Thilina Kandamby

Kandamby is a cricketer who has not fulfilled the promise he showed as a schoolboy at Ananda College, one of the country's leading Buddhist institutions. He holds the highest individual score of 144 in the traditional match against Nalanda made in 1999. The following year was his best, aggregating 940 runs from 12 matches and was selected captain of the Sri Lanka Under-19 side to tour Australia where he won the Man-of-the-Series award with some sterling contributions. Graduating to the Sri Lanka A side, he toured India and hit five half-centuries which saw him being selected for the Sri Lanka team's tour to New Zealand. He was picked for Sri Lanka's tour to Zimbabwe in 2004 but a lack of consistency meant he was dropped after just four ODI appearances.

He is the first to admit that he did not completely grab the opportunities that came his way. In an attempt to win back his place, he took over the captaincy of Bloomfield in 2004 and thrice scored ninety in the Premier league. In 2005-06, he won the Premier limited overs Man-of-the-Tournament award. The retirement of Russell Arnold after the 2007 World Cup opened up a spot for him but he had to wait more than a year for a recall. He returned to Zimbabwe and scored a crucial 40 in a low-scoring game to set up the victory, and that set in motion an exceptional run of form for Kandamby that saw him break into the Test squad for Sri Lanka's tour of India in late 2009.

For several years, he competed for a spot in the one-day middle order with Thilan Samaraweera and Chamara Kapugedera but lost out to them in the race for a place in the 2011 World Cup squad. That June, however, following several months of turmoil in Sri Lankan cricket, he returned to the one-day squad as vice-captain, and took charge in the Twenty20 against England at Bristol after Tillakaratne Dilshan was ruled out with a broken thumb.
Sa'adi Thawfeeq