Marvan Atapattu

Deshabandu Marvan Samson Atapattu (born 22 November 1970 in Kalutara) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and former Sri Lankan captain.^[1] He has coached Canada and Singapore national cricket teams previously.^[2] From April 2014 to September 2015, he was the Head Coach of Sri Lankan Cricket Team.^[3][4]

Style and career

Marvan Atapattu started his cricket career as a teenager at Mahinda College, Galle, where Major G. W. S. de Silva was his first cricket coach.^[5] Then he crossed over to Ananda College, Colombo, where he was subsequently coached by P. W. Perera.^[5] Making his Test debut in November 1990 just after his 20th birthday, his first six innings yielded five ducks and a 1, but supporters insist that his debut-innings duck puts him in good company with batsmen such as Mike Atherton, Graham Gooch, Len Hutton, Saeed Anwar and Wasim Akram, who all made debut-innings ducks and went on to score at least 2500 Test runs. After this difficult start in his first three matches, he did not score above 29 in his next 11 innings, before hitting his first Test century in his 10th match, against India, seven years after his debut. He has 22 Test-match career ducks and 4 pairs (two ducks in a single match), both records for a top-order batsman. He made his one-Day International debut against India at Nagpur.He was appointed as captain of the one-day team on April 2003. He registered his highest Test score of 249 against Zimbabwe in 2004, sharing a 438-run partnership with Kumar Sangakkara for the second wicket.

Atapattu is a skilful fielder with an accurate throw. A report prepared by Cricinfo in late 2005 showed that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the second highest number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman, with the seventh highest success rate.^[6] He was controversially ^[7] left out of the squad for the 2007 Cricket World Cup, and as a result, asked for his removal from the list of Sri Lanka contracted players. Atapattu was to miss the 2007–08 tour of Australia, but was added to the squad after the intervention of Sri Lankan Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge. Atapattu played solidly in the First Test, but subsequently angrily labelled the selectors: "A set of Muppets, basically, headed by a joker," at a post-stumps press conference.

After Sri Lanka lost the series 2–0, Atapattu announced his international retirement after the second Test at Hobart.^[8] He finished with 5,502 Test runs at an average of 39.02 in 90 Tests with a One-day International average of 37.57 after hitting 8,529 runs in 268 matches. Atapattu scored six double centuries and sixteen centuries in his Test cricket career.^[9] He has scored centuries against all Test-playing nations.

Coaching career

In 2009, Atapattu had a coaching stint with the Fingara Cricket Academy, a coaching facility in Sri Lanka. He had a short stint as Canada's batting coach in early-2009, subsequently helping them qualify for the 2011 World Cup. In 2010, he was named as head coach of the Singaporean cricket team for a one-year period, which was his first full-time assignment of a coach of a national side. His first task was World Cricket League Division 5 in Nepal where the team finished third in the group stage and remained in division 5 for 2012 World League.

In April 2011, after the World Cup, Atapattu was named as the batting coach of Sri Lankan national team and joined interim coach Stuart Law, Champaka Ramanayake and Ruwan Kalpage for the tour of England. Meanwhile, he was considered for the Head Coach job of the team, which eventually went to Paul Farbrace, in 2013. Atapattu was promoted to the post of an assistant coach. Following Farbrace's early unexpected exit in 2014, he was appointed as interim head coach of the team.^[10] During this period, Sri Lanka won its first Test series in England in 16 years, with a 1–0 win in its 2014 tour.^[11] He officially took over as Head Coach in September 2014, and was the team's first local coach in 15 years. A 5–2 ODI series win during England's 2014 tour of Sri Lanka was the only series win for Sri Lanka after he formally took over. After consecutive Test series defeats against Pakistan and India, he resigned in September 2015.^[11]

Player statistics

Atapattu scored three centuries, including 201 not out against England, at the Sinhalese Sport Club Ground.

Key

Symbol	Meaning
*	Remained not out
	Atapattu was man of the match
Balls	Balls faced
Pos.	Position in the batting order
Inn.	The innings of the match
Test	The number of the Test match played in that series
S/R	Strike rate during the innings
H/A/N	Venue was at home (England), away or neutral
Date	Date the match was held, or the starting date of match for Test matches
Lost	The match was lost by Sri Lanka
Won	The match was won by Sri Lanka
Drawn	The match was drawn
Tied	The match was tied

