COMMENTATOR RANIL ABEYNAIKE DIES

Ranil Abeynaike passes away

Very famous and renowned cricket commentator locally and Internationally Ranil Abeynaike had passed away this morning following a sudden heart attack. He was a product of S.Thomas’ College Mt Lavinia where he excelled in cricket particularly as a left arm spinner. He played as a regular member of the College First X1 team and later went on to be the Skipper of the team
Later He represented the most prestigious Sinhalese Sports club as a cricketer. During playing for Sinhalese Sports Club he was elected captain and during this period his invaluable contribution to the team made the club to win the Premier league tournament a number of times both in 4 day and ODI matches.  He was also involved in the administrative activities of the club. He soon became the cricket coach of the First X1 cricket team of his ‘Alma Mater’ for a number of years.
He also underwent courses in preparing cricket pitches and was well known as a famous ‘curator’ who was responsible in preparing cricket pitches for the SSC and other international venues in Sri Lanka. He was famous for reading the condition of cricket pitches prior to the commencement of several international matches and was often seen over the television channels giving the ’pitch’ reports before the toss in several matches.
He joined the elite panel of commentators for “TEN SPORTS”TV channel since the year 2004 and to date he had commentated on a number of International matches travelling widely worldwide. His demise is indeed an irreparable loss to our country’s cricket in various ways.