Bandula Warnapura (; 1 March 1953 – 18 October 2021) was a Sri Lankan

cricketer 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 ...

and former captain of the

Sri Lankan 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 cricket, Test, One-Day International (ODI) and T ...

. He played four

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Indoor cricket, Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (associa ...

and twelve

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 (ODI) during his international cricketing career from 1975 to 1982. He was a right-handed opening batsman and a right-handed medium pace bowler. Warnapura captained Sri Lanka's first Test match, and also faced the first delivery and scored the first run for his team. He also had the rare distinction of opening the bowling and opening the batting in the second innings for Sri Lanka in their first ever Test match. He captained Sri Lanka in all the Tests he played, although he could not lead his team to victory in any of them. However, Sri Lanka won the first ODI match he captained. He scored one half-century in ODI cricket.

Personal life

Bandula Warnapura was born on 1 March 1953 in Rambukkana.

Malinda Warnapura Basnayake Shalith Malinda Warnapura (born 26 May 1979), or Malinda Warnapura, is a former professional Sri Lankan cricketer, who played in 14 Test matches and three One Day Internationals. He is a left-handed batsman and right-arm off-break bowl ...

, who played for the

Sri Lanka national 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 cricket, Test, One-Day International (ODI) and T ...

, is his nephew. He was an old boy of

Nalanda College Colombo Nalanda College () is a Buddhist school in Sri Lanka that provides primary and secondary education for boys.Nalanda College Colombo Nalanda College () is a Buddhist school in Sri Lanka that provides primary and secondary education for boys.ICC match referee and an

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French , , and , : (as evidenced in cricke ...

, and was also a certified cricketing coach. He served as the coach for the Sri Lanka national cricket team before he was appointed Director of Coaching in 1994. He became Director of Operations of

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 ...

in 2001. He functioned in that post for eight years before he resigned in 2008. He was the Development Manager of the

Asian Cricket Council The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) is a cricket organization which was established in 1983, to promote and develop the sport of Cricket in Asia. Subordinate to the International Cricket Council, the council is the continent's regional administrati ...

. He has also refereed two Tests and three ODIs in 2001

Domestic career

He made his first-class debut against the Indian Universities in 1970. He rose to prominence at first-class level for his blistering knock of 154 against Pakistan Under-25s during the 1973–74 season.

International career

Test career

Warnapura was the first Sri Lankan Test cricket

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

and got the opportunity to lead the

in their very first Test match, which was played against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in 1982. The five-day match started on 17 February 1982 at the

Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium (Tamil language, Tamil: பாக்கியசோதி சரவணமுத்து மைதானம், ) Colombo Oval or P. Sara or simply PSS is a multi-purpose stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is curr ...

. Warnapura and English captain

Keith Fletcher Keith William Robert Fletcher (born 20 May 1944) is an English former first-class cricketer who played for Essex and England. He later became England's team manager. His nickname was "The Gnome of Essex", so christened by his Essex teammate, ...

made the toss in the morning, which was won by Warnapura. He elected to bat first, and opened the batting for Sri Lanka with

Sidath Wettimuny Sidath Wettimuny is a Sri Lankan former cricketer, who played Test cricket and One Day Internationals as an opening batsman from 1982 to 1987. Wettimuny was a typical 1980s opening batsman in that he often played very defensively, grafting for ...

. He faced the first

delivery Delivery may refer to: Biology and medicine *Childbirth *Drug delivery *Gene delivery Business and law *Delivery (commerce), of goods, e.g.: **Pizza delivery ** Milk delivery ** Food delivery ** Online grocer *Deed ("delivery" in contract law), a ...

of the match, and scored the first Test

run Run(s) or RUN may refer to: Places * Run (island), one of the Banda Islands in Indonesia * Run (stream), a stream in the Dutch province of North Brabant People * Run (rapper), Joseph Simmons, now known as "Reverend Run", from the hip-hop group ...

for his country. According to a local newspaper, he was even the first Sri Lankan batsman to get hit on the chest. However, he was dismissed for only 2 runs, when he was caught by

David Gower David Ivon Gower (born 1 April 1957) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer who was captain of the England cricket team during the 1980s. Described as one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of his era, Gower played 117 T ...

off the bowling of

Bob Willis Robert George Dylan Willis (born 30 May 1949 – 4 December 2019) was an English cricketer, who represented England between 1971 and 1984. A right-handed fast bowler, Willis is regarded by many as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all tim ...

. The first player to bat in a Test match for Sri Lanka had faced 25 deliveries during the 35 minutes he batted. During the Sri Lankan second

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). In cricket and rounders, "innings" is ...

