Demuni Nuwan Tharanga Zoysa (born 13 May 1978), or Nuwan Zoysa, is a former

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 ...

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 tall left-arm seam bowler, who played 30

Tests Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

and 95 ODIs for

. Nuwan was educated at Isipathana College, Colombo. In his eighth Test, Zoysa became the first player in the history to take a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

off his first three balls of a Test match. He achieved this 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 ...

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

in November 1999, dismissing

Trevor Gripper Trevor Raymond Gripper (born 28 December 1975) is a former Zimbabwean cricketer. He was born in 1975 in Salisbury - now Harare. Gripper was a somewhat solid opening batsman, who once spent four hours 23 minutes inching his way to 28 in a match aga ...

Murray Goodwin Murray William Goodwin (born 11 December 1972) is a former Zimbabwean cricketer who played 19 Tests and 71 One Day Internationals. He was a right-handed top-order batsman, strong on the back foot, and a good cutter and puller of the ball. In ...

and Neil Johnson.

International career

Zoysa made his first class debut in 1996/97 and during his first season he took his career best figures of 7 for 58, playing for Sinhalese Sports Club. He made his Test debut soon after in Dunedin against New Zealand. He has gone on to take over 100 ODI wickets for Sri Lanka, the ninth to have achieved the milestone. An aggressive lower order batsman, Zoysa once won an ODI game against

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 ...

with an unbeaten 47. Zoysa's golden era in international cricket came during 2004 season, where he was the main strike bowler accompany with

Chaminda Vaas Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas (born 27 January 1974) is a former Sri Lankan international cricketer, who played all forms of the game, and a former ODI captain who is often described as the greatest fast medium bowl ...

. He performed well in bat and ball in numerous occasions, enable to win many bilateral, tri-series and ICC major tournaments. His highest ODI score came against Australia. He has single Test and ODI fifer each as well.

Domestic career

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

Sinhalese Sports Club The Singhalese Sports Club (SSC) is a first-class cricket club in Sri Lanka. Singhalese is the most successful club in Sri Lankan domestic cricket, having won the Premier Trophy a record 32 times to 2017. Although the name is correctly spelt wi ...

in the 2004 SLC Twenty20 Tournament. He was also bought by the

Deccan Chargers The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by the ...

Franchise in the

IPL The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

but he was removed from the team for his poor performances.

Coaching

Nuwan Zoysa was appointed to the National Fast Bowling Coaching Department of Sri Lanka Cricket on 1 October 2015 prior to which he has worked in India with Goa Cricket Association and with Royal College & Nondiscripts as Fast Bowling Coach before joining SLC. In October 2018, he was charged by 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) for three breaches of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code. In November 2020, he was found guilty of three offences, and in April 2021, he was handed a six-year ban, backdated to 31 October 2018.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zoysa, Nuwan 1978 births Living people Basnahira South cricketers Sinhalese Sports Club cricketers Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers Sri Lanka Test cricketers Sri Lankan cricketers Test cricket hat-trick takers Deccan Chargers cricketers Kandurata cricketers Cricketers at the 2010 Asian Games Alumni of Isipathana College Sri Lankan cricket coaches Khulna Division cricketers Asian Games competitors for Sri Lanka Cricketers banned for corruption