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Romesh Kaluwitharana

Deshabandu Romesh Shantha Kaluwitharana (රොමේෂ් ශාන්ත කලුවිතාරණ; born 24 November 1969) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who represented the Sri Lanka national cricket team from 1990 to 2004. He was a key member and wicket-keeper for 1996 Cricket World Cup winning team and renowned for his aggressive batting style.

Kaluwitharana along with Sanath Jayasuriya, are credited for having revolutionized one-day international cricket with explosive batting in the mid-1990s, which initiated the hard-hitting modern-day batting strategy of all nations. He made his Twenty20 debut on 17 August 2004, for Colts Cricket Club in the 2004 SLC Twenty20 Tournament. He was appointed as the interim cricket coach of Malaysia on the 17 May 2008. He was educated at St. Sebastian's College, Moratuwa.

International career
His early career made him look like a good Sri Lankan prospect, and the undoubted highlight of his career was the entertaining innings of 132 not out (including 26 boundaries) that he made on Test debut against a powerful Australian side in 1992. However, he failed to deliver on his promise in a declining Sri Lankan team (prior to the revival of Sri Lankan cricket at the 1996 World Cup).

Once in the national side, he sometimes threw his wicket away due to poor shot-selection and was suspect to the swinging delivery. However, he relished pace and would often be quick to put away any delivery off line or length. His greatest contribution to ODIs came after he was promoted to the top of the batting order to partner opener Sanath Jayasuriya during the 1995–96 tour of Australia, helping to give birth to an aggressive batting approach in the first fifteen overs of fielding restrictions. This new strategy of attacking from the outset heavily contributed to Sri Lanka to win all their matches and secure the 1996 Cricket World Cup as all other teams were not prepared for such an attack. Kaluwitharana was the wicket keeper and opener with Jayasuriya in that world cup series that was captained by Arjuna Ranatunga.

Beyond cricket
He started a project Kalu's Hideaway, a luxury jungle retreat in Udawalawe.

title: Romesh Kaluwitharana


text:
Talk:Video game console emulator

reverse engineering
I was wondering if anyone could dig up a reference to a law that protects from reverse engineering, as I never heard of one. Also, it is not just hobby projects, there are quite a few commercial emulators like bleem! (the company was subsequently sued by Sony and was closed but the court ruled it to be legal!). -- Darklock 00:09, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

NPOV Removal
I'm sorry, but I just don't think this sounds neutral. It seems unusually one-sided to me.
 * How does it seem bias then? [|NeoThermic]

I was the Anon who put the NPOV notice up. I hadn't realized at the time I was anon. I was recently looking through my contribs, and noticed that Console Emulator wasn't listed.

Anyway, the bias has clearly been removed, and I think the NPOV should be removed.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

--T2X 16:08, Dec 4, 2004 (UTC)

I think there should be something on this about the legal statis of emulators themselves as oppsoed to the old ESA VS abandonware VS pirate arguement

History Intro Removal
Just removed the first paragraph from the History section, which was completely off base. The 80's Atari 2600 compatibility expansion systems were *not* emulation. In these systems (Colecovision's, the Atari 5200's 2, and Intellivision's3), it was a complete 2600 in a smaller footprint that attached to the unit and simply used it for displaying the television signal. There was no emulation. --Marty Goldberg 15:28, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

"amateur"
Is it really necessary to refer to people who write emulators and hack ROMs as amateurs? --72.95.155.177 14:00, 26 April 2007

 * Yes, its not being done in a derogatory manner. They're not officially produced commercial products by professionals employed at the company, i.e. doing it as a job.  The bulk are by hobbyists and others doing it in their free time and out of the enjoyment/satisfaction of it.  --Marty Goldberg 20:27, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

 * I, for one, do find it somewhat derogatory. What about those who DO have professional programming careers and yet programs in their spare time as a hobby without profit? Should they now be suddenly downgraded to being just a mere amateur because one person on the internet do not find worth in their endeavors? The author of Cxbx, for example, has had employment at both Microsoft and DivX Networks Cxbx About page and you may also peruse his resume, also located at that site for further background. I don't personally know this man, or any emulator author for that matter, but I do have respect for what they do. Please refrain from exhibiting such bias in the future, thank you. 98.66.149.61 (talk) 00:51, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

(Section 6 was wiped, it was just asking for trouble. Raekuul, bringer of Tropes (He does it without notability) 13:31, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Nesticle.jpg
Image:Nesticle.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 05:17, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

changed wording
"which comes packaged with their new seventh generation console" removed 'new' because it seems like an odd wording choice for this article. Wiilanadapter (talk) 08:34, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

copy edit
This article was flagged for a copy edit since June 2008. I have made edits and done my best not to change the article but only correct grammar, spelling, cohesion, tense issues and run-on sentences. Deathtok (talk) 18:18, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Really Nintendo is the key? Really?????
Oh come on. It is like this article knows absolutely nothing about the emulation history it supposedly states to be all knowing about. Did they even read Sam Pettus's Emulation FAQ?

Spectrum emulation has been out-duelling Nintendo hardware as far as hobby emulation goes for over two decades now as far as console emulation goes. Have you seen the stats? They even had their first homebrew commercial emulator years before Marat or that SMYNES guy with his hilarious pay-system.

So, really? Nintendo emulation was the popular key? Have you actually had to research this stuff?

--EMU-LMAO (talk) 03:07, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

 * I agree entirely. It's a matter of public record that Spectrum emulators were being given away on the front of nationally-distributed magazines by August 1995 (and, from my personal experience, probably a year or two earlier than that, though I've no source to prove it). To suggest that people were "shocked" by the release of a half-decent NES emulator several years later is so lopsided as to be laughable. Someone needs to overhaul this entry. — 83.244.247.185 (talk) 17:34, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Speedruns
I would like to somehow have this information added to the site: Mostly modified emulators are used to create Tool-Assisted Speedruns. Those support slow-motion (up to frame advance), save states, scripts and demo recording. Such emulators also enable more efficient practicing for non-assisted speedruns.

I would like to have this paragraph added or a confirmation that it is OK to add this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.164.60.24 (talk) 19:56, 11 September 2011 (UTC)

"List of Emulators" section insinuates bias
The list of emulators listed on this page insinuates an inappropriate bias, and should probably simply link to the main page listing the various emulators available. Stevenweaver (talk) 04:50, 26 May 2013 (UTC)

Virtual Console (...) games (...) are free from emulation accuracy issues that plague unofficial emulators
That's not true. To my knowledge there's no "official" emulator for C64. The C64 emulation of Wii Virtual Console is based on an unofficiual emulator (Frodo), which offers different versions of different accuracy and resource consumption (the more precise, the more resource hungry). It (the Wii Virtual COnsole version) is known to have a number of issues with officially available games. Source (in German): http://www.forum64.de/wbb3/board2-c64-alles-rund-um-den-brotkasten/board315-software/board8-spiele/29770-wii-virtual-console/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.15.32.226 (talk) 11:18, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Rare cases
I think the word 'rare' in the opening sentence of the article should perhaps be removed.

"A video game console emulator is a type of emulator that allows a personal computer or (in some RARE cases, other video game consoles) to emulate a video game console's hardware and behavior and play games for that platform."

AFAIK there are plenty of emulators that run on game consoles now. To name a few (very) popular systems: NDS (homebrew emus), Wii + Wii U (Virtual Console), PS3 (PS1), PSP (many systems). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Uncle Alf (talk • contribs) 20:24, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

Source

 * https://web.archive.org/web/20160322185100/http://scans.roushimsx.com/PCGamer_1997_10_pg084.jpg
 * Likely unreliable source. ☀DefenderTienMinh⛤☯☽  ( talk ) 06:22, 22 May 2023 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Video game console emulator


text:
Albanian Greek Catholic Church

The Albanian Greek Catholic Church, or the Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church, is an autonomous (sui iuris in Latin) Byzantine Rite particular church in full communion with the Catholic Church and the Pope of Rome, whose members live in Albania and which comprises the Apostolic Administration of Southern Albania. The Albanian Greek Catholic Church, with its Byzantine Rite, is closely linked to the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church sharing a significant commonality of history, identity and traditions.

History

The conversion to Christianity of Albania took place under Latin Christianity (and its Roman Rite liturgy) influence in the north and Byzantine Christianity in the south. Christianity was the first and the oldest monotheistic religion of Albanian people. After the fifteenth-century Ottoman conquest, some two thirds of the population accepted Islam. In 1967, Communist-ruled Albania was officially declared an atheist state.

Though the Greek liturgical rite was used in many of its churches, Albania was part of the patriarchate of Rome until 731, when Byzantine Emperor Leo III, in reprisal for the opposition of Pope Gregory III to the emperor's iconoclast policy, attached the whole of Eastern Illyricum to the patriarchate of Constantinople.

