As couples around the world celebrate Valentine’s Day and wish their other half a happy Valentine’s Day, cricket fans were perplexed when veteran Sri Lankan umpire Kumar Dharmasena posted a photo on Facebook with Sourav Ganguly and Ramiz Raja.
While Dharamsena is known to be a regular user of social media and often posts pictures from both on- and off field moments, it was the caption of the post that caught the eye of fans. ‘Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you’ wrote Dharmasena alongside a picture with both Ganguly and Raja. The post immediately went viral on social media and left fans in splits.
Dharmasena, Ganguly, and Raja are currently in Dubai for a meeting of the MCC Cricket Committee. A few hours before his Valentine’s Day post, Dharamsena had posed a picture of the entire 6-man committee, which featured Ganguly, Raja, and also ex-Australian coach, and former opener Justin Langer.
When it comes to Dharamsena, he is one of the most well-known umpires in the world, and he is known to officiate the most important games.He was the on-field umpire in the famous 2019 Cricket World Cup final between England and New Zealand as well as the 2022 T20 World Cup final between Pakistan and England. He was the reserve umpire for the 2021 T20 World Cup summit clash, in which Australia defeated New Zealand.
In fact, Dharamsena holds the unique feat of being the only person who has both played and umpired in a Cricket World Cup final. Apart from being one of the two on-field umpires in the 2019 final, he was part of the Sri Lankan team that defeated Australia in the 1996 Cricket World Cup final in Lahore.
Dharamsena played a total of 31 tests and 141 ODIs for Sri Lanka, in which he took 69 and 138 wickets, respectively. (Times Now)