The name’s Sandakan.. Paththamperuma Arachchige Don Lakshan Rangika Sandakan

With 49 characters, Sri Lankan cricketer has longest name 

By Paritosh Pramanik

A FEW years ago, a joke did rounds on social media about actor James Bond and former Sri Lankan fast bowler Chaminda Vaas travelling in the same flight.
Vaas to Bond: Hi, what’s your name?
Bond: The name’s Bond...James Bond. And You?
Vaas: The name’s Vaas...Chaminda Vaas...Joseph Chaminda Vaas…Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas…Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas…
Before Vaas could complete ‘Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas’, Bond fainted.
Jokes apart, Sri Lankan cricketers do boast of having some of the longest names (character-wise).
In the current Sri Lankan team, left-arm Chinaman Lakshan Sandakan has the longest name with 49 
characters.
Sandakan, who has played 20 Tests and has 20 wickets, is: Paththamperuma Arachchige Don Lakshan Rangika Sandakan.
Closely following Sandakan is Rangana Hearth who has a 46-character name.
Herath Mudiyanselage Rangana Keerthi Bandara Herath is the full name of the ace Lankan spinner.
The shortest name (character-wise) in the present Lankan squad is of all-rounder Angelo Mathews who has just 18 characters.
If characters are not enough, Sandakan and Herath share the highest numbers of words in their names with six each.
Thirty-one-year-old Gihan Rupasinghe, who is not part of this team, has 59 characters in his name, compared to Vaas’ 52. Rupasinghe Jayawardene Mudiyanselage Gihan Madushanka Rupasinghe has played two T20 Internationals for Sri Lanka. Similarly, 24-year-old Akila Dhananjaya (Mahamarakkala Kurukulasooriya Patabendige Akila Dananjaya Perera), with 11 ODIs and six T20s under his belt, shares the record of longest Sri Lankan cricketers’ name with Rupasinghe (59).
Cricketer-turned-umpire Kumar Dharmasena (Handunnettige Deepthi Priyantha Kumar Dharmasena) has 44 characters in his name.
International Cricket Council, which uses social media platform Twitter among others, used to find it difficult while writing full names of Sri Lankan cricketers due to character constraints.
But when Twitter increased the limit earlier this month (November 9), to display names from 20 to 50 characters, International Cricket Council (ICC) was the happiest of the lot.
A delighted ICC posted full names of some Sri Lankan cricketers like Vaas, Kumar Dharmasena, wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella and spin veteran Rangana Herath.
“Thanks to #280characters, we can now use the following names! Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas Handunnettige Deepthi Priyantha Kumar Dharmasena Dickwella Patabendige Dilantha Niroshan Dickwella Herath Mudiyanselage Rangana Keerthi Bandara Herath” wrote ICC on its official Twitter handle.
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List of current Sri Lankan players with their full names

Lakshan Sandakan (Paththamperuma Arachchige Don Lakshan Rangika Sandakan, 49 characters)
Rangana Herath (Herath Mudiyanselage Rangana Keerthi Bandara Herath, 46)
Niroshan Dickwella (Dickwella Patabendige Dilantha Niroshan Dickwella, 45)
Sadeera Samarawickrama (Wedagedara Sadeera Rashen Samarawickrama, 37)
Vishwa Fernando (Muthuthanthrige Vishwa Thilina Fernando, 36)
Dilruwan Perera (Mahawaduge Dilruwan Kamalaneth Perera, 34)
Suranga Lakmal (Ranasinghe Arachchige Suranga Lakmal, 33)
Dimuth Karunaratne (Frank Dimuth Madushanka Karunaratne, 32)
Lahiru Thirimanne ( Hettige Don Rumesh Lahiru Thirimanne, 32)
Lahiru Gamage (Panagamuwa Lahiru Sampath Gamage, 29)
Dhananjaya de Silva (Dhananjaya Maduranga de Silva, 26)
Dasun Shanaka (Madagamagamage Dasun Shanaka, 26)
Roshen Silva (Athege Roshen Shivanka Silva, 25)
Dinesh Chandimal (Lokuge Dinesh Chandimal, 21)
Angelo Mathews (Angelo Davis Mathews, 18)