Kushil Gunasekera also spelt as Kushil Gunasekara is a Sri Lankan businessman, philanthropist and a former first-class cricketer. He is the founder as well as chief trustee of the Foundation of Goodness. He is well known for his social welfare efforts and community development tasks, which transformed the livelihoods of several Sri Lankans, especially those who were adversely affected by the impact of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.^[1] He also worked as a manager for veteran cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan for nearly a decade.^[2][3]

Biography

He pursued his primary and secondary education at Ananda College. He also played school cricket representing Ananda College and also turned up for Battle of the Maroons annual school big match encounter against rivals. Nalanda College.^[4]

Career

He initially pursued his interest in business but later changed his mindset to become a social entrepreneur with the aim of helping the village of Seenigama, where he was born and spent most of his childhood. He alongside with Muttiah Muralitharan, established the charitable organization Foundation of Goodness in 1999.^[5] The organization was initially committed to the wellbeing of the Seenigama region (in southern Sri Lanka) and supports local communities through a range of projects across areas including children's needs, education and training, health care and psycho-social support, housing, livelihoods, sport and the environment.^[6][7]

He was appointed as the tournament secretary for the 2000 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup which was held in Sri Lanka.^[8] In May 2000, he resigned from Sri Lanka Cricket Board owing to a personal conflict with Dammika Ranatunga who served as the chief executive officer of the board at that time. In April 2001, he was appointed by the Interim Committee as the Coordinating Secretary for the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka.^[8] He also served as secretary of the governing board of Sri Lanka Cricket for a short stint in 2002.^[9]

Kushil was known for having close links with Sri Lanka Cricket as well as with most of the national players of the Sri Lankan men's national cricket team. His association with Sri Lanka Cricket paid dividends as he received financial support from the relevant authorities to run his charity services at Foundation of Goodness. He was instrumental in getting the attention of former English cricketing allrounder Ian Botham and former Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne as they volunteered to help recover Seenigama village from the devastation caused by the tsunami.^[10][11][12] Seenigama's fortunes looked bleak when the tsunami struck the area, as several houses collapsed along with the destruction of several livelihoods. Kushil Gunasekara stepped up for rescue efforts with the support of cricketers Muttiah Muralitharan and Kumar Sangakkara to bring back the normalcy to Seenigama area.^[13][14][15]

In 2009, the story of Foundation of Goodness was featured on Discovery Channel Asia on the fifth anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, and Kushil Gunasekara was also featured in the video, talking about the looming prospects that unfolded as a result of tsunami waves.^[16] In 2012, he became the eleventh Sri Lankan to get honorary life membership of MCC Club.^[17] He has also shown pathways to aspiring cricketers including Ramesh Mendis and Pulina Tharanga, by nurturing their potential abilities through the provision of scholarship facilities at the Foundation of Goodness.^[18]

In August 2020, he collaborated alongside Keshini Ann Suraweera to establish Ceylon Artisan Network Market (CAN Market) with the intention of helping small-scale vendors by encouraging them in selling various products including innovative food items, fragrances, crafts and also the CAN Market was launched with the aim of rebooting the economy in wake of the economic crisis worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.^[19][20] In October 2020, under his leadership, Foundation of Goodness made a fruitful collaboration with Tokyo Cement Group to reach out to domestically talented cricketers in the Northern Province and Eastern Province of Sri Lanka.^[21][22]

In March 2021, he was one of the vocal critics of Sri Lanka Cricket who pointed out key structural policy recommendations and reforms to address the underlying concerns related to the cricket system in Sri Lanka which was evident with the downfall of the Sri Lankan national team in international cricket.^[23]

References