Catholics of the Latin Church were long established in the north of the country. A Catholic mission worked in the south between 1660, when the Orthodox archbishop joined the Catholic Church, to 1765 when the effort was abandoned because of obstacles placed by the Ottoman rulers. In 1895 a group of villages in Mali Shpati, southeast of Elbasan in central Albania, decided to become Catholic and demanded a bishop of their own rite, a proposal to which the consular representatives of Russia and Montenegro raised objections with the civil authorities. At about the same time, another group of Greek Catholics arose, centred on an archimandrite, George Germanos, who was a nephew of the Orthodox metropolitan in 1900, and concluded a definitive movement of Catholic unity formed in Elbasan. Numbers grew only to a small extent, but enough for southern Albania to become in 1939 a separate ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the care of an Apostolic Administrator. However, after less than seven years, the administrator was expelled, and contact seemed lost with the Byzantine faithful, who found themselves under strict Communist rule.

Only in 1992 was it possible to appoint a new apostolic administrator. At first the post was given to the Holy See's diplomatic representative in Tirana, Archbishop Ivan Dias, who later became Archbishop of Mumbai and a cardinal. Archbishop Dias's successor as Apostolic Administrator of Southern Albania, not as Nuncio, is the Croatian-born Byzantine-Rite Franciscan bishop Hil Kabashi, who was appointed in 1996.

By 1998 there were no parishes or priests for the few Byzantine Catholic faithful. Later a small Byzantine parish was established in Elbasan, the same place where Friar Jorgji Germanos settled in 1900. Josif Papamihali was beatified in Shkodër on November 5, 2016. Due to the small number of faithful, the Albanian Greek Catholic Church ceased to be classified as an autonomous (sui juris) particular church since the Pontifical Yearbook 2020.

The apostolic administratorship of Southern Albania has 3,200 Catholics in nine parishes, with 11 churches, and is served by four diocesan and 10 religious priests, 10 male and 97 female religious, who administer 10 schools and 20 charitable institutions. The great majority of these are of the Latin Church.

title: Albanian Greek Catholic Church


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Talk:Minsden Chapel

Despite the many reports, very little evidence exists to support the validity of any of these stories

By "very little evidence", do you mean no evidence?Graham 05:54, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Well, I think the photograph still exists. And certainly there are a number of eye-witness accounts. None of it is exactly firm and reliably backed-up, as far as I know. But I couldn't personally say for sure that there's *no* evidence. --David Edgar 08:01, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Access
There's now a couple of notices outside saying "no entry", probably for health and safety reasons in case it crumbles down on top of someone. But the stile over the fence is still there for people to access it... but I'm not a reliable source :-) – anemone projectors – 19:06, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

Images
I have restored the 2016 image over the 2010 one which does not show the chapel as it is today. Jack1956 (talk) 17:49, 6 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I think there is little difference in how the chapel looks between 2010 and 2016, but my opinion is that the 2010 image shows more of the chapel than the 2016 one. I don't think it matters how recent the main photo is - otherwise photos of things would be changed on a regular basis. However, as you took the 2016 image and I took the 2010 image, it should be left to others to decide. anemone  projectors  18:01, 6 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Actually I think File:Minsden Chapel 2 (4648214892).jpg is better still, but again, I took the photo. anemone  projectors  18:11, 6 January 2017 (UTC)

 * I like that one, to be honest, and would have no objection to mine going into a Gallery on the page. Jack1956 (talk) 18:14, 6 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Oh that's ok then. By the way have you considered uploading (or transfering) your photos to Wikimedia Commons, so they appear in the Commons category linked towards the bottom of the page? anemone  projectors  19:54, 6 January 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Minsden Chapel


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Nuwan Kulasekara

Kulasekara Mudiyanselage Dinesh Nuwan Kulasekara (නුවන් කුලසේකර; born 22 July 1982) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who played all formats of the game. He was educated at Bandaranayake College Gampaha

He was also a key member of the team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and was part of the team that made the finals of 2007 Cricket World Cup, 2011 Cricket World Cup, 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and 2012 ICC World Twenty20. In June 2016, Kulasekara retired from test cricket to play limited overs cricket. In July 2019, he announced his retirement from international cricket. The third ODI between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh on 31 July 2019 was dedicated to Kulasekara.

Since retirement, he has moved to Colombo where he now resides.

Early years
Kulasekara made his One Day International debut against England in Dambulla on 18 November 2003. He took 2–19 as England was bowled out for 88, and Sri Lanka took less than 14 overs to win the match by 10 wickets. Kulasekara made his test-cricket debut against New Zealand in Napier, New Zealand on 4 April 2005 as Sri Lanka's 100th test cap. During the match, he took only one wicket and scored a duck as the match was drawn. Kulasekara made his Twenty20 International debut on 11 October 2008 against Pakistan. He secured 36 runs in 3.5 overs, although Pakistan won the match by three wickets.

Breakthrough
In 2008, Kulasekara took 4 for 40 against India. During the Bangladesh tri-series, he helped his team defeat Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. On 25 January 2009, Kulasekara was number two in the ICC rankings for ODI bowlers. He took 45 wickets for an average of 20.97, which included five wickets in the last two ODIs of the series against Pakistan.

Kulasekara topped the 2008 ICC ODI rankings for bowlers with 724 points. He took 47 wickets at 20.97 in 29 matches, with a strike rate of 28.00 and an economy rate of 4.45. Kulasekara was ranked number one among ODI bowlers on 11 March 2009, remaining in that position until 26 September of that year. The retirement of Chaminda Vaas and the inconsistency of Lasith Malinga helped him to emerge as the star strike bowler of the Sri Lankan side. His spell of 4 for 41 at Colombo was nominated as one of the best ODI bowling performances of the year by ESPNcricinfo.

During the Pakistan series at home in 2009, Kulasekara was the highest wicket-taker in the three-match test series. He received the man-of-the-match award for his bowling performance in the second test. Sri Lanka won the series 2–0, and Kulasekara received the player-of-the-series award. He took 17 wickets, for an average of 15.05 and an economy of 2.67. His 4 for 37 is his third four-wicket haul in his last two tests.

Kulasekara was on the 2009 World ODI team (captained by MS Dhoni), which was announced during the ICC Awards. On 23 May 2010 against New Zealand, he ripped through New Zealand's batting with three wickets in his first over and ended with three for four runs. Sri Lanka won the match by seven wickets, and Kulasekara was man of the match. He was named to the test squad for the West Indies series in 2010.

Ups and downs
Kulasekara and Malinga spearheaded the Sri Lankan team since their debut in 2003 and 2004, where they combined to win matches. During a Twenty20 international against England in Bristol, they produced match-winning combined figures of three wickets for 30 runs in seven overs. Sri Lanka won the match by nine wickets.

Injured in October 2012, Kulasekara played in the semi-final of the fifty-over domestic tournament. He made a comeback with two for 37 in seven overs for Colts Cricket Club against Nondescripts, and was recalled for the test and ODI series against South Africa. Kulasekara did not play in the test series, but played all five ODIs without distinction; he took two wickets in the series, at an average of 107.00.

After a CB series in Australia, he was recalled to the test squad for the Pakistan series in 2012. Kulasekara was the highest wicket-taker in the two-match T20I series against Pakistan, taking four wickets at an average of 6.50; the series was drawn, 1-1. Kulasekara and Malinga took seven wickets apiece during the ODI series in Pakistan, which Sri Lanka won 3–0.

In July 2012, Kulasekara was ruled out of the five-ODI series against India after a first-match injury while attempting a catch to dismiss Virender Sehwag in the eleventh over. On 25 October of that year, he was named as vice-captain of Sri Lanka's T20I squad for its tour against New Zealand.

On 18 January 2013, Kulasekara had his first (and only) five-wicket match with inswing bowling in the third ODI against Australia at Brisbane. His 5/22 bowling figures were the best of his ODI career. Australia crumbled to 74 all out, and Sri Lanka won by four wickets. Kulasekara's performance was nominated as one of the best ODI bowling performances of 2013 by ESPNcricinfo.

Injuries
On 4 March 2012, he scored 74 against Australia for a close defeat in the first final of the CB Series. Kulasekara was the second-highest wicket-taker for Sri Lanka with 12 wickets, behind Malinga's 18.

On 13 June 2013, against England in 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, Kulasekara helped skipper Kumar Sangakkara score a century and guided Sri Lanka to victory. Sangakkara and Kulasekara added an unbeaten 110 runs for the fourth wicket. In the powerplay, Kulasekara launched Graeme Swann's off-spin for two successive leg-side sixes and continued to an unbeaten 58 from 38 balls. Soon after Sangakkara scored his hundred, he fell in mid-pitch while running. Recognizing the danger of being run out at the wicket-keeper's end, Kulasekara ran alongside him to ensure that he (not Sangakkara) would be run out. After the Champions Trophy, Sri Lanka went to the West Indies for a triangular series with India. During the match against the West Indies, Kulasekara dislocated the ring finger of his left hand.

After three weeks of resting, Kulasekara was called up for the T20I series against South Africa in 2013; Sri Lanka lost the series, 2–1. At the end of an ODI series against Pakistan in the UAE, he tore a hamstring and missed the test series. After he recovered, Kulasekara was included in the Bangladesh series in Bangladesh. His form was off, however, and he missed part of the Bangladesh tour and the 2014 Asia Cup with a groin injury. During the first ODI against Bangladesh, Kulasekara bowled six overs for 38 runs before he was injured.

