Wickrama Arachchige Udaya Wickramasinghe (12 August 1939 – 12 April 2010) was a Sri Lankan cricket umpire.

Udaya Wickramasinghe
Personal information
Full name
Wickrama Arachchige Udaya Wickramasinghe
Born(1939-08-12)12 August 1939
Matugama, Sri Lanka
Died12 April 2010(2010-04-12) (aged 70)
RoleUmpire, Referee
Umpiring information
Tests umpired3 (1987–1997)
ODIs umpired13 (1991–1998)
Source: Cricinfo, 17 August 2010

Wickramasinghe was born in Matugama in Sri Lanka. He was educated at St Peter's College and Dharmapala College, and worked as an Immigration Officer in the Immigration Department in Sri Lanka.

His cricket umpiring career began in 1969 in Sri Lankan domestic cricket. He served as an umpire in international cricket from 1987 to 1998. He was the first overseas umpire to qualify as an official instructor of the Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers in England in 1988.

He stood as an umpire in three Tests, all played in Sri Lanka and all of which were drawn. He made his debut as a Test umpire in the First Test between Sri Lanka and New Zealand at Colombo Cricket Club Ground in April 1987;[1] then umpired the Second Test between Sri Lanka and Australia at Khettarama Cricket Stadium, Colombo in August 1992;[2] and finally the First Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo in April 1997.

He also umpired 13 One-day Internationals between 1991 and 1998. Apart from 5 ODIs in Sharjah in October 1991 as part of the Wills Trophy, and the remaining 8 were all played in Sri Lanka. In the final of the Wills Trophy between India and Pakistan in Sharjah on 25 October 1991, he gave three consecutive leg before wicket decisions against Indian batsmen (Ravi Shastri, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar), and Pakistan bowler Aaqib Javed achieved the seventh ever ODI hat-trick and ultimately world record match bowling figures of 7–37 which were not beaten for 9 years.[3][4][5]

He died in Colombo.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "New Zealand in Sri Lanka Test Series - 1st Test Test no. 1074". Cricinfo. ESPN. Retrieved 17 August 2010.
  2. ^ "Australia in Sri Lanka Test Series - 2nd Test Test no. 1195". Cricinfo. ESPN. Retrieved 17 August 2010.
  3. ^ "Udaya Wickramasinghe". Cricinfo. ESPN. Retrieved 17 August 2010.
  4. ^ "ODI no. 685 Wills Trophy - final". Cricinfo. ESPN. Retrieved 17 August 2010.
  5. ^ "Records / One-Day Internationals / Bowling records / Best figures in an innings". Cricinfo. ESPN. Retrieved 17 August 2010.
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