Happy Birthday Kumar Dharmasena
Exactly two years before the birth of Sachin Tendulkar, this great umpire was born. Yeah, we have known him more as an umpire than a cricketer, as he spent more years in umpiring than in cricketing career. Funny isn't seeing ourselves including me, who forgot much about this man. But, he is an living example of pursuing our passion in alternative way. Let us see about this great passionate person.
In this situation, everyone would have gone in some other direction. But only few would try some other direction to pursue his cricket passion. That second kind is Kumar Dharmasena. He while announcing his retirement, stated that he wanted to focus on umpiring for having close connection with cricket. Before his retirement, he had already umpired several domestic cricket matches. His first international match as an umpire was in 2009, during India vs Sri Lanka ODI match, being the youngest to umpire a cricket match. He umpired in 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, and was listed in Elite Panel of ICC Umpires later that year. Further that, he had umpired all ICC events, and in 2018 he was named as ICC Umpire of the Year. Even though, he made error in 2019 World Cup final, he unlike others didn't regret it and accepted.
On April 24, 1971, Kumar Dharmasena was born in Colomba, the capital city of Sri Lanka. He started to play cricket at his teenage and of course made his international cricket debut in the year 1993, against Sri Lanka as 59th capped Srilankan player. He is an all rounder, who bats right handed and bowls right arm off break. He represented Sri Lankan national team in the 1996 Cricket World cup and was a key member in the team. His bowling action made him perfect in ODI cricket matches and yet it received many controversies, particularly in 1998. In 31 Test matches he scored 868 runs and picked up 69 wickets, whereas in One day International, he has even better numbers with scoring 1222 runs in 141 ODIs and scalped 138 wickets.
After that he played for four years in international cricket, which he made himself useful as a batsman but then didn't got much chance in the International circuit which forced him to retire from all forms of cricket in 2006.
After that he played for four years in international cricket, which he made himself useful as a batsman but then didn't got much chance in the International circuit which forced him to retire from all forms of cricket in 2006.
In this situation, everyone would have gone in some other direction. But only few would try some other direction to pursue his cricket passion. That second kind is Kumar Dharmasena. He while announcing his retirement, stated that he wanted to focus on umpiring for having close connection with cricket. Before his retirement, he had already umpired several domestic cricket matches. His first international match as an umpire was in 2009, during India vs Sri Lanka ODI match, being the youngest to umpire a cricket match. He umpired in 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, and was listed in Elite Panel of ICC Umpires later that year. Further that, he had umpired all ICC events, and in 2018 he was named as ICC Umpire of the Year. Even though, he made error in 2019 World Cup final, he unlike others didn't regret it and accepted.
There is a proverb that " If one door closes in life, another door will definitely be open" and he proved and still proving it constantly. A passionate person towards his field. Happy birthday Kumar Dharmasena !!
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