Malmeege Amila Aponso, or Amila Aponso (born 23 June 1993) is a professional 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 for the

Sri Lanka cricket team The Sri Lanka men's national cricket team, (; ) nicknamed The Lions, represents Sri Lanka in men's international cricket. It is a full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One-Day International (ODI) and T20 Internat ...

. He played

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 ...

for Ragama Cricket Club. He is a past pupil of St. Sebastians College,

Moratuwa Moratuwa () is a large municipality on the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka, near Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia. It is situated on the Galle–Colombo (Galle road) main highway, south of the centre of Colombo. Moratuwa is surrounded on three sides ...

. In June 2021, Aponso moved to the United States to play in the

Minor League Cricket Minor League Cricket (MiLC) is a professional Twenty20, Twenty20 cricket league in the United States that serves as the Minor league, developmental league for Major League Cricket (MLC). The league comprises 26 teams, divided between the Atlanti ...

tournament.

Domestic career

In April 2018, he was named in Dambulla's squad for the 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament. In August 2018, he was named in Dambulla's squad the 2018 SLC T20 League. He was the leading wicket-taker for Ragama Cricket Club in the

2018–19 Premier League Tournament The 2018–19 Premier League Tournament was the 31st season of first-class cricket in Sri Lanka's Premier Trophy. The tournament started on 30 November 2018 and concluded on 10 February 2019. Fourteen teams took part in Tier A of the competition ...

, with 47 dismissals in nine matches. In October 2020, he was drafted by the Colombo Kings for the inaugural edition of the

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 ...

International career

Aponso took 31 first-class wickets at an average of 20.9 in the 2015 season, and was rewarded with a place in the Sri Lanka A squad to New Zealand, later that year. After series of good performances in domestic arena in 2015 and 2016, he had to wait until Sri Lanka's main spinner

Rangana Herath Herath Mudiyanselage Rangana Keerthi Bandara Herath (; ; born 19 March 1978), known as Rangana Herath is a former Sri Lankan cricketer, who played all forms of cricket game and a former Test cricket captain for Sri Lanka. Considered as one of the ...

retired from limited-overs cricket. In August 2016 he was added to

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

's squad for their

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) series against Australia. He made his ODI debut for Sri Lanka against Australia on 21 August 2016. He took his first international wicket by dismissing

Aaron Finch Aaron James Finch (born 17 November 1986) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer who served as the captain of the Australian cricket team in One Day International, ODI and Twenty20 International, T20I cricket. Fi ...

. Sri Lanka lost the match by 3 wickets, but commentators praised the bowling performances of Aponso. He was part of the Sri Lankan team that won the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2017 by defeating Pakistan in the final. He was the top wicket-taker for Sri Lanka in that tournament with 12 dismissals. In February 2018, he was named in Sri Lanka's

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

(T20I) squad for their series against Bangladesh. He made his T20I debut for Sri Lanka 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 ...

on 18 February 2018. He took his first T20I wicket by dismissing

Tamim Iqbal Tamim Iqbal Khan ( Bengali: তামিম ইকবাল খান; born 20 March 1989), commonly known as Tamim Iqbal, is a Bangladeshi former international cricketer and commentator from Chittagong who was captain of the national team in O ...

. In May 2018, he was one of 33 cricketers to be awarded a national contract 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 ...

ahead of the 2018–19 season. In November 2019, he was named in Sri Lanka's squad for the

2019 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup The 2019 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup was the fourth edition of the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup held in Bangladesh between 14 and 23 November 2019. Eight teams participated in the tournament, including five under-23 age level teams of Test cricket ...

in Bangladesh.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aponso, Amila 1993 births Living people Sri Lankan cricketers Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers Sri Lanka Twenty20 International cricketers 21st-century Sri Lankan sportsmen Ragama Cricket Club cricketers Cricketers from Colombo Galle Guardians cricketers Mannar District cricketers Alumni of St. Sebastian's College, Moratuwa Colombo Stars cricketers