Chamari Athapaththu and Pathum Nissanka stole the spotlight at the Sri Lanka Cricket Awards, walking away with the Women’s and Men’s Cricketer of the Year honours. The lavish ceremony, held on Thursday night, celebrated outstanding individual performances across the Test, ODI, and T20I formats for the 2025 calendar year, recognised efforts in domestic cricket, and honoured legendary figures for their lifelong contributions to the sport.
The awards also looked ahead to the future of Sri Lankan cricket, honouring two talents who had breakthrough years. Kamil Mishara was named the Men’s Emerging Player of the Year, while Imesha Dulani took home the title of Women’s Emerging Player of the Year. Twenty-five-year-old Mishara’s year was propped up primarily by his T20I exploits, where he struck 336 runs in ten matches at a strike rate of 131.25 from the top of the order. Dulani, 24, played just the one ODI but her three T20I innings brought 106 runs with a high score of 50.
But for both Mishara and Dulani, one suspects that their most recent performances might have swung the jury’s opinion: Mishara lit up the ongoing Lanka Premier League, while Dulani just this past week struck an unbeaten 101 off 64 deliveries against Pakistan.
The night though belonged to Athapaththu and Nissanka, with the former’s legendary status in the women’s game further cemented as she swept multiple categories, proving her unmatched impact on the game. Athapaththu, a threat with both bat and ball, swept the ODI and T20I allrounder awards. But in a sign of the growing stature of the women’s game, wasn’t even nominated for the best ODI batter award. Harshitha Samarawickrama’s 441 runs in 13 innings beat out Nilakshika de Silva’s 389 runs in the same number of innings in that category.
Athapaththu did, however, take the best batter award in T20Is, for her 190 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 113.77. She also claimed the best bowler award for ODIs, picking up 13 wickets across 11 innings with her offbreaks. Kavisha Dilhari was named best bowler in T20Is with eight wickets in as many innings.
Meanwhile, Nissanka’s prolific scoring across formats rightfully earned him the crown as the pinnacle of men’s cricket in Sri Lanka, in a year that fetched him 1414 runs at an average of 40.40. Despite playing just five innings across the entire year, in what was a limited opportunity year as a whole for Sri Lankan Test cricket, Nissanka managed 388 runs inclusive of two centuries; In ODIs, Nissanka wasn’t able to match his vintage 2024, but still struck a respectable 401 runs in 12 matches at an average of 30.84; it was in T20Is that he shone the most, as 18 matches brought 625 at a strike rate of 149.16 – the most prolific year of his career.
This meant Nissanka rounded out his awards with the best batter prize in Tests and T20Is, though for ODIs he was beaten to the accolade by Charith Asalanka. The former skipper struck 494 runs, anchoring Sri Lanka’s middle order, at an average of 44.90 – running him close was Kusal Mendis, who had managed 500 runs at an average of 38.46 in the same period.
The best men’s bowler in T20Is was Dushmantha Chameera, whose 22 wickets across 14 games is comfortably the most prolific of his career – and he’s threatening to better that this year, having already notched 20 wickets across 11 T20Is. For ODIs, the award went to Asitha Fernando who too managed a career-best showing with 23 wickets across 12 games.
Dasun Shanaka and Wanindu Hasaranga took home the best allrounder awards for T20Is and ODIs respectively. Shanaka scored 220 runs and eight wickets across 17 matches, while Hasaranga struck 207 runs and picked up 18 wickets in ten ODIs.
In the longest format, Prabath Jayasuriya’s 15 wickets in seven innings earned him the best bowler award, while Test captain Dhananjaya de Silva took home the best Test allrounder award.