Bandula Warnapura was born on 1 March 1953 in Rambukkana. Malinda Warnapura, who currently plays for the Sri Lanka national cricket team, is his nephew. He is an old boy of Nalanda College Colombo. Bandula captained Nalanda College Colombo first XI cricket team in 1971. Warnapura has worked as an ICC match referee and an umpire, and is also a certified cricketing coach. He has served as the coach for the Sri Lanka national cricket team, before he was appointed Director of Coaching in 1994. He became Director of Operations of Sri Lanka Cricket in 2001. He functioned in that post for eight years before he resigned in 2008. He is now the Development Manager of the Asian Cricket Council. He has also refereed two Tests and three ODIs in 2001

Test career

Warnapura was the first Sri Lankan Test cricket cap. got the opportunity to lead the Sri Lanka national cricket team in their very first Test match, which was played against England in 1982. The five-day match started on 17 February 1982 at the Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium. Warnapura and English captain Keith Fletcher made the toss in the morning, which was won by Warnapura. He elected to bat first, and opened the batting for Sri Lanka with Sidath Wettimuny. He faced the first delivery of the match, and scored the first Test run for his country. According to a local newspaper, he was even the first Sri Lankan batsman to get hit on the chest. However, he was dismissed for only 2 runs, when he was caught by David Gower off the bowling of Bob Willis. The first player to bat in a Test match for Sri Lanka had faced 25 deliveries during the 35 minutes he batted. During the Sri Lankan second innings, Warnapura made 38 runs off 155 deliveries – the second highest score in that innings. England won the match, and Warnapura's 38 would remain as his highest Test individual score.

Warnapura was unsuccessful in his second match, played against Pakistan in March 1982, scoring just 13 runs in the Sri Lankan first innings, and getting out without scoring in the second. He could not play for the second match of the series due to an injury. In the next match, also against Pakistan, he scored 7 and 26 in the first and second innings respectively. Both matches were lost by Sri Lanka

Warnapura's fourth and last Test match was against India in September 1982. He was unsuccessful again, scoring just 4 in the first innings and 6 in the second, and the match ended in a draw.^[14] During his Test career, Warnapura captained the Sri Lankan side in all four matches he played. He had scored a total of 96 runs, with an average of 12.00.^[15]

ODI career

Warnapura was the 11th Sri Lankan ODI cricket cap.^[16] His One Day International (ODI) debut was against West Indies on 7 June 1975, in a 1975 Cricket World Cup match that was also Sri Lanka's first ODI. He was dismissed for 8 runs in that match, which Sri Lanka lost.