, Warnapura made 38 runs off 155 deliveries – the second highest score in that innings. England won the match, and Warnapura's 38 would remain as his highest Test individual score. Warnapura was unsuccessful in his second match, played against

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

in March 1982, scoring just 13 runs in the Sri Lankan first innings, and getting out without scoring in the second. He could not play in the second match of the series due to an injury. In the next match, also against Pakistan, he scored 7 and 26 in the first and second innings respectively. Both matches were lost by Sri Lanka. Warnapura's fourth and last Test match was against

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in September 1982. He was unsuccessful again, scoring just 4 in the first innings and 6 in the second, and the match ended in a draw. During his Test career, Warnapura captained the Sri Lankan side in all four matches he played. He had scored a total of 96 runs, with an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 12.00.

ODI career

Warnapura was the 11th Sri Lankan ODI cricket

. His

(ODI) debut was against

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

on 7 June 1975, in a

1975 Cricket World Cup The 1975 Cricket World Cup (officially called the Prudential Cup '75) was the inaugural men's Cricket World Cup, and the first major tournament in the history of One Day International (ODI) cricket. Organised by the International Cricket Confer ...

match that was also Sri Lanka's first ODI. He was dismissed for 8 runs in that match, which Sri Lanka lost. Bandula had a weird ODI debut scoring 8 runs off 54 balls and he became the first Sri Lankan batsman ever to score a boundary in an ODI as well as the first boundary scored by a batsman for Sri Lanka in a World Cup match. He was given the captaincy of the team to temporarily replace

Anura Tennekoon Anura Tennekoon also spelt as Anura Tennakoon (born 29 October 1946) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and captain of the Sri Lanka national cricket team. He was educated at the S. Thomas' College in Mount Lavinia. After captaining the school ...

(who was injured) in his fifth match, which was played against India on 16 June 1979, as part of the

1979 Cricket World Cup The 1979 Cricket World Cup (officially called the Prudential Cup '79) was the second edition of the Cricket World Cup. Organised by the International Cricket Conference, it was held in England from 9 to 23 June 1979. The tournament was once aga ...

. He led the team to victory, scoring 18 runs in the match and taking a

wicket In the sport of cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is either of the two sets of three Stump (cricket), stumps and two Bail (cricket), bails at each end of the Cricket pitch, pitch. The Fielding (cricket), fielding team's playe ...

. It was also the only victory in the series by an Associate Member nation (Sri Lanka had not yet gained Full Member status) in the tournament. In 1982, Warnapura was appointed captain of the Sri Lankan team. He made his first and only half-century against Pakistan on 12 March in the same year. He made 77 runs in that match, although it was lost by Sri Lanka. Warnapura played 12 ODI matches, accumulating a total of 180 runs at an average of 15.00. He also captured 8 wickets at an average of 39.50, as well taking 5 catches during his career.

Arosa Sri Lanka

Disputes had arisen among members of the Sri Lankan team and its administration only a few months after Sri Lanka's inaugural Test match. This resulted in a "rebel tour" of

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

South Africa (which was banned from international cricket at the time). Several Sri Lankan players took part in this tour, and the team which was captained by Warnapura and named Arosa Sri Lanka, left the country in secret in September 1982. The tour was unsuccessful; Arosa Sri Lanka played 12 matches and lost 10 of them, while the other two ended in draws. As a result of this tour, the

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

(BCCSL) imposed 25-year bans from all forms of cricket on all Sri Lankan players who participated, including Warnapura. Although the ban was revoked after nine years, Warnapura did not play international cricket again. He later claimed that not only financial issues but pressure from some members of the BCCSL forced them to undertake the tour, and expressed disappointment at the fact that no formal inquiry was held.

Later life

He served as the coach of the Sri Lankan team, and has also served in its administration. He also coached

Mahela Jayawardene Denagamage Praboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene (; born 27 May 1977) is a Sri Lankan former professional cricketer and captain of the Sri Lanka national cricket team, Sri Lankan national cricket team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest ...

at the Nalanda College and was also a Under-19 national coach of

Russel Arnold Russel Premakumaran Arnold (; born 25 October 1973), or Russel Arnold, is a former Sri Lankan cricketer of Tamil descent, who played all forms of the game. He played as the finisher role in the Sri Lankan team batting down the order at intern ...

. He became an administrator at the Bloomfield Club in 1991 after the end of the ban which he served for being part of Sri Lanka's Arosa tour of South Africa in 1982. Warnapura was an official of the

. Warnapura participated as a judge in the reality show ''Youth With Talent'' telecasted by

Independent Television Network Independent Television Network Ltd (; ) also known as ITN Ltd or simply as ITN is a Sri Lankan state-governed television and radio broadcaster located in Wickramasinghepura, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka. It is a Shrama Abhimani Award winner (Oct ...

in 2016–17.

Death

In October 2021, Warnapura was admitted to hospital due to a diabetes-related issue, with doctors forced to amputate his left leg. He died on 18 October 2021 while receiving treatment at a private hospital in Colombo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Warnapura, Bandula 1953 births 2021 deaths Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers Sri Lanka Test cricketers Sri Lanka Test cricket captains All-Ceylon cricketers Cricketers at the 1975 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 1979 Cricket World Cup Alumni of Nalanda College, Colombo People from Kegalle District Sportspeople from Sabaragamuwa Province