2014
Kulasekara played in the ODI series against England in 2014, and Sri Lanka won the series 3–2. In the second ODI, he and Sachithra Senanayake bowled-out England for 99 runs for their worst ODI showing at home. Kulasekara took 3 for 15 runs, and Sri Lanka finally won the match by 157 runs.

During a 2014 ICC World Twenty20 match against the Netherlands, Kulasekara set a record for the most economical bowling spell in a T20I or T20 world-cup match (0.00). He bowled two overs without conceding a run; the Netherlands were bowled out for 43, the lowest T20I total.

Kulasekara holds the world record for most T20I maiden overs bowled (six). He was named to CricBuzz's 2014 T20I XI of the year for his limited-overs performance. Kulasekara forged a bowling partnership with Malinga, helping Sri Lanka to win 2014 ICC World Twenty20 by bowling four overs against strong Indian batters. Sri Lanka won 20 ODIs out of 32, a 62.5 winning percentage, that year.

Late career
Also in 2014, Sri Lanka went to India for an ODI series. They were whitewashed 5–0 in the series, the first such result in Sri Lanka cricket history. Rohit Sharma scored the highest individual ODI total (264); Kulasekara took 1 for 89 in nine overs, and missed the England series. On 30 December 2014, however, he was recalled to the ODI squad for the series against New Zealand at home. Kulasekara was the T20 Bowler of the Year at the 2015 Sri Lanka Cricket Awards. He was overlooked for the July series against Pakistan that year (after his World Cup campaign), but was recalled to the ODI squad for the series against the West Indies.

On 18 December 2015, Kulasekara replaced the injured Dhammika Prasad on Sri Lanka's ODI squad against New Zealand. Sri Lanka won only one match in the series, losing in all three formats. In the first ODI, Kulasekara scored his fourth ODI fifty; he and Milinda Siriwardana formed a partnership with 98 runs. He was dismissed for 58 runs, and Sri Lanka scored a total of 188; New Zealand won the match by seven wickets. He played in 2016 Asia Cup and then 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India,

On 5 November 2016, Kulasekara was recalled for the tri-series with Zimbabwe and the West Indies; he picked up two wickets against West Indies to go with his two in the first match against Zimbabwe. Sri Lanka won the series by defeating Zimbabwe in the final, and Kulasekara took one wicket in that final. He was the third-highest wicket-taker in the series, with eight wickets and an average of 22.50. During the Bangladesh tour of Sri Lanka in 2017, Kulasekara helped Sri Lanka end their ODI drought by taking four wickets for 37 runs; Sri Lanka won the third ODI match by 70 runs.

Retirement
On 1 June 2016, Kulasekara announced his retirement from test cricket to focus on limited-over internationals. He played 21 tests, picked up 48 wickets, and played his last test in June 2014 at Lord's (a draw).

During the 2019 Cricket World Cup, fellow Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga had hinted that he would like to retire from ODI cricket with Kulasekara. However, Sri Lanka Cricket and the selection committee and omitted only Kulasekara from the ODI squad for the Bangladesh tour. Kulasekara sent a letter to Sri Lanka Cricket asking them to consider Malinga's request to play a farewell match together; after receiving no reply, he announced his retirement from international cricket on 24 July 2019.

Malinga also announced his retirement from ODI cricket after the first ODI series in Bangladesh. Sri Lanka Cricket announced that the third ODI of the series would be dedicated to Kulasekara. Sri Lanka won the match, shutting out Bangladesh in the series 3–0.

Records

 * Highest ODI score for Sri Lanka when batting at the number-eight position - 73
 * Most economical spell in a T20I by any bowler - 0.00 against the Netherlands
 * Only bowler to record an economy of 0.00 in a T20I
 * Most maidens in a T20I - five

Bowling style
Kulasekara used a long run–up and the seam to move both ways to trouble the batsman. Primarily an inswing bowler, he was seldom overly aggressive to batsmen. Kulasekara also developed an outswinger delivery.

Professional cricket
On 29 April 2009, Kulasekara was called to the Kings XI Punjab squad as an emergency replacement for injured Australian batsman Shaun Marsh. He joined the Chennai Super Kings for the 2011 Indian Premier League season.

Kulasekara played in the domestic T20I series for Kandurata Maroons. In the final, against Basnahira Greens, he took a match-winning three wickets. Kandurata won the match by seven wickets, and was selected for the 2013 Champions League Twenty20. Kulasekara played for Comilla Victorians in the Bangladesh Premier League in 2015. During the match against Rangpur Riders on 27 November 2015, he took four wickets for 12 runs. In 2016, Kulasekara signed a short-term NatWest T20 Blast contract with the Sussex Sharks.

Coaching career
He was appointed as the bowling coach of the Kandy Tuskers franchise for the 2020 Lanka Premier League which also marks his maiden coaching stint in his career.

Arrest
Kulasekara was detained by Kadawatha police on 19 September 2016 after he was involved in a road accident which killed a 28-year-old motorcyclist. He appeared before the Mahara magistrate, and was released on SLR 500,000 bail. The accident occurred near the Kirillawala junction in Kadawatha during the afternoon; the rider was approaching Kulasekara's vehicle, passed a bus, struck an embankment in the centre of the road, and was thrown into the path of Kulasekara's vehicle.

title: Nuwan Kulasekara


text:
User:NealT

A Computer Science student at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

title: User:NealT


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Brett Lee

Brett Lee (born 8 November 1976) is an Australian former international cricketer, who played all three formats of the game. During his international career, Lee was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in the world. With his time representing Australia, Lee won multiple ICC titles with the team: the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, and the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy. Lee was the first bowler to take a hat-trick in the T20 format of the game which he did in 2007 ICC World Twenty20 in the inaugural tournament against Bangladesh, subsequently being the first bowler to do so at an ICC Men's T20 World Cup. Lee was also the first Australian bowler to take a hat-trick at a Cricket World Cup which he did in the 2003 Cricket World Cup Super Match game against Kenya.

In each of his first two years, Lee conceded fewer than 20 runs for every wicket taken, but later recorded figures in the low 30s. He was an athletic fielder and useful lower-order batter, with a batting average exceeding 20 in Test cricket. Lee finished his Test career with 310 wickets, and his One Day International career with 380 wickets. Considered one of the best bowlers of his generation, only Muttiah Muralitharan took more ODI wickets than Lee from 2000 to 2009.

He played his first Test in 1999 and retired from international cricket on 12 July 2012. He subsequently declined to renew his contract with his home state side New South Wales, but continued to play Twenty20 matches for several seasons after, notably in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Big Bash League.

In January 2015, Lee announced his retirement from all forms of the game, effective at the end of the 2014–15 Big Bash League season. He has since found work as a film actor and a Fox Sports commentator.

Domestic career
Lee started playing in the junior teams of his local side, Oak Flats Rats, and gradually worked his way up the ranks. He also played for Middleton cricket before he played first class career. At 16 he began playing first grade cricket for Campbelltown, where he managed to claim the wickets of a few New South Wales cricketers, and Mosman, where at one point, he shared the new ball with Shoaib Akhtar and briefly played alongside England batsman Andrew Strauss.

Lee was called up to the Australian Under 17 & 19 teams. In March 1994, he was forced out of the Australian under-19 team to tour India due to stress fractures in his lower back and it forced him to remodel his bowling action to minimise the impact on his back. He was awarded a scholarship to attend the AIS Australian Cricket Academy in the 1995–96 season. His contemporaries included fellow internationals Jason Gillespie and Mike Hussey.

Prior to making his first-class debut, Lee played for Mosman in the final of the 1996–97 Sydney Grade Cricket competition.

Lee was first named in the New South Wales Blues squad as the twelfth man for the 14–16 November match against Queensland in the 1997–98 Sheffield Shield. The following week, he made his first-class debut for the Blues against Western Australia and took 3 wickets at 114, including that of the captain Tom Moody. It would be his only appearance in the Sheffield Shield for the rest of the season. He ended a memorable month by taking a 5-wicket haul in the Sydney grade Limited-Overs Cup final against Bankstown on 30 November.

During the 1998–99 season Lee was a more regular presence in the latter stages of the Sheffield Shield. He took 14 wickets, including a 5-wicket haul against Tasmania in the second innings. He started the 1999–2000 season by claiming 8 wickets in his first two matches. Such performances impressed his New South Wales teammate Steve Waugh, who was then Australia captain, and culminated in his Test debut in December 1999. He finished the season as the Blues' second-highest wicket taker in the Pura Cup with 24 wickets in 5 matches.

After a successful Test series against India, Lee returned to domestic cricket and was named in the 2008 Pura Cup final. He hit his career best batting score, 97 against Victoria in the Blues' second innings and scored a record 176-run partnership with Beau Casson. In Victoria's second innings, he took 4–72, dismissing the last four tailenders, as the Blues won the final.

