Ravindra Pushpakumara

Deshabandu Karuppiahyage Ravindra Pushpakumara, or Ravindra Pushpakumara, is a former Sri Lankan cricketer of Tamil - Sinhalese mixed ancestry. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler. He was a key member of Sri Lanka's 1996 Cricket World Cup winning team.

Early and domestic career

Pushpakumara was educated at St. John's College Panadura. He made his Twenty20 debut on 17 August 2004, for Nondescripts Cricket Club in the 2004 SLC Twenty20 Tournament.

International career

Having impressed with Sri Lanka's Under-19s side, Pushpakumara made his Test debut in August 1994 against Pakistan, where he was noted as the fastest bowler Sri Lanka had for many years.
Despite his pace, his variation on duller pitches was lacking, and thus he failed to get into the Sri Lankan side on a regular basis. His best bowling figures in a Test innings are 7/116 which he made against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club in 1994/95. Pushpakumara could be viewed as another fast bowling prospect which failed to live up to expectation from Sri Lanka. Some started to call him "Wild Johnny" for his wayward lines he came up with more often than not. Pushpakumara's last Test was against Bangladesh in the Asian Test Championship. Since 2004 he has played Twenty-20 cricket.