Sabapathypillai Illangaratnam

Sabapathypillai Illangaratnam was a Sri Lankan cricketer and stalwart of Moratuwa and Bloomfield Cricket club and Bank of Ceylon prior to country obtaining the test status. He was born on December 18, 1947 in Irupalai in Jaffna. Though he was born in Jaffna, he had his primary and secondary education at Hindu College, Ratmalana.

While he excelled in cricket, he had a successful academic career. With his all-round sports and academic background, he had no difficulty in finding employment at the Bank of Ceylon. Initially he was appointed as a junior clerk and was posted to the City Office, the largest branch of the bank at that time.

He played A division cricket tournaments conducted by the Nationalised Services’ Cricket Association for the bank of Ceylon. Illange as he was affectionately called was picked for the Moratuwa team to play in the premiere first class tournament, P sara trophy matches. he opened bowling with Sylvester Dias. Later he joined the Bloomfield C & AC in Colombo. He opened the bowliing for them with Susantha Karunarathne and the stint he had at the Bloomfield provided him the opportunity to play along with future test players such as Bandula Warnapura, Lalith Kaluperuma, Anura Ranasinghe, Ajit de Silva and many more.During his playing period, he had to compete with quality fast bowlers such as Ranjan Goonathilake,Susantha Karunarathne,D.L.S.De Silva, Tony Opatha.

Even after Sri Lanka gained test status, he was picked to play limited over international matches against the England team captained by Keith Fletcher.In 1993-94, he captained the division II team of the Bloomfield.. Through his personal contribution and astute captaincy Bloomfield became the champions. He later coached the Bloomfield cricket team. He was in the executive committee of the club for a number of years. He was made the club coach for Division 2 and then appointed the coach for the Premier Division side until his demise. He acted in the caliber of a match referee also.

Illangaratnam was involved with a team of cricket coaches from the Cricket Operations Department of the BCCSL headed by Bandula Warnapura, Anusha Samaranayake, Gamini Perera, P. Milton, Manjula Karunaratne and S. Shamugalingam in conducting a five day cricket coaching programme from the 12 to 16 November 2002 up north of the country for the first time following the conclusion of war. Illangaratnam contributed to this noble cause by travelling to remote areas to conduct coaching camps with the cavaliers.

To his demise, he did not stop playing cricket. He played along with his former team mates and opponents in the team of Lanka cavalier, a pioneer veteran cricket club led by Sri Lanka's inaugural test captain Mr.Bandula warnapura. He held the position of Assistant Secretary of the his beloved cricket club Bloomfield.

Illange died just five months before he reached his 60th birthday on July 16, 2007 and was still in service at the Bank of Ceylon, counting over 45 years of service at the time of his death. Illangaratnam represented Sri Lanka against visiting MCC team in 1977.