Upul Tharanga Biography

Full Name : Upul Tharanga 

Date of Birth  : 2nd February 1985 

Place of BIrth : Balapitiya, Sri Lanka 

Batting Style  : Left-Handed 

Test Debut  : 18th December 2005 v India 

ODI Debut  : 2th August 2005 v West Indies 

Warushavithana Upul Tharanga commonly known as Upul Tharanga, is a Sri Lankan cricketer.  Upul Tharanga  is a left-handed opening batsman and wicketkeeper.

Early Life

Upul Tharanga had his education at Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda.  Upul Tharanga  started his cricket career as a teenager at his school. Having played for Nondescripts since the age of 15, he played for Sri Lanka's under-15, under-17 and under-19 squads.  Upul Tharanga  had a successful under-19 World Cup in 2004 with successful innings of 117 and 61 in successive games.  Upul Tharanga  was sent by the Sri Lankan cricketing board to play league cricket for Loughton Cricket Club in Essex.

Tharanga's Sri Lankan call-up in July 2005 made for a mixed 2005, after his family home was washed away by the Asian tsunami.  Upul Tharanga  equipment, which was also washed away, was replaced by Kumar Sangakkara. Tharanga graduated to the "A" team and in July he was selected for the full squad.

International Career

On the 2006 tour of England he really began to develop, particularly in the one-day game, scoring over 300 runs in Sri Lanka's 5-0 whitewash of the hosts. In addition, Tharanga is also well known for taking part in a record-breaking first wicket partnership with Sanath Jayasuriya in the final match of this series.  Upul Tharanga  finished off with 109 off 102 balls, and played a pivotal role in completing the whitewash against England.

Tharanga lost his form in the 2007 World Cup scoring only one half century (against New Zealand) he then continued his poor run of form in the home series against England in 2007 where he failed to contribute and often fell before the 10th over often resulting in a middle-order collapse. Subsequently he lost his ODI place to Malinda Warnapura and his test place to Michael Vandort but he remains within the squad.

However, in the 2011 World Cup, he is back to performing remarkably. In the semi-final game against England, his partnership with Dilshan could not be pierced. Together they wrapped up the game, each acquiring centuries.  Upul Tharanga  strong form has returned him to the opening position in the strong Sri-Lankan batting line up.

Upul Tharanga has also come in for special praise from Jayasuriya, one of the greats of cricket, saying that he could be the next captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team.

Doping violationA urine sample provided by Tharanga after the world cup semi-final against New Zealand on 29 March 2011 was found to have metabolites of two glucocorticosteroids - prednisone and prednisolone, which are banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.Tharanga initially claimed he had taken some medication for asthma and had no idea it was a banned drug.

An independent anti-doping tribunal was convened at which Tharanga pleaded guilty, claiming he had taken some herbal remedy to ease discomfort caused by a long-standing shoulder injury.The tribunal accepted that Tharanga "had no intention to enhance his sporting performance or to mask the use of another performance enhancing substance, but that he had failed to satisfy the high levels of personal responsibility implicit upon him as an international cricketer subject to anti-doping rules". The tribunal found Tharanga guilty of breaching the ICC Anti-Doping Code and banned him from all cricket and cricket-related activities for a three month period (9 May 2011 to 8 August 2011).

One Day International Centuries

The following table illustrates a summary of ODI centuries scored by Upul Tharanga

In the column Runs, * indicates being not out 

The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career 

One Day International Centuries of Upul Tharanga 

 #  Runs Match Against City/Country Venue Year 

[1] 105 5  Bangladesh Colombo, Sri Lanka R Premadasa Stadium 2005 

[2] 103 12  New Zealand Christchurch, New Zealand Jade Stadium 2006 

[3] 120 23  England London, England Lord's Cricket Ground 2006 

[4] 109 27  England Leeds, England Headingley 2006 

[5] 105 31  Bangladesh Mohali, Chandigarh, India Punjab Cricket Association Stadium 2006 

[6] 121 32  Zimbabwe Motera, Ahmedabad, India Sardar Patel Stadium 2006 

[7] 118 86  India Kolkata, India Eden Gardens 2009 

[8] 118* 90  Bangladesh Dhaka, Bangladesh S.B National Stadium 2009 

[9] 101* 111  West Indies Colombo, Sri Lanka Sinhalese Sports Club Ground 2011 

[10] 133 117  Zimbabwe Kandy, Sri Lanka Pallekele International Cricket Stadium 2011 

[11] 102* 119  England Colombo, Sri Lanka R Premadasa Stadium 2011 

[12] 111 139  Australia Hambantota, Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium 2011