Ranil Abeynaike no more

Former cricketer and commentator Ranil Abeynaike has passed away yesterday at the age of 57.

He had been receiving treatment at a private hospital and died of a heart attack.

Abeynaike who is a proud product of S.Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia has played first-class cricket for Sri Lanka, List A cricket as well as English county cricket for Bedfordshire. The Right-hand batsman also played for Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC).

In his first-class career(1973-1990), he played fourteen matches, scoring 412 runs at an average of 24.23, with a high score of 66. With the ball, he took 9 wickets at a bowling average of 40.00, with best figures of 6/131.

As a commentator he has commentated on cricket for United Arab Emirates based sports broadcaster TEN Sports since 2004.

Sri Lanka Cricket in a press release today (21) stated that SLC deeply regrets the demise of Mr. Ranil Abeynayake, former Interim committee member and member of the National Selection Panel.

 “Ranil Abeynayake was an International Cricket commentator, Cricket writer, Curator of the SSC and a Cricket Coach who contributed immensely to help Sri Lanka Cricket in numerous ways.”