Handunnettige Deepthi Priyantha Kumar Dharmasena more commonly known as Kumar Dharmasena or by his nickname Unanduwa, is a Sri Lankan cricketumpire and former international cricketer, who played Tests and ODIs for Sri Lanka. He was a key member of the Sri Lanka team that won the 1996 Cricket World Cup. He was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm off break bowler.
Playing career
Dharmasena started his cricketing career as a teenager at Nalanda College Colombo. His first foray into international cricket was in 1994 against South Africa. His obscure action made him perfect for bowling in one-day matches, yet Dharmasena also proved a useful batsman, especially after he was investigated in 1998 by the ICC for overstretching his bowling action to illegal proportions. Having been cleared in July 2000, he played for the one-day team on several occasions since, but rarely played Test cricket. Dharmasena was the 59th Sri Lankan cricketer to receive a Test cap. Kumar Dharmasena has the record for playing the most number of ODI innings before being dismissed for a duck. He along with Dulip Liyanage set the record for the highest 8th wicket runstand for Sri Lanka in ODI cricket.
Move to umpiring
Following his retirement from playing in November 2006, Dharmasena announced plans to become a competitive umpire, as he wished to remain "close to the game which I love so dearly". Prior to his retirement, he had already umpired several domestic matches in the Sara Trophy, the major first-class cricket tournament in Sri Lanka. He umpired his first international match in 2009, overseeing the one-day international between India and Sri Lanka at the Rangiri International Stadium in Dambulla: he remains the youngest ever Sri Lankan to umpire any international match. He umpired at the 2011 Cricket World Cup, and was appointed to the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires later that year. Dharmasena was named the Umpire of the Year at the 2012 ICC Awards, for which he received the David Shepherd Trophy. He was selected as one of the twenty umpires to stand in matches during the 2015 Cricket World Cup and umpired in the final. In doing so he became the first to play in and to umpire World Cup finals. He stood in the final of the 2016 ICC World Twenty20. Kumar Dharmasena has worked as an umpire in 18 matches of ICC World T20, the most by any umpire from Sri Lanka. In January 2019, he won the David Shepherd Trophy for the ICC Umpire of the Year at the 2018 ICC Awards. In April 2019, he was named as one of the sixteen umpires to stand in matches during the 2019 Cricket World Cup. In July 2019, he was named as one of the two on-field umpires for the second semi-final match, between Australia and England. Later the same month, he was also named as one of the two on-field umpires for the Cricket World Cup Final. England won the match in a Super Over. He admitted an error but said he did not regret it. If the decision were correct, England would have required 4 runs to win off the last 2 balls but there's no certainty that they would have lost either.
