DDCA: Mahela Udawatte joins Turf 1 powerhouse Buckley Ridges

Another international cricketer will strengthen the Dandenong District Cricket Association in the 2021-22 season.

Sri Lankan Test player Mahela Udawatte has joined Buckley Ridges.

Rumours about a Test-class cricketer joining Buckley Ridges became fact today when the club announced it had signed a former Sri Lankan international.

The Bucks have bolstered their batting stocks by securing Mahela Udawatte for the 2021-22 season.

Buckley president Sonny De Silva announced the long-embargoed news after Udawatte’s exit from the Sri Lankan national cricket set-up.

Udawatte, 35, has permanent residency in Australia and arrived in Melbourne late last month.

He is a hard-hitting, top-order left-hander who played two Tests for Sri Lanka in 2018.

Udawatte was the leading run-scorer in the preliminary rounds of Sri Lanka’s 50-over competition earlier this year.

Early in his first-class career he was touted as a successor to the great Sanath Jayasuria.

Udawatte’s Test matches were both against the West Indies, but his continued success at the domestic level kept him on the periphery of the national team until recently.

He was dismissed for a blob on Test debut, but fought back with 73 in his second Test and made a better fist of it in nine ODI’s (against the West Indies, Zimbabwe and Pakistan), scoring two half-centuries to average 28.5.

Udawatte is related to Sonny De Silva and shares his first name with Sonny’s nephew and former captain of Sri Lanka, Mahela Jayawardene, who recently enjoyed dual success in England as coach of the winning Southampton-based Southern Brave team in the new Hundred competition.

“We are thrilled to have Mahela playing for us,” Sonny De Silva said.

“I had been watching him for a while given our family links (his uncle is married to Sonny’s first cousin) but didn’t realise he wanted to leave the Sri Lankan set-up.

“I got on the phone as soon as Richie (Hope) got wind of his availability, and convinced Mahela to (come to Melbourne) and play for Bucks,” Sonny said

“He will no doubt dominate in the DDCA.

“We welcome Mahela, his lovely wife and three kids to the Buckley family.’’

Udawatte amassed 9680 runs in his 169 first-class matches, averaging 35.32.

There were 14 centuries – his highest score was 212 – and 57 half-centuries.

And in 189 List-A matches he scored 6116 runs at 33.79.

He has played for a number of Sri Lankan first-class teams such as Chilaw Marians and Nondescript cricket clubs, as well as Kings of Khulna in the Bangladesh National Cricket League’s T20 equivalent of the Big Bash.

This will be Udawatte’s first foray into cricket in Australia, and he joins former Glamorgan batsman Ben Wright (recently appointed Buckley’s captain) and Berwick’s Josh Holden in adding to Buckley’s batting depth.

Meanwhile Subbies champion Ricky Damiano will serve as a the Bucks’ T20 marquee player in 2021-22.