Hettiarachige Mahes Goonatilleke (born 16 August 1952, Kegalle

Kegalle

Kegalle is a town in Sabaragamuwa Province of Sri Lanka. It is located on the Colombo - Kandy road. Its 48 miles/78 km away from Colombo and 24 Miles/40 km away from Kandy. It is the Capital City of the Kegalle District which is one of the two districts belonging to Sabaragamuwa province...

) is a former Sri Lankan

Sri Lankan cricket team

The Sri Lankan cricket team is the national cricket team of Sri Lanka. The team first played international cricket in 1926–27, and were later awarded Test status in 1981, which made Sri Lanka the eighth Test cricket playing nation...

 cricketer

Cricketer

A cricketer is a person who plays the sport of cricket. Official and long-established cricket publications prefer the traditional word "cricketer" over the rarely used term "cricket player"....

, who played five Test matches

Test cricket

Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

 and six ODIs as wicket-keeper

Wicket-keeper

The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike...

 during 1981 and 1982 - being Sri Lanka's first wicketkeeper in Test cricket. He showed good promise as both wicket-keeper and batsman, and even made 56 against Pakistan

Pakistani cricket team

The Pakistan cricket team is the national cricket team of Pakistan. Pakistan, represented by the Pakistan Cricket Board , is a full member of the International Cricket Council, and thus participates in , and cricket matches....

 as an opener. His second best score came in the same match, with 27. Goonatilleke had a chance to become a regular wicket-keeper for Sri Lanka, but he chose to tour South Africa

South African cricket team

The South African national cricket team represent South Africa in international cricket. They are administrated by Cricket South Africa.South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council, also known as ICC, with Test and One Day International, or ODI, status...

in the 1982/83 season, and that disqualified him from playing international cricket.