Former Royal cricketer now a top-class match referee

By Shamseer Jaleel

Former Royal College double colors man (Cricket and Football), Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka A, Sri Lanka President XI, and Tamil Union cricketer, Pradeep Jayaprakash has reached a lot of praise and respect from the visiting teams in his role as a Match Referee.

 Pradeep soon after leaving school joined Tamil Union to play first-class cricket and was later picked up to represent the national team under Marvan Atapattu. He also represented the Sri Lanka A against the visiting India, New Zealand, South Africa, and Bangladesh outfits. He played under Prasanna Jayawardena at this level.

As an endorsement of trust and ability placed upon Pradeep by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), he was rewarded to officiate the Under 19 Asia Cup final encounter held in Dubai in 2021 between Sri Lanka and India, despite being a Sri Lankan. At the same event, he was involved in the semi-final encounter between India and Bangladesh as well. 

Pradeep was involved in several assignments against visiting New Zealand, West Indies, Australia, and England outfits. His last assignment was against the visiting Australia A outfit encounter in Hambantota last month.

He is an equipped match official to serve the cricketing fraternity for many more years in the future and as Sri Lanka has produced top-class match referees such as Ranjan Madugalle, Roshan Mahanama, and Graeme Labrooy, sooner than later Pradeep has the potential to catch the ICC Match referees panel’s attention.