Roshan Mahanama

A competent right-hand opening batter and brilliant fielder, Roshan Mahanama is best remembered for his record second-wicket partnership of 576 with Sanath Jayasuriya in a Test match against India in 1997 (since surpassed by Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene in 2006). Mahanama's contribution there was 225, the highest score of a career that began 11 years before.

His first Test hundreds, 153 and 109, came in consecutive Tests against New Zealand at home in 1992. The following year, against India in Colombo, he produced a gritty 151 over close to nine hours to save a Test.

Mahanama did well in the 1992 World Cup for Sri Lanka, producing three fifties on the trot, against Zimbabwe, New Zealand and South Africa in his first three games. Four years on, this time batting lower down the order, he made a key fifty in the Eden Gardens semi-final against India in Sri Lanka's run to the title in 1996. That was his best ODI season, when he made 721 runs from 23 innings, averaging close to 40. His top ODI score, an unbeaten 119, came against Zimbabwe in 1994, and he followed it with another hundred, 108, against the same opposition in the next game.

Following his team's disastrous showing in the 1999 World Cup, Mahanama was dropped from the side, ostensibly to let young talent come through, though players older than him still found a place in the team. That prompted him to call it a day, soon after which he put out a biography, Retired Hurt. He went on to take up an ICC match-referee role in 2004, following in the footsteps of his one-time team-mate Ranjan Madugalle.