EARBY Cricket Club has pulled off a major recruitment coup by signing a future Sri Lanka Test star to play for them next season.

Santhush Gunathilake, 22, has signed up to represent the Ribblesdale League side as their professional during the 2022 campaign.

The 22-year-old is seen as one of the future hot prospects in Sri Lankan cricket, but he will be plying his trade in the Ribblesdale League instead next summer.

The all-rounder was called up for the 22-man Test squad for their series against South Africa in December last year.

Mickey Arthur, Sri Lanka coach, has previously heaped praise on the youngster, saying he was ‘very impressed and excited by’ the talent set of Santhush.

The right-handed batsman and right arm medium fast bowler made his first-class debut for Ragama Cricket Club in his native country in the 2018-19 Premier League Tournament in January 2019.

But before making his first-class bow, he was named in Sri Lanka’s squad for the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.

Gunathilake, who was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, has also started well in other forms of cricket.

He made his Twenty20 debut in March this year for Colts Cricket Club in the 2020-21 SLC Twenty20 Tournament.

In August this year he was named in the SLC Reds team for the 2021 SLC Invitational T20 League tournament.

He has played nine matches for his club so far, scoring a total of 680 runs, two centuries and four 50s from 15 innings at an average of 45.33, with a highest score of 130.

Gunathilake has taken six wickets in these nine matches, with his best rate at 2-36.

He has played 12 List A matches so far in his fledgling career, with a highest score so far of 22 for an average of 8.33 in his five matches in this form of the game.

He is currently playing for Tamil Union in the Major Clubs Limited Overs Tournament in Sri Lanka.

Announcing the prestigious signing on its website, Earby Cricket Club wrote: “Santhush is one of the hottest prospects in Sri Lankan cricket right now and such is his promise he was fast-tracked to the national squad having only played five first-class matches.

“It was his innings against Ananda College in January 2019 that really put Gunathilake on the map, breaking Angelo Perera’s schoolboy record (239) by hitting 252.

“A few months later, he produced more heroics, hitting 72 and 161 in the 85th Battle of the Saints against St.Joseph’s College.”

Gunathilake had hit the headlines courtesy of his exploits for St Peter’s College in Colombo, where his run-scoring earned him Sri Lankan Under-19 honours where he played in the 2018 World Cup with former professional Ashen Bandara.

The former St Peter’s skipper scored 2,434 runs at 51.79 with eight centuries at the schoolboy Under-19 level, which is a two-day format.