Sri Lanka’s top order batsman and man-in-form Dhananjaya de Silva has been withdrawn from Sri Lanka’s tour of West Indies after his father, Ranjan de Silva was brutally murdered on Thursday(24) night.
De Silva’s father was gunned down in Mount Lavinia, a municipality south of Colombo where he contested the recent local government elections. He was pronounced dead upon admission to the Kalubowila Hospital while two others with him during the incident suffered injuries.
Dhananjaya’s teammates rushed to the hospital after the shocking incident which took place less than 12 hours before the Sri Lankan team boarded the flight to Dubai and from there to the Caribbean.
De Silva who made his Test debut almost two years ago had a dream start against the Australians top scoring in a three match home Test series, before losing his place later on due to loss of form. He made a comeback during the Delhi Test against India last year where he made an unbeaten century tosalvage an unlikely draw. He followed it up with a century against Bangladesh and has remained a key component in the longer format for Sri Lanka.
ThePapare.com’s deepest sympathies go out to De Silva and his family at this difficult time.
