Thushara Cooray reaches milestone in cricket scoring

Thursday, 6 February 2025 03:49 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Celebrates 100th Test at Galle today

Thushara Cooray

Seldom do cricket scorers in Sri Lanka or elsewhere in the world get due recognition for the amount of hard work and toil they put in to ensure that at the end of the day there is no blemish in the figures they present to the media to file their reports.

They hardly get an opportunity to achieve a landmark like the cricketers.

For Thushara Cooray, long-standing scorer for the local media, the second Test between Sri Lanka and Australia beginning at the Galle International Cricket Stadium today is of special significance because it marks his 100th Test match as scorer. It is an achievement to be celebrated and recognised.

Thushara has dedicated his life to scoring and one which he enjoys to the full. Prior to Thushara making his mark as a scorer the official scoring was done by the late Archibald Pereira who designed a scorebook called ‘The Ready Reckoner’. However, with the advancement of the game a more updated version of the scorebook was necessary and that is where Cooray stepped in to develop a scoring book that included every minute detail of a day’s play which anyone running his eye through the pages can get a picture of what happened during a day’s play. The updated scorebook meticulously prepared by Cooray is the one that Sri Lanka Cricket is currently using for all its international and domestic matches.

A unique feature is that when Cooray made his international debut as scorer in the first Test between Sri Lanka and New Zealand at the CCC grounds in 1987, Jeff Crowe was the New Zealand captain. Now 38 years later in Cooray’s 100th Test as an international scorer, Crowe is the ICC Match Referee for the two-match series.

Sri Lanka Cricket and members of the local media have planned to felicitate Thushara on reaching this landmark during the second Test at Galle.

Not only does Thushara contribute immensely to the media but apart from scoring he also keeps the entire media box entertained with his jokes and tales of his experience as a scorer for Sri Lanka Cricket and also for leading clubs as well as schools like Royal College, Colombo and S’Thomas College Mt. Lavinia where he is their statistician and scorer.

With the paucity of Test matches played by Sri Lanka at the moment, Thushara’s record could remain for time immemorial. – [ST]

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