No Sri Lankan batsman perhaps put a higher premium on his wicket than Hashan Thillakaratne. Famous for his stubborn resistance, Tillakaratne was a member of Sri Lanka’s World Cup winning squad. His career looked over when Sri Lanka Cricket made sweeping changes following their disastrous World Cup defense in 1999. While captain Arjuna and deputy Aravinda de Silva were sacked and overlooked for ODIs, Tillakaratne and Roshan Mahanama were dropped from both forms of the game. Mahanama retired immediately, but Tillakaratne fought his way back. Heaps of runs in domestic cricket made it hard for the selectors to ignore him and two years after being sacked, he was recalled in 2001.
A year later, he became the first Sri Lankan to score a Test hundred in South Africa. He was in such good nick in Tests, Tillakaratne was even called up to play the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. Later that year, he went onto captain the country in Test cricket. His perseverance never let him down.
Here’s some interesting turn of events happened in the South Africa tour.
Before SL tour of SA 2002-03, Barry Richards (after a short coaching stint with SL) said Hashan Tillakaratne won't score a run in South African soil.
Few weeks later, Hashan becomes the 1st Sri Lankan to score a Test ton in South Africa & Barry himself had to do the commentary.😂 pic.twitter.com/J6P8EiE1K5— Mainak Sinha🏏📽️ (@cric_archivist) June 11, 2021
When asked about this incident Hashan said “When we were preparing to go to South Africa, they (Sri Lanka) brought in Barry Richards as a Batting Consultant. Barry Richards had said that I wouldn’t score a single run in South Africa. The selectors conveyed this message to me. I was very happy that when I completed the hundred at Centurion, Barry Richards was on commentary. This game is a great leveler. That was a very good South African attack that had Pollock, Ntini, Elworthy and Kallis. We nearly won that game too.”
Tillakaratne retired in 2004 after Australia series at home. Having served in many roles in SLC, in June 2021 he was appointed as Coach of the Sri Lanka women’s team.