Former SL captain Dhanasiri Weerasinghe dies in Australia aged 84

Former Sri Lanka captain Dhanasiri Weerasinghe has died at the age of 84 at his private residence in Melbourne, Australia on Tuesday morning.

Dhanasiri Weerasinghe

Weerasinghe, a product of St John’s College, Panadura and a former captain of Ananda College, is infamously remembered for selecting himself for the tour of England in 1968, when he was the Chairman of Selectors. Due to the furore that followed the selections, the tour never took place, and many were of the view had Sri Lanka gone on that tour, they would have gained ICC Test status earlier than 1981.

An aggressive right-handed stroke-maker, Weerasinghe somewhat set the record straight when he scored a match-winning 92 as Captain of the Sri Lanka team against Madras (now Chennai) in the annual Gopalan trophy fixture played at Chepauk in 1969.

He migrated with his family to Melbourne in 1975 and lived there ever since, along with his four grandchildren. (CSJ)