Debahapuwa piloted Antonians to victory in 1968 Big Match-by Upananda Jayasundera

Source:Daily News

Gamini Debahapuwa , a versatile cricketer and a knowledgeable coach from Central Province has produced many National Level players and he is trying his level best to train his students whatever he has learnt about the game from his alma mater, St.Anthony’s College,Kandy and Sri Lanka Air Force.

Gamini Debahapuwa started his cricket career when he was schooling at St.Anthony’s in the year 1968 under Randy Simms and he helped his School to beat Trinity College,Kandy in their ‘Big Match’ after 14 years claiming a Match Bag of 7 for 38 (6 for 21 & 1 for 17) He was awarded the Best Bowlers as well as Best Fielders prizes at this Match. After leaving School he was selected for the Central Province Cricket team under the captaincy of Sarath Wickremaratne and they played against a Malaysian team and Gamini scored 38. He improved his talent in Cricket when he joined Sri Lanka Air Force in 1975 and at the start of his career he was selected for the Division two matches and he played as a Middle Order batsman and scored 98 against Police and 78 against Sebastianites. He shared the new ball in bowling and he was selected to the Division one Sara Trophy Cricket tournament in 1977 and continued till 1989 and during this period he scored 25 half centuries against all Div.ision one Clubs in Sri Lanka. As a Left arm dual purpose bowler he claimed many wickets and the best was claiming 4 wickets for 10 runs against Moratuwa Sports Club. He represented Combined Services team in the Robert Senanayake Trophy tournament and scored 56 versus Rest Team. He was awarded Air Force Colours and got Four re-awards from time to time. Prior to retirement Gamini Debahapuwa, popularly known as ‘Deba’ among friends captained the Division III and continued playing cricket for over three decades since he started cricket from the under 16 level at St.Anthony’s .As a Level 2 Coach he never hesitated to impart his knowledge when he was training the players. He started coaching at Maris Stella College,Negambo after following an Instructors Course in Pakistan in 1985. Among his Pupils were Labrooy Brothers- Graham and Wendell, Sriyantha Samaratunge, Marlon Mallawarachchi, Shantha Fonseka to name a few.

He coached the Under 13,15,17 and first XI teams at Kingswood College,Kandy from 1997 to 2002 and coached his alma mater, St.Anthonys’ in 2003 and 2004. Gamini Debahapuwa got an opportunity to coach Sri Lanka Air Force team for six months and joined Dharmaraja College,Kandy and coached the Under 13 team and toured with the team to Bangalore, India and it was a fine exposure for these young cricketers . He started his own Cricket Academy in the year 2011 and it is called GD Cricket Academy and it is situated at Peradeniya,Kandy. He retired as a Warrant Officer from the Sri Lanka Air Force.