Test cricket centuries

Test cricket centuries of Marvan Atapattu

No.	Score	Against	Pos.	Inn.	Test	Venue	H/A/N	Date	Result	Ref
1	108	India	2	1	1/3	Punjab C.A. Stadium, Mohali, India	Away	000000001997-11-19-000019 November 1997	Drawn	[12]
2	223	Zimbabwe	2	1	1/2	Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy, Sri Lanka	Home	000000001998-07-01-00001 July 1998	Won	[13]
3	216*	Zimbabwe	1	2	1/3	Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe	Away	000000001999-11-18-000018 November 1999	Drawn	[14]
4	207*	Pakistan	1	1	3/3	Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy, Sri Lanka	Home	000000002000-06-28-000028 June 2000	Drawn	[15]
5	120	South Africa	1	2	2/3	Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy, Sri Lanka	Home	000000002000-07-30-000030 July 2000	Lost	[16]
6	201*	England	1	1	1/3	Galle International Stadium, Galle, Sri Lanka	Home	000000002001-02-22-000022 February 2001	Won	[17]
7	108	India	1	2	3/3	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo, Sri Lanka	Home	000000002001-08-29-000029 August 2001	Won	[18]
8	201	Bangladesh	1	2	1/1	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo, Sri Lanka	Home	000000002001-09-06-00006 September 2001	Won	[19]
9	100*	Zimbabwe	1	3	3/3	Galle International Stadium, Galle, Sri Lanka	Home	000000002002-01-12-000012 January 2002	Won	[20]
10	185	England	1	1	1/3	Lord's, London, England	Away	000000002002-05-16-000016 May 2002	Drawn	[21]
11	118	West Indies	1	1	1/2	Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, Saint Lucia	Away	000000002003-06-20-000020 June 2003	Drawn	[22]
12	118	Australia	1	2	3/3	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo, Sri Lanka	Home	000000002005-03-24-000024 March 2005	Lost	[23]
13	170	Zimbabwe	1	2	1/2	Harare Sports Club, Harare, Zimbabwe	Away	000000002004-05-06-00006 May 2004	Won	[24]
14	249	Zimbabwe	2	1	2/2	Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe	Away	000000002004-05-14-000014 May 2004	Won	[25]
15	133	Australia	2	1	2/2	Bundaberg Rum Stadium, Cairns, Australia	Away	000000002004-07-09-00009 July 2004	Drawn	[26]
16	127	New Zealand	2	1	1/2	McLean Park, Napier, New Zealand	Away	000000002005-04-04-00004 April 2005	Drawn	[27]

One Day International centuries

One Day International centuries of Marvan Atapattu

No.	Score	Balls	Against	Pos.	Inn.	S/R	Venue	Date	Result	Ref
1	118	153	India	2	1	77.12	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka	000000001997-08-17-000017 August 1997	Won	[28]
2	132*	151	England	3	2	87.41	Lord's, London	000000001998-08-20-000020 August 1998	Won	[29]
3	119*	135	Pakistan	3	1	88.14	National Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan	000000002000-02-13-000013 February 2000	Won	[30]
4	100	124	Pakistan	4	2	80.64	Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh	000000002000-06-07-00007 June 2000	Lost	[31]
5	102*	111	India	3	1	91.89	Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates	000000002000-10-27-000027 October 2000	Won	[32]
6	101	118	Netherlands	2	1	85.59	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka	000000002002-09-16-000016 September 2002	Won	[33]
7	123*	121	South Africa	1	2	101.65	Willowmoore Park, Benoni, South Africa	000000002002-12-01-00001 December 2002	Won	[34]
8	101	124	Australia	1	1	81.445	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, Australia	000000002003-01-09-00009 January 2003	Won	[35]
9	124	129	South Africa	1	1	96.12	Kingsmead, Durban, South Africa	000000002003-03-03-00003 March 2003	Tied	[36]
10	103*	127	Zimbabwe	1	1	81.10	Buffalo Park, East London, South Africa	000000002003-03-15-000015 March 2003	Won	[37]
11	111	114	Pakistan	3	1	97.36	Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, Pakistan	000000002004-10-14-000014 October 2004	Lost	[38]

Personal life

Atapattu was educated at Mahinda College, Galle and Ananda College, Colombo. He is married to Neluni Atapattu, an accountant by profession. Marvan and Neluni have two daughters.

See also

• List of Sri Lanka national cricket captains
• Ananda-Nalanda

References

• ACCA Graduation

External links

• Player profile: Marvan Atapattu from ESPNcricinfo
• Player profile: Marvan Atapattu from CricketArchive

Sri Lanka Squads Sri Lanka squad – 1996 Cricket World Cup (1st Title) 1 Ranatunga (c) 2 Atapattu 3 Chandana 4 De Silva 5 Dharmasena 6 Gurusinha 7 Kaluwitharana (wk) 8 Jayasuriya 9 Mahanama 10 Muralitharan 11 Pushpakumara 12 Tillakaratne 13 Vaas 14 Wickramasinghe Coach: Whatmore Sri Lanka squad – 1999 Cricket World Cup 1 Ranatunga (c) 2 Muralitharan 3 Atapattu 4 Jayawardene 5 Mahanama 6 Tillakaratne 7 Kaluwitharana (wk) 8 Vaas 9 De Silva 10 Wickramasinghe 11 Kalpage 12 Chandana 13 Upashantha 14 Hathurusingha 15 Jayasuriya Coach: Dias Sri Lanka squad – 2003 Cricket World Cup Semi-Finalists 1 Jayasuriya (c) 2 Atapattu 3 Jayawardene 4 Sangakkara (wk) 5 De Silva 6 Arnold 7 Mubarak 8 Tillakaratne 9 Muralitharan 10 Vaas 11 Fernando 12 Gunaratne 13 Gunawardene 14 Nissanka 15 Buddhika Coach: Whatmore Sri Lanka squad – 2007 Cricket World Cup Runners-Up 1 Jayawardene (c) 2 Atapattu 3 Jayasuriya 4 Tharanga 5 Sangakkara 6 Dilshan 7 Arnold 8 Silva 9 Maharoof 10 Vaas 11 Fernando 12 Malinga 13 Kulasekara 14 Muralitharan 15 Bandara Coach: Moody Sri Lanka squad – 2015 Cricket World Cup 1 Perera 9 Mendis 11 Sangakkara (wk) 14 Herath 16 Chameera 18 Senanayake 21 Karunaratne 23 Dilshan 27 Jayawardene 36 Chandimal (wk) 66 Thirimanne 69 Mathews (c) 82 Lakmal 92 Kulasekara 99 Malinga Kaushal Coach: Atapattu Chameera was named as a replacement player for Dhammika Prasad & Kaushal was named as a replacement player for Rangana Herath.