Peter David Heyn (born 26 June 1945) is a former Sri Lankan

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who played in 18 unofficial Test matches from 1966 to 1976, and two

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 ...

s in the 1975 World Cup. Heyn is widely regarded as one of the best cover point fielders ever to represent Sri Lanka. In September 2018, he was one of 49 former Sri Lankan cricketers honoured by

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 ...

for their services before Sri Lanka became a full member of the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...

(ICC).

School cricket

Born to a cricketing family, his father Major General

Bertram Heyn Major General Deshabandu Bertram Russell Heyn (October 1, 1912 – February 3, 1998) was a Sri Lankan general and cricketer. He was a former Commander of the Ceylon Army. Early life and education Born to Gerald Chetwynd Swartz Heyn and H ...

was also a cricketer for the All Ceylon team. Heyn began his cricket career at St Peter's College in Colombo, where he represented the school from 1961 to 1964, captaining in 1964. He also represented Colombo Schools against the Indian Schoolboys in that same year. His brother Richard Heyn also played cricket at club level representing Burgher Recreation Club

Domestic career

He represented the Burgher Recreation Club whilst in school, and played there until the 1969/70 season. He then played for the Nondescripts Cricket Club from 1970/71 until 1975/76, captaining in the 1974/75 season. His first-class debut was in 1964, playing 50 matches in total and compiling four hundreds (the highest being 136 against Indian Universities at Bangalore in December 1975). Note - at the time only Ceylon/Sri Lanka matches against foreign sides were classified as first-class. As Sri Lanka were unlikely to attain full test status at the time, Heyn emigrated to England in 1976. Here he played for Richmond Cricket Club in the Middlesex County Cricket League until 1983, captaining in 1979 & 1980. In 1979 he set a batting record with 5 hundreds in the league season. In 1981 he played 4 games for Berkshire in the Minor Counties Championship - unfortunately, further appearances were not possible due to work & family commitments. In 1984 he retired completely from the game at the age of 39, having played a season for Lensbury Cricket club.

References

External links

*
‘We would have been as good as today’s team,’ – David Heyn Article by Sa’adi Thawfeeq
* ttp://www.srilankacricket.lk/stars-of-yesteryear/david-heyn-prince-of-batsmen David Heyn, Prince of Batsmen - Article by Rohan Wijesinghebr>Living Legends - David Heyn - Article by Sa'adi Thawfeek
1945 births Living people Sri Lankan cricketers Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers All-Ceylon cricketers Cricketers at the 1975 Cricket World Cup Berkshire cricketers Sri Lankan expatriate cricketers in England English people of Sri Lankan descent Cricketers from Colombo {{SriLanka-cricket-bio-stub