Palitha Gunasekera 50 not out
Veteran cricket coach & promotor Palitha Gunasekera completed 50
years of his cricketing career recently. His cricket club Palink Sports
Club celebrated its 16th anniversary also coinciding with the 50 years
of his involvement with the game of cricket.
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Palitha Gunasekera |
Palitha started his cricket career at Ananda College, Colombo in
1964. He represented the first eleven of the College Team from 1968 to
1970. He played under the captaincy of Mithra Wettimuny in his farewell
year for Ananda. He played in the Big Match with Nalanda under the
captaincy of Palitha Seneviratne in that year. His coach at Ananda was
the veteran coach P.W. Perera.
After leaving Ananda Palitha started playing Division 1 Cricket for
Nomads over the years He played along side the greats like late D.H. De
Silva, Daya Sahabandu, Russel Hamer, T.B. Kehelgamuwa, T.K. Palitha,
Leslie Piyasena, W.L. Withanage & many others for Nomads Cricket Club.
After his playing days were over, he took upto coaching and coached
many young cricketers to become what they are today. The list includes.
Narendra Ekanayake (Former Captain of Bahamas), Omal Rajapakse
(Member of Bangalore University Team), James Barber (Adelaide,
Australia), K.M. Indrani (Captain Sri Lanka Women's tour 2003),
Shashikala Siriwardene (Captain Sri Lanka Womens Cricket Team),
Deepika Rasangika (Member of Sri Lanka Womens Team), Hasini Perera
(Member of Sri Lanka Womens Team).
He formed his Sports Club, Palink Sports Club 16 years back &
pioneered women's cricket in Sri Lanka. He is greatly responsible for
bringing Sri Lanka women's cricket to its present status. Even this
year, palink sports club competed in Division 1 of the Women's Cricket
Tournament conducted by Sri Lanka Cricket, recently.
Palitha will no doubt bat strongly for the game of cricket in future
too, as he has already embarked in nurturing talent in outstation as
well especially in the North and East also.
He also became a founder member of Henry Steel Olcott Sports
Foundation in 1999 and is the current President of the Foundation.
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