Saba Ilangaratnam dies aged 59

Saba Ilangaratnam, a fast bowler from Sri Lanka, died of cardiac arrest in Colombo on Monday. He was 59.

Sri Lanka's first Test captain Bandula Warnapura under whom Ilangaratnam played most of his cricket for Bloomfield described him as a person who loved to make others happy.

"Ilange never thought about himself. He always made it a point to ensure that others were first made comfortable before he saw to himself," Warnapura said. "He was perhaps the most loved fast bowler ever to grace the cricket field. Although he bowled with hostility he was a person whom even the opposition loved."

Warnapura recalled times when he had asked Ilangaratnam to bowl a bouncer at a batsman and he thought twice before doing so. "He would ask me whether he could dismiss him by bowling a yorker or any other delivery."

Ilangaratnam studied in and played cricket for Hindu College before joining Moratuwa SC where he continued to play first division club cricket. He moved to Bloomfield in the mid-1970s and was also their assistant coach. He played for Sri Lanka in an unofficial one-dayer against MCC before Sri Lanka were granted Test status.