Former Sri Lanka seamer Tony Opatha has died from a stroke on Friday morning, at the age of 73.
Opatha had played five ODIs, across the 1975 and 1979 World Cups, and was known as a domestic stalwart through the 1970s, playing for the Air Force – of which he was a serviceman – and the Nondescripts Cricket Club. He also played a year of club cricket in Ireland, and later played in the Netherlands.
Opatha also infamously led Sri Lanka’s rebel tour to South Africa in 1982-83 as a player-cum-manager, for which he and his teammates were given life bans and attracted harsh judgement from both Sri Lanka’s government and the island’s cricket establishment. Opatha eventually won back some acceptance; in 2018, he was among 49 players to be honoured by Sri Lanka Cricket for their services to cricket.
He was living in Colombo when he died, having suffered successive strokes over the course of two days.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo