Conroy Ievers Gunasekera, sometimes spelt Gunasekara (14 July 1920 – 29 July 2010) was a 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

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

Ceylon 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, ...

from 1949 to 1964, in the period before the country gained

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) ...

status. He captained Ceylon several times in the early 1960s.

Life and career

Gunasekera was educated at

Royal College Colombo Royal College, Colombo also known as; Royal Colombo, Colombo Royal College or Colombo Royal) is a boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started by Joseph Marsh in 1835, it was established as the Colombo Academy by Si ...

where he played in the

Royal-Thomian The Battle of the Blues (Also known as Royal–Thomian Cricket Encounter) is an annual Big Match in Sri Lanka played between Royal College, Colombo and S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia since 1879. It is known as ''The Battle of the Blues'' due ...

encounter, starting from 1938. He entered

Colombo Law College Sri Lanka Law College (abbreviated as SLLC), formerly known as Ceylon Law College, is a law college, and the only legal institution where one can enrol as an Attorney-at-Law in Sri Lanka. It was established in 1874, under the then Council of Le ...

in 1940, but interrupted his legal studies to join the

Ceylon Defence Force The Ceylon Defence Force (CDF) was established in 1910 by the Ceylonese legislation ''Ceylon Defence Force Ordinance'', which reformed the Ceylon Volunteer Force (CVF) that existed previously as the military reserve in the British Crown colony ...

as a Second Lieutenant during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He started playing 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 ...

under the captaincy of Fredrick C. de Saram. Thereafter Gunasekera went on to play for the Ceylon team. He also represented the Commonwealth, scoring a hundred in the match Commonwealth v MCC, when he took part in a partnership of 207 with the Australian all-rounder

Keith Miller Keith Ross Miller (28 November 1919 – 11 October 2004) was an Australian Test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. His ability, irreverent m ...

. He brought up his

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

with a

six 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics A six-sided polygon is a hexagon, one of the three regular polygons capable of tiling the plane. A hexagon a ...

, and Miller did the same shortly afterwards. Up until the 1980s he played for the SSC. His highest first-class score was 212 for Ceylon against

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

in the annual Gopalan Trophy match in 1958–59. He scored 120 and 30 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 1948–49. With his leg-spin he took 8 for 69 and 2 for 78 for a Ceylon team against a strong Pakistan Combined Services team in 1953–54 and 7 for 63 and 3 for 91 for Ceylon against

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

in 1957–58.

David Sheppard David Stuart Sheppard, Baron Sheppard of Liverpool (6 March 1929 – 5 March 2005) was a Church of England bishop who played cricket for Sussex and England in his youth, before serving as Bishop of Liverpool from 1975 to 1997. Sheppard remains ...

described him as "a great cricketer who would surely have played Test cricket if he had qualified for another country ... a fine, forcing batsman, driving with great power, and a good leg-spin bowler".

, ''Parson's Pitch'', Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1964, p. 104. Gunasekera joined Walker & Sons Limited as a manager and went on to serve as a director. His uncle was Dr

Churchill Gunasekara Dr Churchill Hector Gunasekara (27 July 1894 – 16 May 1969) was a Ceylonese first-class cricketer. He was the first person from his country to play for an English county, representing Middlesex from 1919 to 1922. He was widely regarded as the ...

, who also captained the Ceylon cricket team.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gunasekera, C. I. 1920 births 2010 deaths Sri Lankan cricketers All-Ceylon cricketers Alumni of Royal College, Colombo Ceylonese military personnel of World War II Ceylon Light Infantry officers Place of birth missing