Deshabandu Deshabandu ( si, දේශබන්දු, translit=dēśabandu; ta, தேசபந்து, translit=Tēcapantu, translation=Patriot) is the third highest national honour awarded in Sri Lanka. It is awarded "for meritorious service". The ti ...

Handunnettige Deepthi Priyantha Kumar Dharmasena (born 24 April 1971), popularly as Kumar Dharmasena, is 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 str ...

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

and former international cricketer. He is a member of the ICC Elite Panel Umpires and the first and only person to represent an

ICC World Cup The Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Men's Cricket World Cup) is the international championship of One Day International (ODI) cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), ev ...

Final both as a player and an umpire. He was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm

off break Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...

bowler.

Playing career

Dharmasena was born in Colombo on 24 April 1971. He started his cricketing career as a teenager at Nalanda College Colombo. His first foray into international cricket was in 1994 against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. His obscure action made him perfect for bowling in one-day matches, yet Dharmasena also proved a useful batsman, especially after he was investigated in 1998 by the ICC for overstretching his bowling action to illegal proportions. Having been cleared in July 2000, he played for the one-day team on several occasions since, but rarely played Test cricket. Dharmasena was the 59th Sri Lankan cricketer to receive a Test cap (Sri Lanka v South Africa at Colombo Sinhalese Sports Club 1993). Kumar Dharmasena has the record for playing the most number of ODI innings before being dismissed for a duck (72 innings). He along with

Dulip Liyanage Dulip Kapila Liyanage (born 6 June 1972) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer. He is a left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler. He studied at the Kalutara Vidyalaya. International career Liyanage made his Test debut in the same Test ...

set the record for the highest 8th wicket runstand for Sri Lanka in ODI cricket (91).

Move to umpiring

Following his retirement from playing in November 2006, Dharmasena announced plans to become a competitive umpire, as he wished to remain "close to the game which I love so dearly". Prior to his retirement, he had already umpired several domestic matches in the Sara Trophy, the major first-class cricket tournament in Sri Lanka. He umpired his first international match in 2009, overseeing the

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 Cup ...

between India and Sri Lanka at the Rangiri International Stadium in

Dambulla Dambulla ( si, දඹුල්ල ''Dam̆bulla'', ta, தம்புள்ளை ''Tampuḷḷai'') is a town situated in the north of Matale District, Central Province of Sri Lanka. It is the second largest populated and urbanised centre af ...

: he remains the youngest ever Sri Lankan to umpire any international match. He umpired at the

2011 Cricket World Cup The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was the tenth Cricket World Cup. It was played in India, Sri Lanka, and for the first time in Bangladesh. India won the tournament, defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the final at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, ...

, and was appointed to the

Elite Panel of ICC Umpires The Elite Panel of ICC Umpires is a panel of cricket umpires appointed by the International Cricket Council to officiate in Test matches and One Day Internationals around the world. The panel was first established in April 2002 when the ICC deci ...

later that year. Dharmasena was named the Umpire of the Year at the 2012 ICC Awards, for which he received the David Shepherd Trophy. He was selected as one of the twenty umpires to stand in matches during the

2015 Cricket World Cup The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 11th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was jointly hosted by A ...

and umpired in

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

. In doing so he became the first to play in and to umpire World Cup finals. He stood in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

of the 2016 ICC World Twenty20. Kumar Dharmasena has worked as an umpire in 18 matches of ICC World T20, the most by any umpire from Sri Lanka. In January 2019, he won the David Shepherd Trophy for the ICC Umpire of the Year at the 2018

ICC Awards The ICC Awards are an annual set of sports awards for international cricket, which recognise and honour the best international cricket players of the previous 12 months. The awards were introduced by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in ...

. In April 2019, he was named as one of the sixteen umpires to stand in matches during the

2019 Cricket World Cup The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted between 30 May ...

. In July 2019, he was named as one of the two on-field umpires for the second semi-final match, between Australia and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Later the same month, he was also named as one of the two on-field umpires for the Cricket World Cup Final. England won the match in a Super Over. He admitted an error but said he did not regret it. If the decision were correct, England would have required 4 runs to win off the last 2 balls but there's no certainty that they would have lost either. He also umpired 2022 t20 worldcup finals between Pakistan and England.

Records

* Dharmasena is the only person to have played in a Final of the Cricket World Cup as well as officiated in the final of the World Cup. He had played in the

1996 Cricket World Cup Final The 1996 ICC Cricket World Cup Final was the sixth installment of the ICC Cricket World Cup since its inception in 1975 in England. The match was played on 17 March 1996 at Lahore's 65,250 capacity Gaddafi Stadium in Pakistan for the first time ...

and featured as an on-field umpire twice in 2015 and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

World Cup finals.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dharmasena, Kumar 1971 births Living people Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers Sri Lanka Test cricketers Sri Lankan cricketers Cricketers at the 1996 Cricket World Cup Basnahira North cricketers Nondescripts Cricket Club cricketers Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club cricketers Sri Lankan Test cricket umpires Sri Lankan One Day International cricket umpires Sri Lankan Twenty20 International cricket umpires Alumni of Nalanda College, Colombo North Central Province cricketers Sri Lanka Cricket Combined XI cricketers Deshabandu

Playing career

Move to umpiring

Records

See also

References

External links