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

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

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 one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

for

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

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 is a selective entry boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started as a private school by Rev Joseph Marsh in 1835, it was established as the Colombo Academy by Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton in Janu ...

where he played in the Royal-Thomian 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 enroll as a attorney-at-law in Sri Lanka. It was established in 1874, under the then Council of Legal ...

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 Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until 1 ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He started playing cricket for the

Sinhalese Sports Club The Singhalese Sports Club (SSC) is a first-class cricket club in Sri Lanka. Singhalese is the most successful club in Sri Lankan domestic cricket, having won the Premier Trophy a record 32 times to 2017. Although the name is correctly spelt w ...

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. 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. A centennial ...

with a six, 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 (, ), formerly known as Madras (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Tamil Nadu, the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and territories of India, Indian state. The largest city ...

in the annual

Gopalan Trophy The M. J. Gopalan Trophy was an annual first-class cricket competition played between Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), ...

match in 1958–59. He scored 120 and 30 against

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

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 part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

in 1957–58.

David Sheppard David Stuart Sheppard, Baron Sheppard of Liverpool (6 March 1929 – 5 March 2005) was a Church of England Bishop of Liverpool who played cricket for Sussex and England in his youth. Sheppard remains the only ordained minister to have played ...

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