In 2009 he battled back from injury and was a key player in New South Wales' success during the Champions League Twenty20. During the final he played an important part with both bat and ball and was named Man of the Match. He also won the Man of the Series award.

Following his retirement from Test cricket, Lee stopped playing first-class cricket to concentrate on the limited-overs formats. He was the Blues' highest wicket-taker in the 2010–11 Ryobi One-Day Cup with 15 wickets and had the second best economy rate of the top five wicket-takers despite missing the latter stages of the campaign due to international duty.

In June 2012 he declined to renew his contract with the Blues, ending his 15-year association with his domestic team.

He retired from Big Bash League after playing in the final for the Sydney Sixers on 28 January 2015. In the dramatic final over, he took two wickets clean bowled in successive deliveries, and his hat-trick ball, the sixth of the over, resulted in a missed run out and the Perth Scorchers win by 4 wickets.

Debut days
One month after making his first class debut, Lee was chosen to represent the Australian A team on a tour of South Africa. He claimed two wickets but in that match stress fractures in his back from the previous injury re-opened and Lee was in a back brace for over three months.

Test career
By the late 1990s there were calls for Lee to be included in the national squad. Captain Steve Waugh, who also played with him for New South Wales, was impressed by Lee's debut and pushed for his inclusion into the national team. He was eventually chosen in the final 14 for the Test series against Pakistan in 1999 but failed to make the starting 11. By the time the Test series against India came around, he was twelfth man. However, he duly made his Test debut for Australia in December 1999 against the touring Indians, becoming Australia's 383rd Test cricketer.

Bowling first change, Lee took a wicket in his first over in Test cricket when he bowled Sadagoppan Ramesh with his fourth delivery. He also captured Rahul Dravid in his first spell before returning to take three wickets in six balls to finish the innings with figures of 5/47 from 17 overs, becoming the first Australian fast bowler since Dennis Lillee to take 5 wickets on debut. Lee took 13 wickets in his opening two Tests at the low average of 14.15.

Lee won the inaugural Donald Bradman Young Player of the Year Award at the Allan Border Medal award ceremony in 2000 soon after his debut.

Lee took 42 wickets in his opening three series, the most by any Australian bowler in the seven matches he played. He was selected for the Test series against the West Indies in late 2000. During the first Test he scored his first half-century in test cricket and in the next Test, took seven wickets including a five wicket haul in the second innings. However, he suffered a stress fracture of the lower back which kept him out of the next three Tests. He returned against Zimbabwe but soon suffered another setback a month later when he injured his right elbow and was sidelined until May 2001.

Return from injury
Lee returned to the international team for the 2001 Ashes series after recovering from an elbow injury. His comeback saw less success than his debut, managing only nine wickets in five Tests at 55.11. However, Lee was back as Australia's leading wicket-taker in the first and third Test against New Zealand later that year, in a series which he captured 5 wickets in the second innings and made a contribution of 61 with the bat in the first Test match. The series ended in a 0–0 draw. He finished the series with 14 wickets at 25.14. The two home and away series against South Africa were not as productive, yielding 19 wickets in six Tests at 38.42.

Lee only took five wickets in a match on three occasions between the New Zealand series and the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Lee came under pressure for his position after taking only five wickets at 46.50 in the three-Test series against Pakistan in 2002. Andy Bichel, who was filling for the injured Jason Gillespie, took eight wickets at 13.25. With the other frontline bowlers all taking wickets at less than 13, Lee was dropped when Gillespie returned for the first two Tests during the 2002–03 Ashes series. He returned for the Perth Test, after claiming a five wicket haul in a Pura Cup match against Queensland for New South Wales. He took thirteen wickets at 41.23 in three matches, compared to Bichel's ten at 35.1. After the 2003 Cricket World Cup, Lee took 17 wickets at 28.88 in four Tests against the West Indies. It was the first series in two years where he averaged under 30, and only the second in that period where he averaged under 40.

After a mid year break, he participated in a Two Test series against Bangladesh in northern Australia. He took six wickets at 31.66, and was Australia's most expensive bowler, with the other specialist bowlers averaging 15.55 against the lowest ranked team in Test cricket. He followed this with six wickets at 37 in a comfortable 2–0 Test series against Zimbabwe, in which the other specialist bowlers averaged 23.15.

Against the Indian batting line-up in the 2003–04 home series, which ended in a 1–1 draw for Australia, Lee was out of the first two Tests recovering from a torn abdominal muscle, an injury which he sustained during the Zimbabwe series.

Loss of Test position
Lee took eight wickets in 100 overs in the final two Tests against India, at an average of 59.50. This Test included a double century to Sachin Tendulkar in the Indians' first innings of 7/705 where Sachin and V.V.S. Laxman freely attacked Lee and other bowlers in the final Test in Sydney. He ended the series with the worst average and economy rate of Australia's front line bowlers.

He was subsequently replaced by fellow fast bowler Michael Kasprowicz in 2004 during the tour of Sri Lanka when Lee's ankle injury worsened, forcing him to return home to have surgery. This injury would force Lee out of the game for four and a half months to ensure his full recovery. Lee's form in the Test arena had been ineffective, and from July 2001 to January 2004, he had a Test bowling average of 38.42, compared to an average of 16.07 in his earlier career.

Lee was unable to reclaim his position for eighteen months, when Kasprowicz took 47 wickets at 23.74 in thirteen Tests, taking his wickets at a much lower cost than Lee had done in the previous three years. This included 17 wickets at 26.82 on the spin friendly pitches of the Indian subcontinent, helping Australia to its first whitewash in Sri Lanka, and its first series win in India for 35 years.

Test return

After 18 months on the sidelines, Lee returned to the Test team in the 2005 Ashes series. With Kasprowicz and Jason Gillespie both struggling for form, Lee returned to take the new ball with Glenn McGrath. He averaged 40 with the ball for the series, which some commentators have put down to having to bowl longer spells than he was accustomed to at the time, but was retained, in part because of his defiant batting which yielded runs at an average of 26.33. During the Ashes, he claimed his 150th test wicket off Andrew Strauss with a straight yorker on Day 1 of the third test.

Part of Lee's difficulty at Test level is that the benefits of his high speed, which give the batsmen less reaction time, also results in more erratic bowling. In recent times he has tried to concentrate solely on accuracy by reducing speed. During the first Test against the West Indies in late 2005 at the Gabba, after declaring that he would sacrifice pace and focus on 'line and length', Lee reverted to his initial style of bowling, based on the advice of his captain Ricky Ponting after his new method of bowling failed in the first innings. This saw him take 5/30 his fifth five-wicket haul in Tests, his first in four years.

In the 2005-06 Australian cricket season, Lee's Test figures improved from his 2001–04 difficulties, with a season bowling average of 25.74.

During South Africa's 2005–06 tour of Australia, Lee's form saw a steady improvement, with figures of 5/93 in the first Test at Perth. He finished the three Test series with 13 wickets and of the Australian bowlers, was second only to Shane Warne's 14 wickets in the series. Three Australian players including Lee, who was reprimanded in the Third Test in Sydney for showing dissent towards umpire Aleem Dar.

With the unavailability of Glenn McGrath for the tour of South Africa in March–April 2006, Lee became the spearhead of the Australian bowling line-up. In the second Test of that series, at Durban, Lee captured his 200th Test wicket in his 51st match and also captured figures of 5 for 69, on the back of 49 Test wickets in 2005. He was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year. He was unable to maintain his performance when Australia visited Bangladesh for a two Test series, taking two wickets at 93, coming bottom of Australia's bowling averages.

In the first three tests of the 2006–07 Ashes series, he only took eight wickets and was fined for excessive appealing in the Third Test in Adelaide when a LBW decision was not in his favour. However, during the week period between the Adelaide and Melbourne tests, he worked with Troy Cooley, Australia's bowling coach, to adjust his run up and came back in the 4th and final tests with more wickets. He finished the series 20 wickets, with his best bowling figures being 4 for 47 at an average of 33.20, including 6 in the final test. His tally was only bettered by his teammates Stuart Clark, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath as the quartet claimed more wickets than the entire England bowling attack combined.

Post McGrath-Warne era
Following the retirements of Warne and McGrath, Lee rose to the challenge and was awarded the Man of the Series in the inaugural Warne-Muralidaran Trophy, a two-Test series against Sri Lanka in late 2007. In his first series as bowling spearhead reaped 16 wickets at an average of 17.5. This was achieved by bowling 5 km/h slower to improve accuracy. In the following series Lee took 24 wickets at 22.58 in four Tests against India. In this series he overtook Jason Gillespie to become Australia's 5th highest wicket taker. His consistent efforts saw him rewarded with the Man of the Series Award for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 2007–08. He capped off the season by winning the Allan Border Medal, the award given to the player adjudged Australia's best international cricketer of the past year.

Lee seemed underdone in the 2008 Australian tour of the West Indies, taking only 5 wickets in the first Test match, during which he seemed exhausted. He returned to productivity, taking eight wickets in the Second test, including a 5 wicket haul, and 6 in the Third Test.

