Roshan Mahanama

Roshan Mahanama

Personal information
Full name	Roshan Siriwardene Mahanama
Born	(1966-05-31) 31 May 1966 Colombo, Dominion of Ceylon
Nickname	Maha
Batting style	Right-hand
Role	Batsman
International information
National side	Sri Lanka
Test debut (cap 52)	14 March 1986 v Pakistan
Last Test	27 March 1998 v South Africa
ODI debut (cap 36)	2 March 1986 v Pakistan
Last ODI	30 May 1999 v Kenya
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1988/89–1992	Colombo Cricket Club
1994/95–1998/99	Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club
Career statistics
Competition Tests ODIs FC List A Matches 52 213 137 253 Runs scored 2,576 5,162 6,698 6,472 Batting average 29.27 29.49 34.40 30.96 100s/50s 4/11 4/35 12/31 6/42 Top score 225 119* 225 119* Balls bowled 36 2 36 2 Wickets – – – – Bowling average – – – – 5 wickets in innings – – – – 10 wickets in match – n/a – n/a Best bowling – – – – Catches/stumpings 56/- 109/- 136/- 121/-
Source: ESPNCricinfo, 30 November 2015

Roshan Siriwardene Mahanama (born 31 May 1966 in Colombo) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and former an ICC match referee. He was a key member for 1996 Cricket World Cup winning team for Sri Lanka. He is the first man to stood as a match referee in a day-night test match in Test history.

Roshan is the 36th Sri Lanka Test Cap where he played Sri Lanka Vs Pakistan at Colombo 1985/86.

'Retired hurt' is common parlance in cricket, but that is the name former Sri Lankan cricketer Roshan Mahanama chose for his biography, reflecting his feelings after he was not considered for selection in the One-dayers and Tests, following the team's disastrous showing in the 1999 World Cup.

The authorities told Roshan that he was dropped to groom young talent. But then players older than he was found a place, and that hurt the veteran. As a matter of principle and self-respect he decided to retire. These facts are mentioned in the book 'Retired hurt,' penned by noted Australian sports chronicler Ken Piesse, based on 40 hours of taped narration on Roshan's experience on and off the field.

In September 2015, Mahanama said that he would step down from the ICC match referee panel at the end of the year; he will spend his time with his family and his businesses.

International career

Although he averaged less than 30 at Test cricket, he did score four centuries, including a top score of 225 for the Sri Lankan cricket team against India at Colombo, where he shared a then world record second wicket partnership of 576 runs with Sanath Jayasuriya. This record was surpassed in July 2006 as the largest partnership in Test match history by fellow Sri Lankans Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene who put on 624 against South Africa. The partnership between Jayasuriya-Mahanama still stood as the highest partnership for the second wicket in Test cricket.

Roshan Mahanama established himself as stylish opening batsman in the late 1980s & early 1990s under the captaincy of Aravinda de Silva. In the 1992 Cricket World Cup, Roshan Mahanama was selected as opening batsman along with M.A.R. Samarasekera & U.C. Hathurusingha, scoring 59 runs off 89 balls v.s. Zimbabwe, 80 runs off 131 balls v.s. New Zealand & 68 runs off 121 balls v.s. South Africa.

Match referee

Following his retirement from international cricket in 1999, Roshan Mahanama made the transition into becoming an International Cricket Council match referee. He made his debut as a match referee in the ODI between West Indies and Bangladesh in Kingstown 2004. In the same series, he made his Test debut and to date, he has refereed in 61 Tests. On 21 October 2014 during ODI series between New Zealand and South Africa, Roshan Mahanama entered the elite group of match referees who have officiated 200+ matches.

Mahanama step down from the match referee at the last test of New Zealand v Australia with having joined the elite panel in 2004 and has refereed in 61 Tests, 222 ODIs and 35 T20Is till 15 September, including in three World Cups and the Champions Trophy 2009. Mahanama became the first match referee to be acted in a day-night Test match in the history of the game, where the pink ball was used for the first time as well.

International Centuries

As an opener in the first few years at career, Mahanama was later moved to middle order rigid batsmen with the new openers Romesh Kaluwitharana and Sanath Jayasuriya due to the revolutionized batting display gave them the permanent opening positions. Anyway, until retirement, Mahanama has scored 4 Test centuries and 4 ODI centuries.

Test Centuries

The following table illustrates a summary of the Test centuries scored by Roshan Mahanama

• In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career

Test Centuries of Roshan Mahanama
	Runs	Match	Against	City, Country	Venue	Year
[1]	153	15	New Zealand	Moratuwa, Sri Lanka	Tyronne Fernando Stadium	1992
[2]	109	16	New Zealand	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	1992
[3]	151	20	India	Colombo, Sri Lanka	P. Saravanamuttu Stadium	1993
[4]	225	44	India	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium	1997

ODI Centuries

The following table illustrates a summary of the ODI centuries scored by Roshan Mahanama

ODI Centuries of Roshan Mahanama
	Runs	Match	Against	City, Country	Venue	Year
[1]	107	72	New Zealand	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium	1992
[2]	119*	108	Zimbabwe	Harare, Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club	1994
[3]	108	109	Zimbabwe	Harare, Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club	1994
[4]	101	124	West Indies	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah Cricket Stadium	1995

See also

• 100 Runs Test Cricket Partnerships by Sri Lanka
• Ananda-Nalanda

External links

• Player profile: Roshan Mahanama from ESPNcricinfo
• Player profile: Roshan Mahanama from CricketArchive