Gahmini Ryle Johannes de Soysa (21 June 1917 – 13 January 2002) was a Sri Lankan first-class

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 and entrepreneur. The son of Wilfred and Evelyn de Soysa, he was born at

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

in June 1917. He was educated in Colombo at Royal College, captaining the school in a five-match tour of Australia, which was the first time a school team from Ceylon had toured abroad. He later studied in England at

Oriel College Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. While studying at Oxford, he 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

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

, making his debut against

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in 1938. He made three further appearances in 1938 for Oxford, before making a final appearance in 1939 against the combined Minor Counties cricket team. While at Oxford, he toured Jamaica with a combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities team, making two first-class appearances against

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. For Oxford University, de Soysa scored 241 runs at 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 26.77 and with a high score of 67. The influence of

Frank Woolley Frank Edward Woolley (27 May 1887 – 18 October 1978) was an English professional cricketer who played for Kent County Cricket Club between 1906 and 1938 and for the England cricket team. A genuine all-rounder, Woolley was a left-handed batsm ...

on his batting was noted, particularly his late cuts and driving. After graduating from Oxford, he returned to Ceylon where he coached the Royal College XI. De Soysa made a final first-class appearance for All-Ceylon 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 ...

. For many years he worked for the family tea, rubber and coconut exporting business. He became president of the Singhalese Sports Club in 1997, then a team with first-class status, but had to step down the following year due to ill health. De Soysa died at Colombo in January 2002. His elder brother was Harold de Soysa, the first Ceylonese

Anglican Bishop of Colombo The Anglican Bishop of Colombo is the ecclesiastical head of the Anglican Diocese of Colombo, a diocese in the Church of Ceylon which is part of the Anglican Communion. The Anglican Diocese of Colombo was founded in 1845, as the diocese of the ...

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Soysa, Ryle 1917 births 2002 deaths Cricketers from Colombo Alumni of Royal College, Colombo Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford Sri Lankan cricketers Oxford University cricketers Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricketers All-Ceylon cricketers Sri Lankan cricket coaches Sinhalese people Sri Lankan businesspeople Sri Lankan cricket administrators De Soysa family