During the Indian tour, Lee picked up a stomach virus and was unable to find his best form throughout the series. Lee showed glimpses of his best form when the team returned to Australia for a two test series with New Zealand, but generally seemed down on pace. However, he struggled in the two tests he played of the series with South Africa, which Australia lost 2–1, likely due to a niggling ankle injury and then a stress fracture he developed during the series (both in his left foot). The fracture broke completely during the second innings of the Boxing Day Test-match and he was forced to return home for surgery.

By the time he returned to the Australian team for the Ashes in 2009, his position as spearhead had been usurped by the left armer Mitchell Johnson. Additionally, the arrival of bowlers like Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus and Doug Bollinger ensured that Lee had to fight for a position in the team. However, he took six wickets in the first innings against the England Lions team in a practice match leading up to the Ashes. Lee was the only bowler to get reverse swing in this match and appeared to be in line for selection for the First Test at Cardiff. However, he picked up a left side strain and a sore rib in this match and he was ruled out of the first three Tests. He was then overlooked for a recall and never played test cricket again, announcing his retirement from test cricket at the beginning of 2010.

Retirement
Lee had been considering retiring from Test cricket for some time since 2008 due to the physical strain. In February 2010, he announced his retirement from Test cricket after consulting friend and England rival Andrew Flintoff, stating that bowling "at 150 km/h for five days is very hard on the body". He had been out with a string of injuries and had not played a Test since December 2008. He ended his Test career with 310 wickets in 76 tests, at the time the fourth highest Australian total behind Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Dennis Lillee.

One-day International career
Lee made his One Day International debut for Australia against Pakistan on 9 January 2000 during the Carlton and United Breweries Series at the Gabba, Brisbane. He became the 140th ODI cricketer to represent Australia. In February 2002 against South Africa, he scored his first ODI half century, 51* not out.

In One-day Internationals, he was ranked by the ICC as the No. 1 ODI bowler in January 2006 and has been ranked among the top ten ODI bowlers since the start of 2003. His bowling strike rate of around 30 puts him amongst the most incisive in this form of the game. He also has a One-day International hat-trick to his name, achieved in the 2003 World Cup against Kenya. Lee was the first Australian and fourth bowler to ever achieve this feat in World Cup history.

In the matches Australia played in the 2005–06 triangular one day series, Lee gave a display of his useful batting abilities by making 57 in the second game in a 100 run partnership with Michael Hussey to pull Australia out of a middle order collapse. Lee finished the series with 15 wickets, the third highest tally behind Nathan Bracken and Muttiah Muralitharan.

His bowler-fielder partnership with long-time international teammate and wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist yielded 58 wickets in 151 matches, the fourth highest of all time in ODI history.

2003 World Cup
With main bowler Shane Warne banned from the 2003 World Cup the day before the opening match, Lee moved up the pecking order and, together with Andy Bichel and Glenn McGrath, formed one of the tournament's most lethal attacks, claiming 59 wickets between them. Lee concluded the tournament with 22 wickets off 83.1 overs at an average of 17.90, a wicket behind Sri Lankan left-arm fastbowler Chaminda Vaas. Lee also had a third leading strike-rate of 22.68 behind West Indian fast bowler Vasbert Drakes and Australian counterpart Andrew Bichel who topped the strike-rates with 19.43 and 21.37 respectively. He also reached the 160 km/h mark thrice; his delivery to Marvan Atapattu in the semi-final reached 160.1 km/h and hit 160.7 km/h160.6 km/h in his second over against England in the group stage.

Lee earned six of his 22 wickets during the group stage, 11 wickets during the Super-six stage, 3 from the semi-final and 2 wickets from the final which Australia won. He took one five-wicket haul, 5 for 42, against Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand during their super-six encounter at Port Elizabeth to put Australia ahead after a dismal innings. He also earned his first international hat-trick with figures of 3 for 14 against Kenya during the last match of the super-six stage.

Comeback
After having to return home due to injury during the 2007 World Cup, Lee traveled with the squad to England for the 2009 "English summer" tour. He was left out of the test side during the Ashes but was in the one-day side for the NatWest Series in September. He was the highest wicket-taker for Australia with 12 and also took his ninth five-wicket haul in ODIs as Australia made a clean sweep winning all except one match in the series. With that five-wicket haul, he became the first person to take two five-wicket hauls in ODIs at Lord's; the ball used is now on display at Lord's MCC Museum. Later that month he was a part of the successful 2009 ICC Champions Trophy squad and was level on 6 wickets with teammates Peter Siddle and Shane Watson, the highest total for the Australian team. Injuries sustained in test matches forced him out until 2011, having not played for Australia for almost two years. In the subsequent ODI series, his return was more successful. He finished as the leading wicket-taker for the series with 11 scalps at 24.00, his series best figures of 3/27 coming in the third match at the SCG. His pace was consistently around the mid 140s km/h and on occasion he once again managed to break the 150 km/h mark..

Despite competition from younger bowlers and another injury setback, Lee managed to make the squad for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. He finished the tournament with 13 wickets, the highest of all the bowlers in the team. Of the 13 wickets, 4 came in the match against Pakistan but it was not enough as Australia lost the match and eventually crashed out at the quarterfinals to rivals India.

Against the West Indies in March 2012 he hit his highest score, 59 before getting caught off a ball by Kemar Roach. His final ODIs were during the 2012 tour of England and Ireland. During the match against Ireland he opened the bowling and bowled William Porterfield and Ed Joyce in only his first three deliveries.

Retirement
Upon his retirement from international cricket, Lee had played in 76 Tests, 221 ODIs and 25 T20Is, and had equaled Glenn McGrath's run of 380 wickets in ODI matches – the highest for Australia.

In July 2014, he played for the MCC side in the Bicentenary Celebration match at Lord's. In 2018, during his commentary for BT Sport in the 2017-18 Ashes series at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Lee revealed that he is an honorary member at Lord's, but not a lifetime member on his home ground at the SCG.

Twenty20
Lee made his Twenty20 and T20 International debut on 15 February 2005 against New Zealand in the first ever T20 international match. He was called up to the squad for the 2007 ICC World Twenty20. During the tournament, he made history by claiming the first hat-trick in T20 internationals in the Group F match against Bangladesh and also won the Man of the Match award.

Bowling style
Lee was known for his pace and regularly clocked 140 km/h (87 mph) and above. He ranks only behind the Pakistani bowler Shoaib Akhtar (161.3 km/h) who is ranked as the fastest bowler of all time. The strain of consistently bowling at 150 km/h caused a string of stress fractures and recurring injuries and forced him to alter his strategy, which he amassed effectively. Rather than relying on pace alone, he used a wide array of deliveries aimed at wearing down the batsman, although he has been known to bowl entire spells above the 150 km/h mark. His fastest ball was clocked at 161.1 km/h against New Zealand in 2005. In a match against West Indies in 2000/01 he bowled a delivery which was clocked at 161.8 km/h, but this was later shown to be an erroneous measurement of a 142 km/h delivery.

Early in his career, Lee was reported for a suspected illegal bowling action, but was cleared, and was also heavily criticised after bowling a series of beamers at batsmen during a number of ODIs in 2005. Captain Ricky Ponting defended Lee saying that it was not intentional. His slower balls also has dramatic falls of pace with varying length, often from a cutter grip, where it can go as slow as 100 km/h, but it hovers on average around the 115 - 130 km/h range. He is also known to celebrate many bowled wickets with a chainsaw celebration.

Batting
Lee was a competent lower-order batsman. Together with Mike Hussey, he has held the record for highest 7th wicket partnership for Australia in ODIs since 2005–06 with 123. During the 2005 Ashes series, Lee had numerous defiant innings, including a stand of 43 not out in the Second Test at Edgbaston, Australia's highest individual score in that innings. This innings nearly won the match for Australia but the other batsman Michael Kasprowicz was caught behind by Geraint Jones and England won by just two runs. After the memorable match, England bowlers Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff went over to console Lee. The image of Flintoff consoling Lee was a moment which came to symbolise a hotly contested series.

On 2 April 2006, Lee hit his highest Test score of 64 in 68 balls against South Africa at Johannesburg. His previous highest score in Tests was 62 not out which he made against the West Indies in 2000 at the Gabba. Lee nearly surpassed this score on 3 January 2008 against India when he made 59 off 121 balls. Lee had also once again nearly surpassed his highest test score when he had made 63 not out, but unfortunately Ricky Ponting had declared the innings in the 2nd test against the West Indies. As a result of this, he fell one run short of his highest test score.

Lee's highest score in ODI matches is 59 against West Indies at West Indies in March 2012.

Coaching career
Lee has worked as a bowling coach for Ireland and Sri Lanka.

