Hashan Tillakaratne

<font face="tahoma">Hashan Prasantha Tillakaratne (born July 14, 1967, in Colombo) is a Sri Lankan cricketer and a politician.

Cricket career

As a schoolboy in 1986, he was selected to play against England B at Galle, scoring a century to save the match. He played in his first One Day International in November 1986, and emerged into the Sri Lankan cricket team as a wicketkeeper-batsman in December 1989. He continued as a specialist batsman from December 1992.

He fell out of the Sri Lankan Test and ODI teams after the 1999 World Cup, but returned to the Test team in 2001 following success in domestic first-class cricket, where he plays for Nondescripts Cricket Club. He also returned to the ODI team in 2002-03. He became captain of the Sri Lanka Test team in April 2003, but won only one of his ten matches in charge. After losing 3-0 to Australia, he resigned in March 2004 and was not selected for Sri Lanka again.

Post-playing career

On 1 February 2005, the Sri Lankan cricket board appointed him Executive Director of Cricket-Aid, a body formed to provide relief following the December 2004 tsunami, but he was suspended amid recriminations later that year..

Following this he entered politics, joining the United National Party, and was appointed as the party's organizer for Avissawella constituency in Colombo. He continued his association with cricket serving on various SLC committees at the invitation of the newly appointed...
Read More