Senanayake Mudiyanselage Sachithra Madhushanka Senanayake (; born 9 February 1985) is a Sri Lankan playback singer and former professional cricketer who played all three formats of the game. He is

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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er, who currently plays limited overs cricket. A bowling

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

, he bats right-handed and bowls

off spin Off spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners bowl with their right-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery is called an off break, which spins from left to r ...

. He has played first-class cricket for the

Sinhalese Sports Club The Sinhalese people, Singhalese Sports Club (SSC) was a first-class cricket club in Colombo, Sri Lanka till 2025 when they were relegated after enduring a horrendous 2024-25 version of the Major Club 3 day tournament in which they could only m ...

since 2006. He is the 150th ODI cap for Sri Lanka. Senanayake was a key member of

2014 ICC World Twenty20 The 2014 ICC World Twenty20 was the fifth edition of the Men's T20 World Cup, formerly known as the ICC World Twenty20, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament, that took place in Bangladesh from 16 March to 6 April 2014. It was played in t ...

winning team as well. Senanayake was initially arrested on 6 September 2023 on match-fixing charges and was subsequently indicted on 5 June 2025.

Domestic career

His call-up followed a domestic season in which he had taken the most wickets in the Sri Lankan Premier League limited overs tournament. During the 2013

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in India, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Founded in 2007, it features ten city-based Professional sports league organization, fr ...

auction he was bought by

Kolkata Knight Riders The Kolkata Knight Riders, also known as KKR, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based in Kolkata, West Bengal, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise is owned by actor Shah Rukh Khan, actress Juhi Chawla, and ...

for $15,000. On 2015, he contracted for 2014 NatWest t20 Blast in England for the team

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

. In March 2018, he was the leading wicket-taker in the 2017–18 Premier Limited Overs Tournament, with seventeen dismissals in eight matches. Later the same month, he was named in Dambulla's squad for the 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament. The following month, he was also named in Dambulla's squad for the 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament. In February 2019,

Sri Lanka Cricket Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is the governing body for cricket in Sri Lanka. It was first registered with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Sports (Sri Lanka), Ministry of Sports as the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka on 30 June 1975 as a national ...

named him as the Best Bowler in the 2017–18 Premier Limited Overs Tournament. In March 2019, he was named in Kandy's squad for the 2019 Super Provincial One Day Tournament.

International career

Senanayake made his international debut for Sri Lanka in the fourth

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

(ODI) of the tour of South Africa in January 2012. From then, he was a regular part of Sri Lanka's spin attack in limited over cricket with Ajantha Mendis and occasionally with

Seekkuge Prasanna Seekkuge Prasanna (; born 27 June 1985) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer, who played limited overs cricket. He is a warrant officer in the Sri Lankan Army. Prasanna is known for aggressive batting at the late overs in ODIs, and a useful leg-spi ...

. After a suspect bowling action, he showed poor bowling in later bilateral tournaments. However, he was included to the 15-men 2015 ICC World Cup tournament as the main spinner of the team. He was also named in the T20I XI by ESPNcricinfo for his performances in 2013.

Bowling action

He was reported for bowling with a suspected illegal bowling action against England in June 2014 and subsequently banned from bowling in international cricket in July 2014. He was cleared to bowl in December 2014 and played in the fifth ODI against England.

Mankading incident

In 2014, he Mankaded the English batsman

Jos Buttler Joseph Charles Buttler (born 8 September 1990), known as Jos Buttler, is an English international cricket, cricketer and former captain of the England cricket team, national team. He plays for Lancashire County Cricket Club, Lancashire in dom ...

in a One Day International.

Remodel action

Senanayake was cleared from the illegal bowling action with future notices and played in the 7-match ODI series against England at home. He was again called up for 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 Aust ...

and looked poor performances in the pool match against Australia. He re-appeared in the fifth ODI against Pakistan in July 2015, where he took three crucial wickets. The re-modeling action somewhat gave weaker performances in international arena to Senenayake.

Beyond cricket

Senananyake is a student of musician Sanath Nandasiri since school times. Due to cricketing career he missed music industry as he said. He is known to be a good singer and sang his first solo song ''Watina obage'' which was released in May 2016. He also contributed for the cricket song ''Kirula Genemu'' by Centigradz, which was released prior to

Arrest and indictment for match-fixing

On 6 September 2023, Senanayake was arrested on charges related to match-fixing. The alleged incident took place during the 2020

Lanka Premier League The Lanka Premier League (abbreviated as LPL; , ) is a professional franchise cricket league established in 2020 in Sri Lanka. Matches are played using the Twenty20 cricket format by five teams named after Sri Lankan cities. The league was int ...

. He was subsequently indicted by the

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

at the Hambantota High Court on 5 June 2025.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Senanayake, Sachithra 1985 births Living people Sri Lanka Test cricketers Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers Sri Lanka Twenty20 International cricketers 21st-century Sri Lankan sportsmen Sinhalese Sports Club cricketers Kolkata Knight Riders cricketers Sri Lankan expatriate cricketers in India Wayamba cricketers Ruhuna cricketers Uva Next cricketers Sydney Sixers cricketers Sri Lankan expatriate cricketers in Australia Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup Worcestershire cricketers Sri Lankan expatriate cricketers in England Kandy Crusaders cricketers Rangpur Riders cricketers Sri Lankan expatriate cricketers in Bangladesh Kandy District cricketers Cricketers from Colombo Sportspeople involved in betting scandals