Awards

 * 2000 Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year
 * 1999–2000 Wisden Young Cricketer of the Year
 * 2002–03 VB Series Player of the Series
 * 2004–05 VB Series Player of the Series
 * 2005 ICC Awards – ODI Team of the Year
 * 2006 Wisden Cricketer of the Year
 * 2006–07 DLF Cup Player of the Tournament
 * 2006 ICC Awards – ODI Team of the Year
 * Australia's Greatest ODI XI
 * 2007 Warne-Muralitharan Trophy Player of the Series
 * 2007–08 Border-Gavaskar Trophy Player of the Series
 * 2008 McGilvray Medal
 * 2008 Australian Test Player of the Year
 * 2008 Allan Border Medal
 * 2008 ICC Awards – ODI Team of the Year
 * 2008 ICC Awards – Test Team of the Year
 * 2009 Champions League Twenty20 Player of the Series

Tests

 * Lee's best Test bowling figures of five for 30 came against the West Indies at The Gabba, Brisbane in 2005
 * Lee's 100th wicket was Marcus Trescothick in his 27th Test against England at Sydney in 2003
 * Lee took his 200th wicket, Mark Boucher, in his 51st Test against South Africa at Durban in 2006
 * His best batting score of 64 was made against South Africa, Johannesburg, 2006
 * He made his 1,000th Test run in his 53rd Test against Bangladesh at Fatullah in 2006
 * Lee's 250th wicket was Anil Kumble in his 62nd Test against India at Melbourne in 2007
 * Lee's 300th wicket was Jamie How in his 73rd Test against New Zealand at Brisbane on 22 November 2008

One-day Internationals
ODI Debut: vs Pakistan, Gabba, Brisbane, 1999–2000
 * His best ODI bowling figures of five for 22 came against South Africa at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne in 2006.
 * His best ODI batting score of 59 was made against West Indies in 2012.
 * His 100th ODI wicket was Andrew Caddick, against England at the M.C.G. in 2003
 * His 200th wicket was Marcus Trescothick, against England at Lord's in 2005
 * His 300th wicket was Darren Sammy, against West Indies at St George's in 2008
 * His 350th wicket was Nuwan Kulasekara, against Sri Lanka at Kandy in 2011, becoming just the second bowler in Australian history to get 350 wickets.
 * Lee is the first (and currently the only) bowler to take 5 wickets twice in One Day Internationals played at Lord's

Records

 * Lee was the first player in Twenty20 International cricket to take a hat-trick.
 * Lee is the second fastest Australian ODI player to take 100 wickets (after Mitchell Starc). He reached the milestone in his 55th match. He is fifth on the world list behind Mitchell Starc (52 matches), Saqlain Mushtaq (53 matches) and Shane Bond (54 matches)

Media work
After announcing his retirement from international cricket, Lee joined the Channel Nine cricket commentating team. He assisted author Michael Panckridge in the cricket-related Toby Jones novel series. In 2019, he performed in The Masked Singer Australia as Parrot, placing 11th in the leaderboard.

Lee was cast in the Indo-Australian film UnIndian opposite Tannishtha Chatterjee. The film was shot in Sydney. It was released in India in 2016 and had good takings at the box office.

Personal life
Lee is the second of three sons born to Bob, a metallurgist, and Helen (née Buxton), a piano teacher, and grew up in the Shellharbour suburbs of Oak Flats and Mount Warrigal. His older brother Shane is a retired all rounder and former international and younger brother Grant previously played cricket for New South Wales U-19, and is now an accountant. Lee attended Balarang Public School and Oak Flats High School, which later named its cricket ground in his honour.

The brothers first played cricket together in front of their house using a tennis ball and the garage door as the "wicket-keeper". As a child he idolised Allan Donald and Dennis Lillee, the latter of whom would become a mentor to him as a teenager.

Lee has been known by his nicknames 'Binga', after the chain of electronics store Bing Lee, since his high-school days. He was once briefly nicknamed "Oswald" by former Australian captain and New South Wales teammate Steve Waugh during his early international career. During an ODI around 2000, he was in the batting order behind his brother Shane and Ian Harvey. When Waugh read out the batting order, instead of reading "Lee, Harvey, Lee", he read out "Lee, Harvey, Oswald" (Lee Harvey Oswald).

Lee married Elizabeth Kemp in June 2006. They have a son. After two years of marriage Lee confirmed his separation from Kemp and they divorced in 2009. At the time of the split, media speculation suggested Kemp was having an affair with a rugby player in Brisbane; however, this was later disputed, with extended periods of loneliness due to Lee's off-season commitments keeping him away from Kemp and his young son given as the reason for the marriage breakdown. He married Lana Anderson in 2014 after one year of dating; they have two children.

Lee is part of the rock band Six & Out. The band is made up of his brother Shane and former New South Wales cricketers Brad McNamara, Gavin Robertson and Richard Chee Quee. Lee plays the bass guitar or acoustic guitar for the band.

During the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy in India, Lee wrote the lyrics for "You're the One for Me" and recorded it with Indian singer Asha Bhosle. The song reached a peak position of number two on the Indian and South African charts. In 2008, he filmed scenes for his first Bollywood movie Victory.

In November 2011, Lee launched his autobiography, which he wrote with the help of author James Knight.

Politically, Lee is right wing. In September 2013, he tweeted his support for Tony Abbott, leader of the Liberal Party of Australia in the 2013 Australian federal election. He was approached by the Liberal Party to run as a candidate in the 2019 election. Lee again endorsed Abbott in the Division of Warringah in the election. In 2014, Lee was criticised after he signed bats for Indian politicians Rajnath Singh, and Sushma Swaraj. The bats were presented by immigration minister Scott Morrison as part of a deal by which India would agree to accept rejected Indian asylum seekers from Australia. Lee however stated that he was a strong supporter of human rights, and that signing these bats did not mean he was not a supporter of them.

Charity work
Lee supports a number of charities including the Salvation Army, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) and the Make a Wish Foundation, in which Lee was named an 'Official Friend' in honour of his long-standing association with the foundation. He began supporting ADRA along with his brother Shane when a close friend committed suicide. In 2007, Lee initiated Mewsic, a charitable foundation in India which has established six music centres across the country.

title: Brett Lee


text:
Lasith Malinga

Separamadu Lasith Malinga (සෙපරමාදු ලසිත් මාලිංග;லசித் மாலிங்க;born 28 August 1983) is a Sri Lankan former cricketer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest Sri Lankan limited overs bowlers of all time. Playing as a right-arm fast bowler, Malinga was commonly used as a specialist death bowler, and captained the Sri Lanka national cricket team to the 2014 T20 World Cup title. He was nicknamed "Slinga Malinga" due to his distinctive round-arm action, sometimes referred to as a sling action. Malinga announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on 14 September 2021 and migrated to Melbourne.

Malinga's unorthodox action and dipping slower ball yorkers are credited with much of his success. He changed the dynamics and landscape of death bowling in limited overs cricket through his technique and approach. Malinga is known for his ability to take wickets on consecutive balls, often through bowling in-swinging yorkers: he is the only bowler in the world to have two World Cup hat-tricks, the first bowler to take a double hat-trick, the only bowler to take 4 wickets in 4 balls twice in international cricket, the only bowler to have taken three hat-tricks in ODIs and only bowler to have two double hat-tricks. He is also the first bowler to take five hat-tricks across all formats of international cricket, and holds the record for most hat-tricks in international cricket.

On 22 April 2011, he announced his retirement from Test cricket. He has been named as the official event ambassador for the World Twenty20 Championships by ICC. On 26 July 2019, he retired from One Day International cricket after the first ODI against Bangladesh.

In September 2019, during the series against New Zealand, Malinga became the first bowler to take 100 wickets in Twenty20 International cricket. He achieved a hat-trick, becoming the first bowler to claim two T20I hat-tricks, and took four wickets in four consecutive balls in the third over of his spell. This feat made him the second bowler to accomplish this in T20I history, following Rashid Khan.

In January 2021, he retired from T20 franchise cricket. In September 2021, Malinga announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.

Early years
Malinga grew up in modest circumstances in Rathgama, a coastal village situated 12 km northwest of Galle. He often played cricket with friends on the sand banks and coconut groves by a river in his cricket-obsessed village. His father Separamadu Milton, is a retired bus mechanic who worked out of the Galle depot. He had his education at three schools, namely Mahinda College, Galle; Vidyaloka College, Galle and Vidyathilake Vidyalaya, Thiranagama. Malinga had his primary education at Vidyathilake Vidyalaya in Thiranagama, a school situated near by his village. He married Tanya Perera in 2010.

After passing the grade 5 Scholarship Examination in 1993, he entered Vidyaloka College, Galle for his secondary education, where he started his cricket career. Here Malinga was discovered by former Sri Lankan paceman Champaka Ramanayake. Champaka, so impressed by Malinga's raw ability, invited him to join the Galle Cricket Club. Champaka also helped him to join the first XI cricket team of Mahinda College, Galle. Joining Mahinda College was the turning point of his cricket career and he was helped by some of its distinguished Old boys. A short-lived attempt to make Malinga's action more upright led to much reduced pace and failing accuracy. Malinga promptly returned to his natural action with success, and with great encouragement from Ramanayake.

