Senanayake Mudiyanselage Sachithra Madhushanka Senanayake, commonly called Sachithra Senanayake ( si, සචිත්‍ර සේනානායක; born 9 February 1985) is a former professional

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 ...

n cricketer who played all three formats of the game and a singer. He is

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 ...

er, who currently plays limited overs cricket. A bowling

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

, he bats right-handed and bowls

off spin Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which s ...

. He has played first-class 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 ...

since 2006. He is the 150th ODI cap for Sri Lanka. Senanayake was a key member of

2014 ICC World Twenty20 The 2014 ICC World Twenty20 was the fifth ICC World Twenty20 competition, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament, that took place in Bangladesh from 16 March to 6 April 2014. It was played in three cities — Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet. ...

winning team as well.

Domestic career

His call-up followed a domestic season in which he had taken the most wickets in the Sri Lankan Premier League limited overs tournament. During the 2013

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as Tata Group, TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 cricket, T20 Professional sports league organization, franchise cricket Sports league, league of India. It is annually contested by ...

auction he was bought by

Kolkata Knight Riders Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are a franchise cricket team representing the city of Kolkata in the Indian Premier League. The franchise is owned by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, actress Juhi Chawla and her spouse Jay Mehta. The Knight Riders ...

for $15,000. On 2015, he contracted for

2014 NatWest t20 Blast The 2014 NatWest t20 Blast was the first season of the NatWest t20 Blast, the English Twenty20 cricket competition. The competition ran from 16 May 2014 until Finals Day at Edgbaston on 23 August, which was won by Birmingham Bears. The compet ...

in England for the team Worcestershire. In March 2018, he was the leading wicket-taker in the

2017–18 Premier Limited Overs Tournament The 2017–18 Premier Limited Overs Tournament was a List A cricket competition that took place in Sri Lanka. It was the seventeenth edition of the Premier Limited Overs Tournament, and the first since the 2015–16 edition, after the 2016–17 ...

, with seventeen dismissals in eight matches. Later the same month, he was named in Dambulla's squad for the

2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament The 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament was a first-class cricket tournament, that was played in Sri Lanka during March and April 2018. It took place following the conclusion of the 2017–18 Premier League Tournament and featured four t ...

. The following month, he was also named in Dambulla's squad for the

2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament The 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament was a List A cricket tournament that was played in Sri Lanka between 2 May and 10 June 2018, following the conclusion of the 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament. Four teams took part in the co ...

. In February 2019,

Sri Lanka Cricket Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is the governing body for cricket in Sri Lanka. It was first registered with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Sports as the Board of Cricket for Sri Lanka (BCCSL) on 30 June 1975 as a national sports body. The board was renamed ...

named him as the Best Bowler in the

. In March 2019, he was named in Kandy's squad for the

2019 Super Provincial One Day Tournament The 2019 Super Provincial One Day Tournament was a List A cricket tournament that was played in Sri Lanka between 4 and 11 April 2019. Four teams took part in the competition: Colombo, Dambulla, Galle and Kandy, with Galle being the defending ch ...

International career

Senanayake made his international debut for Sri Lanka in the fourth

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 ...

(ODI) of the

tour of South Africa The Tour of South Africa was a stage cycling race in South Africa that was only held once, in 2011. It was part of UCI Africa Tour as a 2.2 The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the world's governing body in the sport of bicycle racing, clas ...

in January 2012. From then, he was a regular part of Sri Lanka's spin attack in limited over cricket with

Ajantha Mendis Balapuwaduge Ajantha Winslow Mendis ( si, අජන්ත මෙන්ඩිස්; born 11 March 1985) better known as Ajantha Mendis is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who played for Sri Lankan national cricket team in all three formats, who i ...

and occasionally with

Seekkuge Prasanna Seekkuge Prasanna ( si, සීක්කුගේ ප්‍රසන්න ; born 27 June 1985) is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer, who plays for limited over cricket. He is a warrant officer in the Sri Lankan Army. Prasanna is known for aggr ...

. After a suspect bowling action, he showed poor bowling in later bilateral tournaments. However, he was included to the 15-men 2015 ICC World Cup tournament as the main spinner of the team. He was also named in the T20I XI by Cricinfo for his performances in 2013.

Bowling action

He was reported for bowling with a suspected illegal bowling action against England in June 2014 and subsequently banned from bowling in international cricket in July 2014. He was cleared to bowl in December 2014 and played in the fifth ODI against England. In 2014, he

Mankaded Run out is a method of dismissal in cricket, governed by Law 38 of the Laws of Cricket. A run out usually occurs when the batsmen are attempting to run between the wickets, and the fielding team succeed in getting the ball to one wicket bef ...

the English batsman

Jos Buttler Joseph Charles Buttler (born 8 September 1990) is an English cricketer who captains the England cricket team in limited overs cricket, and plays for the England Test team. In domestic cricket he represents Lancashire, having previously played ...

in a One Day International.

Remodel action

Senanayake was cleared from the illegal bowling action with future notices and played in the 7-match ODI series against England at home. He was again called up for the

2015 Cricket World Cup The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 11th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was jointly hosted by ...

and looked poor performances in the pool match against Australia. He re-appeared in the fifth ODI against Pakistan in July 2015, where he took three crucial wickets. The re-modeling action somewhat gave weaker performances in international arena to Senenayake.

Beyond cricket

Senananyake is a student of musician

Sanath Nandasiri Prof. Sangeeth Nipun Herath Mudiyanselage Sanath Nandasiri (born 15 February 1942): si, සනත් නන්දසිරි) is a Sri Lankan singer, musician, music director, composer and playback singer. He is the current Chancellor of the U ...

since school times. Due to cricketing career he missed music industry as he said. He is known to be a good singer and sang his first solo song ''Watina obage'' which was released in May 2016. He also contributed for the cricket song ''Kirula Genemu'' by Centigradz, which was released prior to

Match Fixing Arrest

Senananyake was arrested on Sep 2023 on charges related to match-fixing. The alleged incident occurred during the 2020

Lanka Premier League The Lanka Premier League (abbreviated as LPL; , ) is a professional cricket league in Sri Lanka in Twenty20 format contested every year by teams representing Sri Lankan cities from 2020. The league was founded by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) in 201 ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Senanayake, Sachithra 1985 births Living people Sri Lanka Test cricketers Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers Sri Lanka Twenty20 International cricketers Sinhalese Sports Club cricketers Kolkata Knight Riders cricketers Wayamba cricketers Ruhuna cricketers Uva Next cricketers Sydney Sixers cricketers Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup Worcestershire cricketers Kandy Crusaders cricketers Rangpur Riders cricketers Kandy District cricketers Cricketers from Colombo