C. I. Gunesekera

Conroy Ievers Gunasekera, sometimes spelt Gunasekara (14 July 1920 – 29 July 2010) was a Sri Lankan cricketer who played first-class cricket for Ceylon from 1949 to 1964, in the period before the country gained Test status. He captained Ceylon several times in the early 1960s.

Life and career Gunasekera was educated at Royal College Colombo where he played in the Royal-Thomian encounter, starting from 1938. He entered Colombo Law College in 1940, but interrupted his legal studies to join the Ceylon Defence Force as a Second Lieutenant during World War II.

He started playing cricket for the Sinhalese Sports Club under the captaincy of Fredrick C. de Saram. Up until the 1980s he played for the SSC.

His highest first-class score was 212 for Ceylon against Madras in the annual Gopalan Trophy match in 1958–59. With his leg-spin he took 8 for 69 and 2 for 78 for a Ceylon team against a strong Pakistan Combined Services team in 1953–54 and 7 for 63 and 3 for 91 for Ceylon against Mysore in 1957–58.

David Sheppard described him as "a great cricketer who would surely have played Test cricket if he had qualified for another country ... a fine, forcing batsman, driving with great power, and a good leg-spin bowler".

Gunasekera joined Walker & Sons Limited as a manager and went on to serve as a director. His uncle was Dr Churchill Gunasekara, who also captained the Ceylon cricket team.