Antony Ralph Marinon Opatha (5 August 1947 – 11 September 2020) was a Sri Lankan

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. A right-arm medium pace bowler, he played five

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

s at the

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

and

1979 Cricket World Cup The 1979 Cricket World Cup (officially called the Prudential Cup '79) was the second edition of the Cricket World Cup. Organised by the International Cricket Conference, it was held in England from 9 to 23 June 1979. The tournament was once aga ...

s. Educated at St. Peter's College, Colombo, Opatha joined the Royal Ceylon Volunteer Air Force in 1968. He had played for his college cricket team and went on to play for the air force cricket team until 1977. He first played for Ceylon in 1971 and was a member of the Sri Lankan teams in the World Cups in England in 1975 and 1979. He later played club cricket in Ireland for one season in 1979 and was offered the post of coach of the Holland team. As player/manager of the rebel tour to South Africa in 1982–83 in defiance of the sporting ban against the

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

state, Opatha and the other tourists received a lifetime ban from international cricket. The name of the team, "Arosa Sri Lankan XI", derived from Opatha's initials ARO plus SA for South Africa. The ban was lifted in 1991. Opatha was coach of the

Netherlands women's national cricket team The Netherlands women's national cricket team, nicknamed the ''Lionesses'', represents the Netherlands in international women's cricket. The team is organised by the Royal Dutch Cricket Association, which has been an associate member of the In ...

at the

1995 Women's European Cricket Cup The 1995 Women's European Cricket Cup was an international cricket tournament held in Ireland from 18 to 22 July 1995. It was the fourth edition of the Women's European Championship, and all matches at the tournament held One Day International (O ...

in Ireland. In September 2018, Opatha was one of 49 former Sri Lankan cricketers felicitated by

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 (Sri Lanka), Ministry of Sports as the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka on 30 June 1975 as a national ...

, to honour them for their services before Sri Lanka became a full member of the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...

(ICC).

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* 1947 births 2020 deaths Sri Lankan cricketers Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers All-Ceylon cricketers Cricketers at the 1975 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 1979 Cricket World Cup Sri Lankan Air Force airmen Alumni of St. Peter's College, Colombo Sri Lankan cricket coaches Cricketers from Colombo Coaches of the Netherlands women's national cricket team Sri Lankan expatriates in the Netherlands {{SriLanka-cricket-bio-1940s-stub