Former Sri Lanka cricketer Anthony Marinon Opatha better known as Tony died yesterday at the age of 73 A right-arm medium pace bowler, he played five One Day Internationals at the 1975 and 1979 Cricket World Cups. He played for CCC and SSC at the domestic level
He was educated at St. Peter's College, Colombo later joined the Royal Ceylon Volunteer Air Force in 1968. He played for his college cricket team from 1965 to 1967 captaining in his final year and went on to play for the Air Force cricket team till 1977.
He first played for Ceylon in 1971 and was a member of the Sri Lanka teams which played in unofficial tests till 1979. He later played club cricket in Ireland for one season in 1979 and was offered the post of coach of the Holland team.
As player/manager of the rebel tour to South Africa in 1982-83 in defiance of the sporting ban against apartheid , he and the other members of the team received a life ban from international cricket.
In September 2018, he was one of 49 former Sri Lankan cricketers felicitated by Sri Lanka Cricket, to honour them for their services before Sri Lanka became a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
His funeral arrangements will be notified later.
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