Antony Ralph Marinon Opatha (5 August 1947 – 11 September 2020) was a Sri Lankan cricketer.[1] A right-arm medium pace bowler, he played five One Day Internationals at the 1975 and 1979 Cricket World Cups.[2][3]
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Antony Ralph Marinon Opatha | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 5 August 1947 Colombo, Ceylon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 11 September 2020 (aged 73) Colombo, Sri Lanka | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right-arm medium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Bowler | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| National side |
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| ODI debut (cap 6) | 7 June 1975 v West Indies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last ODI | 16 June 1979 v India | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: ESPNcricinfo, 24 December 2014 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.[4]
As player/manager of the rebel tour to South Africa in 1982–83 in defiance of the sporting ban against the apartheid 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.[5]
Opatha was coach of the Netherlands women's national cricket team at the 1995 Women's European Cricket Cup in Ireland.[6]
In September 2018, Opatha was one of 49 former Sri Lankan cricketers felicitated by Sri Lanka Cricket, to honour them for their services before Sri Lanka became a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC).[7][8]
References edit
- ^ "Former Sri Lanka seamer Tony Opatha dies aged 73". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
- ^ "Former Sri Lankan international Tony Opatha dies". Emerging Cricket. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
- ^ Booth, Lawrence (2021). Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. p. 270. ISBN 9781472975478.
- ^ "Living Legends - Tony Opatha". The Nation. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
- ^ Amaruwan, Dilina (16 January 2019). "Cricket In Cuckoo Land: The Rebel Tour Of Apartheid South Africa". Roar Media. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
- ^ "European Cup 1995". Irish Women's Cricket Union. 1995. Retrieved 12 September 2023 – via Women's Cricket History.
- ^ "Sri Lanka Cricket to felicitate 49 past cricketers". Sri Lanka Cricket. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
- ^ "SLC launched the program to felicitate ex-cricketers". Sri Lanka Cricket. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
External links edit
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