C. I. Gunesekera

Who was C. I. Gunesekera?

Conroy Ievers Gunasekara was a Sri Lankan first-class cricketer prior to his country being granted Test status.

Gunasekara was educated at Royal College Colombo where he played in the Royal-Thomian encounter, starting from 1938. To start a legal career he joined the Colombo Law College in 1940, however left before completing his legal studies to join the Ceylon Defence Force as a Second Lieutenant during World War II.

He started playing cricket for the Sinhalese Sports Club under the captaincy of Fredrick C. de Saram. Thereafter Gunesekara went on to play for the Ceylon team and captained it. During his time playing for Sri Lanka, Gunasekara had many remarakable knocks including a double hundred against Pakistan. He also represented the Commonwealth scoring a hundred in the match England vs. Commonwealth batting alongside Australian great Keith Miller. Up till the 1980s he played for the SSC.

David Sheppard described him as "a great cricketer who would surely have played Test cricket if he had qualified for another country ... a fine, forcing batsman, driving with great power, and a good leg-spin bowler".

Gunasekara joined Walker & Sons Limited as a Manager and went on to serve as a Director. His uncle was Dr Churchill Gunasekara a former Ceylon Cricket Captain.