Paranavitana bids farewell to first-class cricket

Former Sri Lanka Test opener Tharanga Paranavitana bade farewell to first-class cricket yesterday at the end of the Plate match between Tamil Union and Negombo CC at the Colts grounds.

In his final first-class innings Paranavitana, 38, was dismissed for 18 stumped off off-spinner Lakshitha Manasinghe.

A dogged left-handed batsman from St. Mary’s College, Kegalle, he represented SSC from 2001-02 for 13 years before joining Tamil Union in 2015/16 and continued with them till his retirement. He captained both SSC and Tamil Union in the Premier League Tier ‘A’ competition and in nearly two decades of first-class cricket compiled nearly 15,000 runs (14,940) at an average of 46 inclusive of 40 hundreds of which two were scored in the 32 Tests he played for Sri Lanka between 2009 and 2012. (ST)