Sri Lanka Veteran Tillakaratne Dilshan Set to Join Rajapaksa's Party
Published - 15 Nov 2018, 01:55 PM | Updated - 22 Aug 2024, 11:57 PM
Here comes yet another cricketer, who joined the political party after the completion of a glorious career in the game of cricket. It is Sri Lanka’s legendary opening batsman, Tillakaratne Dilshan, who took the membership from Sri Lanka’s People Party run by Rajapaksa.
In the latest announcement by Sagara Kariyawasam, it got revealed the former ace player has joined hands with the party to make things better for Sri Lanka. Officially, the cricketer took the membership from newly-formed Sri Lanka People’s Party (SLPP).
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Tillakaratne Dilshan might compete from Southwestern Kalutara district – Sources
Following the shock sacking of Ranil Wickremesinghe, Rajapaksa was named as Prime Minister in October by President, Maithripala Sirisena. However, after weeks of political turmoil, Wickremesinghe refused to quit. It made Rajapaksa lose the trust vote on Wednesday.
Further, it is learnt Tillakaratne Dilshan is to run for a seat in Parliament from the Southwestern Kalutara district as well.
Meanwhile, the parliamentary election scheduled for January is now in doubt. The supreme court’s temporary order got overturned by Sirisena’s dismissal of the current parliament.
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However, this is not the first time that Sri Lanka has seen someone from cricket fraternity competing in the politics. Already, Sri Lanka’s World Cup winning captain, Arjuna Ranatunga was a Cabinet minister in Wickremesinghe’s government. And later, he became a Petrolatum minister as well.
Coming to his international cricketing career, Tillakaratne Dilshan has appeared in 87 Tests, 330 ODI’s and 80 T20I matches for Sri Lanka where he scored 5492, 10290 and 1889 runs, respectively.
Meanwhile, Dilshan not only delivered goods with his batting but also, he has been a brilliant off-spinner during his times. He bagged 164 wickets in his career for Sri Lanka.
