Great Brickhill are delighted to announce the re-signing of Navin Kavikara for their Home Counties 2023 season.

Kavikara is one of Sri Lankan cricket’s most reliable left-arm spinners, playing for Sri Lanka Navy Sports Club in domestic cricket.

The tweaker has taken 187 wickets at 23.21 with 13 five-wicket bags and 3 ten-wicket match hauls in his 37 first-class matches. Kavikara has also excelled in both white-ball formats, too, with career averages of 20.92 and 22.10 in List A and T20 cricket, respectively.

Kavikara’s first-class career started in 2013/14 when he played for Badureliya (following his List A debut for Lankans, back in 2011/12). He only managed 4 wickets at 69.75, before losing his place. A few years on, he re-joined Lankans and set domestic cricket alight, taking 49 wickets at 19.75.

He returned to Lankans with a bang, taking a 10-wicket match haul (5-63, 5-30) bowling his side to victory against the Sri Lankan Air Force Sports Club. He continued to shine since, with match figures of 3-104, 1-29 (v Panadura); 3-81, 3-46 (v Kurunegala); 6-73, 1-20 (v Kulutara Physical Culture Club); 4-76, 4-70 (v. Kalutara Town Club); 3-60, 2-65 (v Sri Lanka Ports Authority); 4-185 (v Lankan) and 5-41, 0-25 (v Police Sports Club).

Kavikara then backed up with a strong 2017/18 season, taking a further 36 poles at 26.80 before moving to Panadura for the 2018/19 season (19 wickets at 20.31). He joined KYCC in 2019/20 and, once again, excelled, taking 43 wickets at 22.13, 10 wickets at 10.25, and 10 wickets at 15.40 in first-class, List A, and T20 cricket, respectively. Due to COVID, red-ball cricket was canceled last summer, but he did manage to play white-ball cricket for Nugegoda SWC with success.

This season, Kavikara has made another move, this time to Sri Lanka Navy Sports Club where he has continued to star. He has taken 36 wickets at 22 with 4 five-wicket bags and 1 ten-wicket match haul. He has reinforced his status as one of Sri Lanka’s leading domestic left-arm spinners.

Kavikara’s journey though, began at school level, when he made the Sri Lankan Schools and Under-19s in 2007/08. He played 2 Test Match and 14 ODI’s for the latter, including 5 games in the ICC Under-19 World Cup in 2018 (in a side that also featured Angelo Matthews, Kusal Perera, Tissara Perera, Sachith Pathirana, Lahiru Thirimanne, and Dinesh Chandimal), taking 8 wickets at 18.37.

During the opening Test against India, he can lay claim to dismissing Virat Kohli in both innings. He also took the wickets of Saurabh Tiwary, Abhinav Mukund, and Ravindra Jadeja during these two matches.

Thereafter, Kavikara was involved with the Sri Lankan Under-21’s (2009/10) and Development XI (2010). He played List-A cricket for Lankan Cricket Club (2011/12) and Chilaw Marians Cricket Club (2012/13) before a move to Badureliya Sports Club in 2013/14 where he broke into first-class cricket. Opportunities were limited and he didn’t feature on the domestic circuit in 2014/15 or 2015/16, before his barnstorming return to Lankan Cricket Club in 2016/17.

The talented left-arm spinner, who is known to be a useful bat in the lower order, has also spent three seasons playing in the UK, initially two in Yorkshire for Sessay (2018-19), before a strong stint in the Home Counties League for Great Brickhill (2022).

During his two-season stint in the Yorkshire Premier League North, Kavikara took 94 wickets at 19.28 and scored 619 runs at 16.29. He was then one of the stand-out professionals in the Home Counties Premier League taking 59 wickets at 13.92 alongside 303 runs at 23.31.

Given his success, Great Brickhill were swift to re-sign their star Sri Lankan tweaker for a second Home Counties Premier stint in 2023.