Chamara - first Rajan to be picked for Sri Lanka test squad

Upananda Jayasundera - Kandy Sports Special Correspondent

Chamara Kantha Kapugedera former Dharmaraja cricketer is the first Rajan to be selected for the Test Squad. He has been selected for the forthcoming India-Sri Lanka three Test Series starting in Chennai, India next month. Before him Sonny Yatawara and T.B. Kehelgamuwa were selected for the Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) side before getting test status.

Dharmaraja College, Kandy has also produced former Sri Lanka schools cricketers such as T.B. Talwatte, Arthur Alwis, S.B. Situnayake, Chandra de Silva, Raja Mettananda D.D.P. Alwis, Sarath Randeniya, G.S. Ratnayake, Ananda Jayasundera, N.K.B. Angammana, Harold Ranasinghe, Ravi Rajapakse Dhananjaya Navaratne, Senaka Dissanayake, Pubudu Seneviratne to name a few.

Chamara started his cricket career at Dharmaraja at the age of ten and had the honour of Captaining all the teams from Under 13 to Under 19. He has the distinction of scoring centuries in each age group.

He was the only schoolboy from Kandy Schools to top the 1000 run mark in the year 2003.

When he toured Pakistan with the Sri Lanka Schools in the year 2004 he scored 112 in the first test match against Pakistan Schools and 131 in the third limited over match.

In the year 2005, he scored 49 and 70 against New Zealand 'A' in the practice game and third test respectively. In addition he scored 71 against South African 'B' side in a practice game and also 54 against visiting Australian Academy team and proved his class as a consistent run getter. Chamara is a wicket keeper and a right arm medium pace bowler as well.

Chamara was born on 24th of February, 1986 in Kandy and he is the son of Lalith Kapugedera, Secretary of the Central Province Umpire Association and Bridget Kapugedera an executive officer of the Bank of Ceylon.