Deshabandu Deshabandhu (; ) is the third highest Sri Lankan honours system, national honour awarded in Sri Lanka. It is awarded "for meritorious service". The title is held by no more than 150 living holders at any time. It is conferred with a citation and ...

Karuppiahyage Ravindra Pushpakumara (born 21 July 1975), or Ravindra Pushpakumara, 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 of

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

- Sinhalese mixed ancestry. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler. He was a key member of Sri Lanka's

1996 Cricket World Cup The 1996 Cricket World Cup, also called the Wills World Cup 1996 for sponsorship reasons, was the sixth Cricket World Cup organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was co-hosted by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The tournament wa ...

winning team.

Early and domestic career

Pushpakumura was educated at St. John's College Panadura. He made his

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

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 The 2004 SLC Twenty20 Tournament is the 1st season of the official Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Sri Lanka. 15 teams in total, five representing four provinces of Sri Lanka Provinces (; ) are the first level administrative divis ...

International career

Having impressed with Sri Lanka's Under-19s side, Pushpakumura made his

Test 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) ...

debut in August 1994 against

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, where he was noted as the fastest bowler Sri Lanka had for many years. Despite his pace, his variation on duller pitches was lacking, and thus he failed to get into the Sri Lankan side on a regular basis. His best bowling figure in a Test innings is 7/116 which he made against

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

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in 1994/95. Pushpakumara could be viewed as another fast bowling prospect which failed to live up to expectation from Sri Lanka. Some started to call him "Wild Johnny" for his wayward lines he came up with more often than not. Pushpakumura's last Test was against

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

in the

Asian Test Championship The Asian Test Championship was a Test cricket tournament contested by the Test-playing nations of Asia: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It was held only twice, in 1998–99 and in 2001–02. It was originally planned to be held eve ...

. Since 2004 he has played

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References

1975 births Living people Basnahira South cricketers Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers Sri Lanka Test cricketers Sri Lankan cricketers Nondescripts Cricket Club cricketers Uva cricketers Alumni of St. John's College, Panadura Deshabandu Cricketers from Panadura {{SriLanka-cricket-bio-1970s-stub