He didn't pick up hard-ball cricket until relatively in his teenage but his talent was discovered by fast bowling coaches Champaka Ramanayake and Anusha Samaranayake. Both of them brought him to the domestic system and nurtured him during his early years.

Debut years

Malinga made his Test debut on 1 July 2004 against Australia at Marrara Oval In Darwin. He was immediately successful, taking six wickets in the match (Darren Lehmann twice, Adam Gilchrist, Damien Martyn, Shane Warne and Michael Kasprowicz) He was impressed by the friendliness of the Australian team in general, and in particular Adam Gilchrist who sought him out after the game to present him with one of the match stumps in the Sri Lankan dressing room.

Malinga made his ODI debut in Sri Lanka's opening match of the 2004 Asia Cup against the United Arab Emirates, becoming the 123rd player to do so. Easily winning the match by 116 runs, Malinga took the wicket of the Emirati captain, Khurram Khan to finish the match with figures of 1/39. Since then he has become a regular member on the ODI squad.

Test retirement
He developed into Sri Lanka's fastest Test bowler and a regular member of both their Test and One Day International sides. He has earned a reputation for troubling batsmen with his lively pace and well-directed bouncer. He regularly bowls at speeds between 140 and 150 km/h and sometimes slightly faster. As time went by he started to lose pace, clocking around 130 and 140 km/h. His slower off cutter was also menacing. He burst onto the test scene after ripping through the New Zealand top order, helping Sri Lanka draw the test series on their 2006/07 tour of New Zealand. He announced his retirement from Test cricket on 22 April 2011 in order to prolong his career in ODI and T20 cricket.

Golden World Cups
During the 2007 Cricket World Cup Super 8 match on 28 March between Sri Lanka and South Africa, Malinga became the first player to take four wickets in four consecutive balls in One Day International cricket. Needing five runs for victory and with five wickets in hand, Malinga was handed the ball in the 45th over of the South African's innings. In the final two balls of the over he cleaned bowled Shaun Pollock and had Andrew Hall caught at cover. In his next over, he removed Jacques Kallis caught behind then bowled Makhaya Ntini. This was only the fifth hat-trick in World Cup history, the third ODI hat-trick for Sri Lanka and the 24th overall in ODIs. He nearly took the final wicket as a ball shaved the stumps. Despite Malinga's lethal spell, however, South Africa proceeded to win the match by 1 wicket with 10 balls still left. He was named in the 'Team of the Tournament' by ESPNcricinfo for the 2007 World Cup.

During the 2011 Cricket World Cup, Malinga took his second career hat-trick in Sri Lanka's group stage match against Kenya. This made him the first bowler to take two World Cup hat-tricks, and the fourth to take two hat-tricks in all One Day International cricket (alongside Wasim Akram, Saqlain Mushtaq and Chaminda Vaas). He was named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by ESPNcricinfo. In August 2011, he managed yet another hat-trick, against Australia, to become the first man to take three hat-tricks in ODI cricket.

For his performances in 2011, he was named as 12th man in the World ODI XI by the ICC. He was also named in the World ODI XI by the ICC for 2012 and 2013. He was also named in the World ODI XI by the ESPNcricinfo. He was named in the 'Team of the Tournament' by ESPNcricinfo for the 2009 T20I World Cup. His spell of 5 for 28 against Australia was voted to be the second-best ODI bowling performance of the year 2011 by ESPNcricinfo voters. His spell of 5 for 31 at Pallekele against England was voted as the best T20I bowling performance of the year 2012 by ESPNcricinfo. He was also named in the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2012 T20 World Cup by the ICC.

Injury
After West Indies tour, Malinga suffered a back injury and a knee injury. Because of this, he did not participate in both the New Zealand tour and the Indian tour, hoping that he would recover for the beginning of the 2016 ICC World Twenty20. Malinga was appointed as the captain for the 2016 Asia Cup, where he was only able to play against UAE, with a match-winning bowling performance. The knee injury caused him to skip the remaining matches and Sri Lanka lost all them all. Sri Lanka announced their World T20 team with Malinga as the captain, but continuous injuries resulted in Malinga stepping down from the captaincy and Angelo Mathews was named the captain in all formats. Even though Sri Lanka felt that Malinga would recover for the World cup matches, his injuries ruled him out of the Twenty20 squad. He returned home due to a prevailing bone bruise on his left knee.

Captaincy
Malinga was named as the vice-captain of the Sri Lankan Twenty20 International team in October 2012. He became captain of Sri Lankan Cricket Team in 2014 ICC World Twenty20 after Dinesh Chandimal received a ban. He successfully led the team to win the world cup. Due to continuous injuries, he stepped down from the captaincy in 2015.

His spell of 5 for 56 against Pakistan at Mirpur in 2014 was named as the best ODI Bowling Performance of the year by ESPNcricinfo. He was also nominated for his spell of 5 for 52 against the same opponents in the group stage game.

However, in 2016 against India, he was appointed as the ODI captain due to injuries to permanent captain. Sri Lanka lost the match in that game.

On 14 December 2018, Malinga was appointed as the limited over captain for New Zealand tour.

International comeback
Malinga quit from all domestic and international cricket for a one-year after his T20I match against UAE in March 2016. Due to these injuries, Malinga lost matches against England, Australia, and Zimbabwe Tri-series, where Sri Lanka involved heavy defeats in limited over cricket and went down in international rankings. Though he recovered from injuries in late December, Malinga was unavailable to South Africa series after a bout of dengue. Malinga was picked up to the Australian tour and played in the match against Prime Minister's XI. His comeback match came against Australia on 17 February 2017, where he took two wickets and two catches. Sri Lanka won the match by 5 wickets at the end.

On 6 April 2017, during the second T20I against Bangladesh, Malinga took a hat-trick, becoming the second Sri Lankan and fifth overall to take a T20I hat-trick. With that, Malinga has taken 4 international hat-tricks, which is most by a Sri Lankan player and joint highest with Pakistani Wasim Akram.

Malinga was included to the ODI squad for 2017 ICC Champions Trophy in June 2017. He played his comeback match against South Africa on 3 June 2017 at the pool match of Champions Trophy. However, his comeback was not good at all, where he finished the spell wicket less by giving 57 runs and put down a catch and was sloppy in the fielding as well. Sri Lanka suffered a heavy loss in the match by 96 runs finally.

During the Indian ODI series, captain Upul Tharanga was suspended two ODIs due to slow over rate. Therefore, Chamara Kapugedera was appointed as the stand-in captain of those two ODIs. However, he aggravated a back injury during the third ODI and ruled out of the series. For the fourth ODI, Malinga was appointed stand-in captain. In the match, Malinga took his 300th ODI wicket by dismissing Virat Kohli. Despite his milestone, India scored 375 runs and Sri Lanka only managed to score 207 runs and lost the series 4–0. India won the fifth match of the series and whitewash Sri Lanka for the second consecutive time in a 5-match series.

Since his comeback, Malinga was not fully effective with the ball and also with the fielding. However, he did not announce an immediate retirement and said he wanted to play international cricket for Sri Lanka until 2019 Cricket World Cup. Since his return, Malinga averaging 62.30 for each of his 10 wickets, and going at six an over, Due to his ineffective bowling, Malinga was omitted from the ODI squad for 2017–18 Pakistan series in the UAE.

Due to his continuous injuries, he was not considered for the selection by the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2018 Nidahas Trophy. In the series, Sri Lanka suffered heavy losses against Bangladesh and omitted from the final as well. He was left out from team selection process in late 2017 when the sports ministry directly intervened into Sri Lanka cricket by introducing the minimum fitness standards. Malinga challenged the then sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekara regarding his exclusion from the team for lack of fitness levels and in retaliation Dayasiri used his authoritarian powers to sack Malinga from being selected to the national team for over a year.

Sri Lanka Cricket informed Malinga to play in the domestic competition and then he will selected for the upcoming international tours. But, due to coaching responsibilities in Mumbai Indians, Malinga also missed 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament. However, Malinga announced that he hope to join international squad for the South African limited over tour in Sri Lanka 2018. But he was not picked for both ODIs and T20Is.

He however continued to work on his fitness and bowling with his mentor Anusha Ramanayake and following an impressive domestic season he was subsequently recalled to the national team for the 2018 Asia Cup. Malinga was included in the squad for 2018 Asia Cup as the premium fast bowler with Suranga Lakmal. He played the opening game of the series with Bangladesh and took two wickets in the first over of the match. He finished the spell with 4 wickets for just 23 runs.

On 13 October 2018 against England in the second ODI of the series, Malinga took his 8th five-wicket haul. Four wickets of them were slow dipping yorkers, which credited as his best strength in the career. He finished five wickets for 44 runs, despite Sri Lanka lost the match by 31 runs in D/L method. During the match, he also completed 500 international wickets.

Late ODI career
During South African series in early 2019, under the captaincy of Malinga, Sri Lanka suffered another big loss. They lost the ODI series 5–0, which was the second time they lost 5–0 to South Africa away. In the T20I series, Sri Lanka suffered a 3–0 loss.

