Jayananda Warnaweera - Sri Lanka - Batsman

Jayananda Warnaweera experienced controversies throughout his career. As an off-spinner, his action was always doubted and that meant his international career was cut short. Then, after his retirement days, he served as a curator at the Galle Stadium before being dismissed after lack of cooperation with the ICC's Anti-Corruption Unit regarding an investigation. Nevertheless, he did manage to represent the country briefly, with the matches scattered over an eight-year career. As an offie, Warnaweera wasn't of the orthodox mould, he preferred to bowl at a flatter trajectory and relied more on accuracy to create pressure on the batsmen.

Warnaweera's quicker pace was particularly difficult to handle on pitches that assisted sharp turn as the batsmen never got the time to read him off the surface. One of Warnaweera's happiest moments on the cricket field came when he picked up a match haul of eight scalps in Sri Lanka's maiden Test win over England at Colombo. While he relished spinning conditions, he was barely effective on flat pitches or against opponents who played spin well, like India. His passion for the game saw him take up the chief curator's job at the Galle Stadium, which hosted its first international game under his supervision. However, the incident with ACU put curtains on his second innings as well.

Written by Hariprasad Sadanandan