Derrick De Saram

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Frederick Cecil De Saram (September 5, 1912 - April 11. 1983) was a Sri Lankan cricketer prior to them being granted Test status. A right handed batsman, he once made 128 playing for Oxford Universities against Australia in 1934. The Australian side included Stan McCabe, Fleetwood-Smith and Clarrie Grimmett. In his 40 first class game for both Ceylon and Oxford Universities, De Saram made 2789 runs at 39.84 with 6 hundreds and a highest score of 208.

A senior officer in the Army, he was one of the most influential figures in an attempted military coup in 1961. The coup was aborted just moments before it was take place and de Saram took the blame. He spend the 1960's behind bars.[1]