Ashantha de Mel

Personal information

Full name

Ashantha Lakdasa Francis de Mel

Born

9 May 1959 (age 57)
Colombo

Batting style

Right-hand bat

Bowling style

Right-arm medium-fast

International information

National side

Sri Lanka

Test debut (cap 1)

17 February 1982 v England

Last Test

17 December 1986 v India

ODI debut (cap 20)

13 February 1982 v England

Last ODI

30 October 1987 v England

Career statistics

Competition	Test	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	17	57	42	70
Runs scored	326	466	918	577
Batting average	14.17	14.56	19.12	15.18
100s/50s	0/0	0/0	1/2	0/0
Top score	34	36	100*	39*
Balls bowled	3,518	2,735	7,056	3,347
Wickets	59	59	109	69
Bowling average	36.94	37.91	37.90	37.23
5 wickets in innings	3	2	3	2
10 wickets in match	0	0	0	0
Best bowling	6/109	5/32	6/109	5/32
Catches/stumpings	9/–	13/–	22/–	15/–

Source: ESPNcricinfo, 31 July 2015

Ashantha Lakdasa Francis de Mel (born 9 May 1959 in Colombo) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and selector for the national team. He was one of few Sri Lanka bowlers in the 1980s who could get the ball to anything above medium pace, and he was also said to have the ability to get the ball to swing out.

He only played one Test match outside the Indian subcontinent, which may explain why his Test average is so high, as conditions there are generally not thought suitable for swing bowlers. He often made small contributions with the bat, and only made ducks three times.

He was educated at Isipathana College, Colombo up to ordinary level and then moved to Royal College Colombo.

His finest moment as a bowler arguably came at the 1983 World Cup in England, where he used the helpful conditions to register his two only ODI five-wicket-hauls. First, at Headingley against Pakistan, he took five for 39, but got little help from his team-mates and couldn't quite carry the team to the target, being last out as Sri Lanka needed 12 more to win off 10 balls. Two days later, however, they moved to The County Ground, Derby, and de Mel once again took five wickets - this time for only 32 runs, as New Zealand crumbled to 181 and Sri Lanka won by three wickets, their only win in the tournament. De Mel returned Sri Lanka's best bowling figures in every match. He was the tournament's second highest wicket taker with 17 wickets, one behind India's Roger Binny. Many years later, it was discovered that one of the wickets credited to Rumesh Ratnayake in Sri Lanka's first round match against England was actually taken by De Mel, but the scorecards still don't reflect that.

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