Marvan Atapattu (born 22 November 1970 in Kalutara) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and former Sri Lankan captain. He has coached Canada and Singapore national cricket teams previously. From April 2014 to September 2015, he was the Head Coach of the Sri Lankan team.
Marvan Atapattu started his cricket career as a teenager at Mahinda College, Galle. Then crossed over to Ananda College, Colombo, where he was subsequently coached by P.W. Perera.
Atapattu first came to the limelight winning the prestigious Sunday Observer Cricketer of the Year title in 1990. Since then, he went great guns, captaining SSC and Sri Lanka team with distinction.
He was the batting coach of the Sri Lanka national team and graced the 34th Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer mega show as the chief guest on September 11, 2012.
Making his Test debut in November 1990 just after his 20th birthday, his first six innings yielded five ducks and a single run, but supporters insist that his debut-innings duck puts him in good company with batsmen such as Mike Atherton, Graham Gooch, Saeed Anwar and Wasim Akram, who all made debut-innings ducks and went on to score at least 2500 Test runs.
He made his one-day International debut against India at Nagpur. He was appointed as captain of the one-day team on April 2003. In April 2011 after the World Cup, Atapattu was named as the batting coach of the Sri Lankan national team. Following Paul Farbrace’s early unexpected exit in 2014, he was appointed as interim head coach of the team. During this period, Sri Lanka won its first Test series in England in 16 years, with a 1-0 win in its 2014 tour. He officially took over as Head Coach in September 2014 and was the team’s first local coach in 15 years.
- He registered his highest Test score of 249 against Zimbabwe in 2004,sharing a 438 run partnership with Kumar Sangakkara for the second wicket.