During South African series, Malinga said that the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup would feature his final ODI appearance and 2020 ICC T20 World Cup would be his last international appearance for Sri Lanka. In April 2019, he was named in Sri Lanka's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 21 June 2019, in the match against England, Malinga took his 50th wicket in a World Cup match. He became the quickest to achieve the milestone with 26 innings in World Cups. Sri Lanka won their fourth consecutive World Cup match against England, and Malinga won the man of the match award for his match winning bowling spells. He finished the tournament as the leading wicket taker for Sri Lanka, with thirteen dismissals in seven matches as the third-highest wicket taker of all time in World Cups.

ODI retirement
On 26 July 2019, he played his final ODI at R Premadasa Stadium in first ODI against Bangladesh inside a packed house with banners citing ThankYou Mali, Our Slinga Our Pride. In the match he scored 6 runs unbeaten. With the ball, he delivered a yorker spell to dismiss Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar. In the end, in his final over in ODIs, he took the wicket of Mustafizur Rahman to surpass Anil Kumble to become the ninth-highest wicket taker in ODIs finishing with 338 dismissals.

Post ODI retirement
Malinga was named as the captain for T20I series against New Zealand, which composed of many young cricketers. During the first T20I, he surpassed Shahid Afridi's wicket tally of 98 to become the highest wicket taker in Twenty20 Internationals. He took two wickets in the match, though Sri Lanka lost the match. In the second T20I, he went to wicket less 39 runs and New Zealand won the match and sealed the series. In the third T20I, Sri Lanka scored a modest score of 125 runs. In the match, Malinga delivered a match winning bowling spell. With the wicket of Colin Munro, Malinga became the first cricketer to take 100 wickets in Twenty20 Internationals, as well as the first ever cricketer to take 100 wickets in all three formats of the game. In the course with wickets of Hamish Rutherford and Colin de Grandhomme, he completed his fifth hat-trick, second in T20Is as well. He is the only cricketer to have two take T20I hat-tricks and five international hat-tricks (three in ODIs and 2 in T20Is). He then took the wicket of Ross Taylor to become the world's only bowler to take two four-in-four, where his first four-in-four came in 2007 World Cup against South Africa. Malinga finished his spell with 5 for 6 runs, and Sri Lanka won the match by 37 runs. He won the man of the match award for impressive bowling performance.

He created a YouTube account titled ‘’Master The Game’’ in 2020 and he uploaded videos related to cricket match analysis in Sinhala language with Hindi and English languages.

In November 2020, Malinga was nominated for the ICC Men's ODI and T20I Cricketer of the Decade awards. Malinga retired from all forms of cricket on 14 September 2021, ending his career as the leading wicket taker in T20Is with 107 wickets. He announced his retirement through his official YouTube channel.

T20 franchise career
On 20 January 2021, Lasith Malinga retired from T20 franchise cricket.

Indian Premier League
Malinga has played for Indian Premier League (IPL) team Mumbai Indians since 2008. He became their leading bowler in this format and leading bowler in the competition in terms of wickets taken. Sachin Tendulkar, the ex-Mumbai Indians captain, described Malinga as an important cog in the Indians' game plan after the retirement of captain Shaun Pollock, who represented the team in the first season. In the first match for the Mumbai Indians in the fourth season, he got 5 wickets against Delhi Daredevils, restricting them to a mere 95. His best bowling figures ever is 6/7 for Melbourne Stars against Perth Scorchers in December 2012, the only six-wicket haul taken the Australian Big Bash League. Malinga was also one of the overseas players to represent Kent Spitfires in the English T20 competition in 2007. Kent went on to win the tournament beating Gloucestershire with Malinga playing a key part throughout the tournament. For his performances in 2010, 2011 and 2014, he was named in the ESPNcricinfo IPL XI. He won the Purple Cap award (most wickets) in the fourth season of Indian Premier League with 28 scalps in 16 matches. Throughout the tournament, he led the Mumbai Indians attack from the front and was instrumental in many victories.

Lasith Malinga chose Mumbai Indians over Southern Express in the CLT20 cricket tournament.

In the 2011 Champions League Twenty20, he was the highest wicket taker in the tournament and won the golden wicket for this performance and won the award for the player of the tournament. Malinga also hit a lot of runs. For his performances in 2011, he was named in the ESPNcricinfo CLT20 XI. He picked up his 100th IPL wicket of his career during the 2013 Indian Premier League in a league stage match against Kings XI Punjab and became the first ever bowler to reach the milestone of 100 wickets in IPL history.

On the occasion of the 10-year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time ESPNcricinfo IPL XI.

In 2018 IPL Auctions, Malinga was not bought by Mumbai Indians due to his ineffective bowling in the recent past. However, on 7 February 2018, Malinga was named bowling mentor of Mumbai Indians ahead of IPL 2018. He has played 127 games for Mumbai Indians in the IPL and Champions League T20 and is the highest-wicket taker for the franchise with 179 scalps at an economy rate of 6.88. In 2019 he was again bought by the Mumbai Indians.

In December 2018, he was re-bought by the Mumbai Indians in the player auction for the 2019 Indian Premier League.

On 22 March 2019, he ruled himself out of at least the first six IPL matches for Mumbai Indians in 2019. This was due to the fact that in order to qualify for the Sri Lanka World Cup squad, Sri Lanka's selectors told him that he must play in the forthcoming Super Provincial One Day domestic tournament to get qualify for the World Cup. However, on 25 March 2019, SLC soften the decision and make him available for the IPL 2019. The decision was taken after BCCI asked Sri Lanka Cricket to make Malinga available for as much of the tournament as possible. He returned to Sri Lanka to feature in the Super Provincial One-Day Tournament before rejoining Mumbai after 10 April. Malinga was available for Mumbai Indians through the entirety of April. He contributed to the fourth title win for Mumbai Indians with a wicket on the last ball in the final where 2 runs where required thus giving Mumbai a win by 1 run.

He also holds a unique distinction of picking up 10 wickets in two different formats across 2 nations within a space of 24 hours which he achieved it in 2019. On 3 April 2019, he featured in an IPL match as part of the 2019 Indian Premier League playing for Mumbai Indians against Chennai Super Kings and picked up 3/34 in the match which progressed up until midnight Indian time. The very next day, he took a flight early morning to reach Kandy in order to play in a domestic List A match as part of the Sri Lanka Super Four Provincial Limited Over Tournament representing Galle for which he was named as the captain. He subsequently went onto record his career best bowling figures in List A cricket by capturing 7/49 for Galle in that match and recorded 10/83 within a single day in two different matches in two separate nations.

He pulled out from participating in the 2020 Indian Premier League for personal reasons and James Pattinson was named as his replacement for the season.

Global T20 Canada
In May 2018, he was named as one of the ten marquee players for the first edition of the Global T20 Canada cricket tournament. On 3 June 2018, he was selected to play for the Montreal Tigers in the players' draft for the inaugural edition of the tournament. He was the leading wicket-taker in the tournament for the Montreal Tigers, with thirteen dismissals in six matches.

Lanka Premier League
In October 2020, he was drafted by the Galle Gladiators for the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League. However, he pulled out from the 2020 Lanka Premier League citing lack of match practice. However, he received criticism from fans for not featuring in LPL and accused him of lack of patriotism.

Style
Malinga's action has attracted great comment. The cricket reference text Wisden has noted that Malinga's delivery action is similar to "slinging", resulting to his nickname "Slinga Malinga". Malinga has said that his unique round-arm bowling action was a result of learning to play cricket exclusively with a tennis ball. Typically, younger bowlers are encouraged to deliver the ball with their arm near vertical to remove or reduce direction variables.

Sir Viv Richards admired Lasith Malinga's impressive bowling during the 2007 Cricket World Cup which was held in the Caribbean, saying that Lasith Malinga is the best thing that happened to Sri Lankan cricket after Aravinda de Silva.

Records

 * First bowler to take 100 T20I wickets.
 * First bowler to take 100 wickets across all three formats of international cricket (Tests, ODIs and T20Is).
 * The first and, to date, only bowler to take three hat-tricks in One-Day International cricket.
 * He holds the best bowling figures by any bowler in the men's edition of the Australia's Big Bash T20 league. 6/7 for Melbourne Stars against Perth Scorchers.

Coaching career
In February 2018, he was appointed as the bowling mentor for the Mumbai Indians team though Shane Bond serves as the bowling coach for the side in 2018 IPL season. Mumbai Indians franchise revealed that Malinga would provide supportive role as a mentor and would be part of the coaching staff ahead of the 2018 IPL season. Prior to the decision made by the Mumbai Indians, Malinga was released from the Mumbai Indians team for the 2018 IPL auction due to his poor bowling performances at the 2017 IPL season.

In 2022, he took on the role of fast bowling coach for the Rajasthan Royals. He also maintained a coaching role for the MI Cape Town and MI New York franchise through the SA20 and ILT20 seasons in 2022.

Subsequently, he was appointed as the bowling coach for Mumbai Indians in 2023 for the 2024 IPL season.

title: Lasith Malinga