Malik Devapriya Samarawickrama (born 19 March 1949) is a

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, ...

n entrepreneur and politician. He was appointed to Parliament as a national list member in 2015. He is a former Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade and chairman of the

United National Party The United National Party (UNP; , ) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right political party in Sri Lanka. Founded in 1946, the party was one of Sri Lanka's two main parties for several decades. The UNP has served as the country's ruling party ...

. Educated at

Royal College, Colombo Royal College, Colombo also known as; Royal Colombo, Colombo Royal College or Colombo Royal) is a Single-sex education, boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started by Joseph Marsh (priest), Joseph Mar ...

, where played at the

Bradby Shield Encounter The Bradby Shield Encounter, colloquially referred to as The Bradby, is an event within Sri Lanka's school rugby union season. This annual fixture takes place between two renowned boys’ schools in the country, namely Royal College, Colombo, ...

. He also played

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

for the Ceylonese Rugby & Football Club and represented

in the 1960s. He was a past president of

Kandy Sports Club (rugby) Kandy Sports Club (better known as Kandy SC) is a Division 'A' rugby union team, based in Kandy, Sri Lanka, competing in the Dialog Rugby League. The club has been the most successful Sri Lankan club in the Sri Lanka Rugby Championship, winning ...

and currently is the patron. Samaraweera a close friend of

Ranil Wickramasinghe Ranil Wickremesinghe (; ; born 24 March 1949) is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the ninth president of Sri Lanka from 2022 to 2024. He has also served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1993–1994, 2001–2004, 2015–2018, 2018-2019 a ...

was accused of going out the way from the 2015 elected Yahapalana government and playing a role on his own agendas. In November 2019, he announced his retirement from politics.

References

External links

Sri Lanka Parliament profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Samarawickrama, Malik Members of the 15th Parliament of Sri Lanka Sinhalese people Sri Lankan businesspeople United National Party politicians Alumni of Royal College, Colombo Sri Lankan rugby union players 1949 births Living people