Arachchige Manjula Nishantha Munasinghe (born 10 December 1971), best known as Manjula Munasinghe, is a

Sri Lankan Australian Sri Lankan Australians ( si, ශ්‍රී ලාංකික ඕස්ට්‍රේලියානුවන්, ta, இலங்கை ஆஸ்திரேலியர்கள்) are people of Sri Lankan heritage living in Australia; th ...

cricket coach and former

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 five

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World Cup ...

s (ODIs) between 1994 and 1996. He currently lives in Australia.

Domestic career

Born in

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

, Munasinghe made his first-class debut 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 ...

during the 1990–91 season. He first played for Sri Lanka "A" during the 1992–93 season in a quadrangular tournament also involving Bangladesh "A", India "A", and Pakistan "A". Munasinghe did not play for Sri Lanka, but remained active domestically until the 1997–98 season. His best first-class bowling figures came in February 1994, when he took 9/38 in the first innings of Western Province North's match against Central Province.

International career

Munasinghe made his ODI debut for the

Sri Lankan national cricket team The Sri Lanka men's national cricket team, ( si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජාතික ක්‍රිකට් කණ්ඩායම, ta, இலங்கை தேசிய கிரிக்கெட் அணி) nicknamed The Lions ...

during the 1994 edition of the

Austral-Asia Cup The Austral-Asia Cup was a One Day International cricket tournament held at Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The Arab cricketer, enthusiast and millionaire Abdur Rahman Bukhathir brought cricket initially to Sharjah in the mid-1980s and he mastermi ...

in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at ...

, playing a single match. He did not play internationally again until the 1995–96 Benson & Hedges World Series Cup, held in Australia, where he played four matches as a right-arm

fast bowler Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...

After cricket

After the conclusion of his playing career, Munasinghe emigrated to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

, Australia, firstly working with the

Victorian Cricket Association Cricket Victoria (CV) is the governing body for the sport of cricket in the Australian state of Victoria. It was formed on 29 September 1875 as the Victorian Cricket Association. It is integrated with the Victorian Women's Cricket Association to ...

as a junior coach. In 2006, he established the Aus–Lanka Cricket Academy in

Rowville Rowville is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 27 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Knox local government area. Rowville recorded a population of 33,571 at the 2021 census. Ro ...

which was intended to provide cricket coaching for children of immigrants.Coverdale, Brydon (2012)
Melbourne's Sri Lankan connection
– ESPNcricinfo. Published 24 December 2012. Retrieved 23 January 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munasinghe, Manjula 1971 births Basnahira North cricketers Basnahira South cricketers Living people Cricketers from Colombo Sinhalese Sports Club cricketers Sri Lankan cricket coaches Sri Lankan cricketers Sri Lankan emigrants to Australia Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers Australian cricket coaches