Cricketers pay homage to late Lankan star C.I. Gunasekara

Players from both sides observed two minutes silence shortly after lunch as mark of respect for the late cricketer.

Colombo: Indian and Sri Lankan cricketers taking part in the second cricket Test being played here, paid tribute and homage to former All Ceylon Cricketer Conroy Ievers Gunasekara, better known as C.I Gunasekara, who passed away today. He was 90.

Players from both sides observed two minutes silence shortly after lunch on the fourth day of the match as mark of respect for the late cricketer. Gunasekara played first-class cricket prior to Sri Lanka being granted Test status. Born on July 14, 1920, Gunasekara was educated at Royal College Colombo where he played in the Royal-Thomian encounter, starting from 1938.He started playing cricket for the Sinhalese Sports Club under the captaincy of Fredrick C. de Saram. Thereafter Gunesekara went on to play for the Ceylon team and captained it. While playing for Sri Lanka, Gunasekara came up with a number of remarakable knocks, including a double hundred against Pakistan. He also represented the Commonwealth, scoring a hundred in the match between England Vs. the Commonwealth batting alongside Australian great Keith Miller.He played regularly for the SSC till the 1980s. ANI