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Full name Sajeewa Weerakoon
Born February 17, 1978, Galle
Current age 30 years 233 days
Major teams Sri Lanka,Burgher Recreation Club,Colts Cricket Club,Galle Cricket Club,Ruhuna,Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club
Batting style Left-hand bat
Bowling style Slow left-arm orthodox
Batting and fielding averages
Mat
Inns
NO
Runs
HS
Ave
BF
SR
100
50
4s
6s
Ct
St
First-class
115
138
44
1535
90
16.32
0
4
76
0
List A
77
37
18
248
53*
13.05
0
1
24
0
Twenty20
13
5
1
47
22
11.75
55
85.45
0
0
5
0
4
0
Bowling averages
Mat
Inns
Balls
Runs
Wkts
BBI
BBM
Ave
Econ
SR
4w
5w
10
First-class
115
21829
9179
470
7/47
19.52
2.52
46.4
26
7
List A
77
3317
1929
99
5/40
5/40
19.48
3.48
33.5
0
1
0
Twenty20
13
13
249
224
17
3/14
3/14
13.17
5.39
14.6
0
0
0
Career statistics
First-class debut
1995/96
Last First-class
Badureliya Sports Club v Colts Cricket Club at Colombo (Colts), Mar 27-30, 2008 scorecard
List A debut
1997/98
Last List A
Ruhuna v Wayamba at Kurunegala, Jan 5, 2008 scorecard
Twenty20 debut
Burgher Recreation Club v Sinhalese Sports Club at Colombo (NCC), Aug 17, 2004 scorecard
Last Twenty20
Ruhuna v Wayamba at Kurunegala, May 1, 2008 scorecard
Profile
The consistency with which Sajeewa Weerakoon, the left-arm spinner from Burgher RC, performed during the 2005 season for Sri Lanka A forced the hands of the selectors to finally include him in the national team to India for the three Tests ahead of established spinner Rangana Herath. Weerakoon has been knocking on the door for bigger honours for quite some time and the way he bowled this year against strong sides like South Africa A and New Zealand A confirmed the quality of his bowling. 2005 has been an outstanding year for him when he picked up 60 wickets for Sri Lanka A in seven first-class matches. His performance was one bright spark for the selectors who had been frustrated by the poor standards set by the batsmen. The consistency with which he has performed is not only consigned to the A team, but in the past three seasons he has won the best bowler award twice by topping 50 wickets in the Premier league for his club.
The former Sri Lanka captain and present A team manager, Anura Tennekoon, drew a close resemblance of Weerakoon's bowling action to another former Sri Lanka left-arm spinner Ajith de Silva. "Being quite tall Sajeewa is able to make use of his height to get that extra bit of bounce. He bowls a nagging line and length and uses the extra bounce."
Weerakoon picks the majority of his wickets by taking the ball away from the batsman towards the slips. He also bowls the arm ball for variation. So far he has proved his worth on pitches that have given him some kind of assistance. His real test comes when he bowls on flatter surfaces. Saadi Thawfeeq (November 2005)
