Hashan Tillakaratne

Deshabandu Hashan Prasantha Tillakaratne (born 14 July 1967) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and a former Test captain for Sri Lanka.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was a key member for 1996 Cricket World Cup winning team for Sri Lanka.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He is currently a politician and also involved in many aspects of cricket within the country.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His twin sons Ravindu Tillakaratne and Duvindu Tillakaratne also play domestic cricket in Sri Lanka.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

International career

Hashan started playing cricket at Isipathana College, Colombo & D. S. Senanayake College, Colombo. As a schoolboy in 1986, he was selected to play against England B at Galle, scoring a century to save the match. He made his One Day International debut in November 1986 at Sharjah against India during the 1986–87 Champions Trophy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He subsequently made his test debut in the Sri Lankan cricket team as a wicketkeeper-batsman in December 1989 against Australia and scored a duck on test debut.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He continued as a specialist batsman from December 1992 and decided to quit the glovework in 1994.

He was part of the Sri Lankan cricket team that won the 1996 Cricket World Cup.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was dropped from the Sri Lankan Test and ODI teams after the 1999 Cricket World Cup, but returned to the Test team in 2001 following success in domestic first-class cricket, where he played for Nondescripts Cricket Club. He also returned to the ODI team in 2002–03. In November 2002, he scored a magnificent test century against South Africa at Centurion Park in difficult conditions and with that century he went onto become the first Sri Lankan to have scored a test century in South African soil.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":0"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He also became the first and only Sri Lankan to have scored a test century at Centurion SuperSport Park.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He became captain of the Sri Lanka Test team in April 2003, but won only one of his ten matches in charge.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After losing 3–0 to Australia at home, he resigned from captaincy in March 2004 and was not selected for Sri Lanka again.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He announced his retirement from international cricket in 2004 and retired from all forms of cricket in 2006 to pursue his career in coaching.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref>

During a group stage match against West Indies as part of the 1995–96 Singer Champions Trophy at Sharjah chasing a mammoth 334, Hashan Tillekaratne coming in at seven had an uphill task to rescue the Sri Lankan batting singlehandedly in the run chase when they were reduced to 103/5 at one stage.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He nearly pulled off a Javed Miandad type masterclass innings of his own by scoring a century coming into bat at seven giving Sri Lanka a fair chance of getting closer to the winning target from nowhere.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, his valiant knock was in vain as Sri Lanka lost only by four runs in the end being bowled out for 329.<ref name=":2"/> He went to become the first batsman in the world to score an ODI century when batting at number 7 position. Up to date, he remains the only Sri Lankan to have scored an ODI century when batting at number 7 position and still has the highest ODI score for Sri Lanka when batting at no 7 positions.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Hashan Tillakaratne graph.png

Hashan Tillakaratne's test career performance graph.

Post-retirement

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,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but he was suspended amid recriminations later that year.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Following this he entered politics, joining the United National Party, and was appointed as the party's organiser for Avissawella constituency in Colombo. He continued his association with cricket serving on various SLC committees at the invitation of the newly appointed president, Arjuna Ranatunga. He was also granted honorary life membership of the MCC in March 2008. In May, he was appointed the president of the Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers of Sri Lanka (ACUSSL) and the Sri Lankan cricket board appointed him as National Cricket Team Manager in July 2008.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This appointment was subsequently vetoed by Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge on the grounds that the SLC had failed to obtain his prior permission on the appointment and Hashan was replaced by Charith Senanayake.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In April 2011, he caused a furore by making public allegations that match-fixing had been taking place in Sri Lankan cricket since 1992 and stated that he was prepared to divulge the information that he had about this to the ICC.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His claims were also supported by former Sri Lankan Test captain Arjuna Ranatunga who claimed that there was corruption within the administration of the game.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2012, he made allegations that there were political interference during the 2012 Sri Lanka Cricket Board elections.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He joined the Sri Lanka Cricket selection panel in 2013.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He was appointed as a temporary batting coach of Sri Lankan cricket team in 2017.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He became the coach of the Sri Lanka national under-19 cricket team in 2018 and up until 2020 on a two-year agreement with the 2020 Under-19 Cricket World Cup being his last assignment as U19 coach.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He also served as batting coach of Sri Lanka Emerging Team for a brief stint. In 2019, there were reports that the test cap of Hashan Tillekaratne was to be sold in an online auction. However, Hashan himself refused such reports and insisted that he would never sell his national pride for money.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

He was appointed as the coach of the Kandy Tuskers franchise for the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League in 2020.Template:Citation needed In June 2021, he was appointed as the head coach of the Sri Lanka women's national cricket team on a six-month contract up until December 2021.<ref name=":1"/><ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2021, he was also appointed as a part of coach restructuring program at the High Performance Centre.<ref name=":3"/>

International centuries

Test match centuries

No.	Score	Against	City	Ground	Date	Result	Ref
[1]	116	Template:Cr	Harare, Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club	26 October 1994	Draw	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
[2]	108	Template:Cr	Dunedin, New Zealand	Carisbrook Stadium	18 March 1995	Draw	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
[3]	115	Template:Cr	Faisalabad, Pakistan	Iqbal Stadium	15 September 1995	Sri Lanka won	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
[4]	119	Template:Cr	Perth, Australia	W.A.C.A. Ground	8 December 1995	Sri Lanka lost	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
[5]	126 not out	Template:Cr	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	18 September 1996	Sri Lanka won	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
[6]	103	Template:Cr	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R.Premadasa Stadium	19 April 1997	Draw	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
[7]	136 not out	Template:Cr	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	29 August 2001	Sri Lanka won	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
[8]	105 not out	Template:Cr	Galle, Sri Lanka	Galle International Stadium	13 November 2001	Sri Lanka won	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
[9]	204 not out	Template:Cr	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	29 November 2001	Sri Lanka won	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
[10]	104 not out	Template:Cr	Centurion, South Africa	SuperSport Park	15 November 2002	Sri Lanka lost	<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>
[11]	144	Template:Cr	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R.Premadasa Stadium	25 April 2003	Draw	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

One Day International centuries

No.	Score	Against	City	Ground	Date	Result	Ref
[1]	104	Template:Cr	Mumbai, India	Wankhede Stadium	9 November 1993	Sri Lanka lost	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
[2]	100	Template:Cr	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah Cricket Stadium	16 October 1995	Sri Lanka lost	<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

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