 Cricket World Cup ICL World XI cricketers Royal Bengal Tigers cricketers Alumni of Mahinda College Cricketers who have taken five wickets on Test debut Uva cricketers Ruhuna cricketers North Central Province cricketers Cricketers from Galle Cricketers at the 1996 Cricket World Cup Sri Lankan cricket coaches Deshabandu Commonwealth Games competitors for Sri Lanka