Sri Lanka (Commonwealth) _ Chamari Athapaththu, the rising star of Sri Lankan cricket, has been nominated for two elite ICC awards for 2024: ODI Cricketer of the Year and T20I Women’s Cricketer of the Year.
Due to her outstanding accomplishments this season, which have included steady batting and leadership, she is now regarded as one of the best cricket players in the world. Athapaththu’s nominations highlight how important she is to bringing Sri Lankan women’s cricket to a global level.
With her impressive record for the island nation, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call Chamari Athapaththu the most successful female cricket player from Sri Lanka ever, but the southpaw went one step further in 2024.
Athapaththu was the second-highest run scorer in a calendar year in women’s Twenty20 Internationals, despite experiencing an unanticipated decline in the Women’s T20 World Cup. With 86 fours and 32 sixes, she amassed 720 runs, including two hundreds and four half-centuries.
In addition to her heroics with the willow, Athapaththu took 21 wickets during the year. In T20Is, 2024 was her finest year with the bat and the ball. Among a string of outstanding efforts, such as the two hundred in the Women’s T20 World Cup qualifier, Athapaththu’s 61 against India in Dambulla on July 28 was the highlight.
The innings, which came against highly regarded India, enabled Sri Lanka to win the Asia Cup for the first time. After choosing to bat first, the Women in Blue reached 165/6 thanks to a 60 from 47 from Smriti Mandhana.
Athapaththu, who had previously hit with the ball, kept the innings together with Harshitha Samarawickrama despite Sri Lanka’s early defeat. Sri Lanka accumulated 87 runs for the second wicket; she took the lead in runs scored. By the time of her dismissal, Athapaththu had laid a solid foundation for her team. After that, Samarawickrama got help from Kavisha Dilhari, and the two of them completed an unprecedented pursuit.
Chamari came from a humble household in Kurunegala, and her late father was her biggest cricket supporter. He used to go to Colombo with her for practices, but he tragically died in 2008, one year before she made her debut for her country.
But Chamari’s cricketing career didn’t end there. She has now reached the twilight of her career after playing at the highest level of women’s cricket for 15 years. Chamari informed the media that her “retirement is very soon” following the crushing 195 against the South African women’s team.
In the debate for the best Sri Lankan cricketer of all time, how does she stack up against players like Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardane, Sanath Jayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva, and Kumar Sangakkara?
Mahadevan Sathasivam, who dominated the game in the late 1940s, was likely Sri Lanka’s first batting superstar. Frank Worrell described Sathasivam as the “best batsman he had ever seen,” and Sir Garry Sobers referred to him as the “greatest batsman ever on earth.”
In the 1970s and 1980s, Dulip Mendis was Sri Lanka’s batting virtuoso, while Roy Dias’s fluid style influenced a new generation of cricket players.
While Aravinda de Silva established himself as a man for outstanding occasions by leading Sri Lanka to their first ODI World Cup, Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana revolutionized the way ODI cricket was played in 1996.
Muttiah Muralitharan became the highest-scoring player in cricket, and Sangakkara and Mahela were the dominant forces in Sri Lankan cricket for almost ten years, winning a T20 World Cup and placing second in four World Cups.
What has Chamari Athapaththu accomplished for cricket in Sri Lanka, then? She was only an opening batsman when he first started, but as she developed, she became a highly valuable off-spin bowler and made a significant contribution to the squad.
She restored unity to a struggling team, enabling them to defeat elite teams like South Africa, England, and New Zealand. Chamari is the owner of all 10 of Sri Lanka’s women’s ODI cricket top scores. In at least 80% of Sri Lanka’s women’s matches, she leads the team in scoring.
Sri Lanka has consistently fielded strong men’s teams. There were several stars on the 1996 World Cup-winning squad, and the years 1996–2015 were perhaps Sri Lanka’s best years playing international cricket.
There were many stars in the 1996 World Cup-winning squad. Sri Lanka’s best run in international cricket was likely from 1996 to 2015, after which they began to celebrate victories over Bangladesh.
