by Senadheera Jayakody

Created on: November 25, 2009   Last Updated: November 27, 2009

Aravinda de Silva is one of the best batsmen ever produced by Sri Lanka and considered one of best in the world cricket. He made his Test debut against England in 1984. In these times Sri Lanka had just received the Test status. In his early days he was nick named as "Mad Max" because he used to hit hard and his wicket was taken cheaply in many occasions because of urgency. He has become an inconsistent player for years but after playing first-class cricket for the Enlish county Kent in 1995 he became a remarkable player with a renaissance in his batting.

He made another masterpiece in the Sri Lanka's successful world cup campaign in 1996 that they won the trophy. In the final of the series Aravinda de Silva's astonishing century marked the first ever world cricket cup by Sri Lankans. He also picked up 3 wickets and claimed for the man of the match award at the final against Australia. One of his notable achievements is making a century in each innings of a Test match in two occasions. This feat has been only achieved by India's Sunil Gavaskar and Australia's Ricky Ponting. From these two occasions one was recorded against Pakistan at Colombo's Sinhalese Sports Club in April 1997. He made 138 and 105, without being dismissed. So far he is the only player to score two centuries without giving his wicket away at the same match.

Aravinda has scored 6361 runs in 93 matches in Tests at an average of 42.97 including 20 centuries and 22 half centuries. His highest score in an inning of 267 was recorded against New Zealand at Basin Reserve in 1991. He has scored a mammoth total of 9284 runs in 308 One Day International matches including 11 centuries and 64 half centuries with 106 wickets. His highest individual score in ODI is 145 that he scored during his magnificent world cup campaign in 1996 against Kenya at home in just 115 deliveries.

In 2002 his century at world cup final in 1996 was recognized as the eighth most significant batting performances in ODI cricket. Also his bowling was ranked 82nd in Wisden top 100 bowling chart. Aravinda de Silva was selected one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1996 for his great performances in the game. In the Wisden list of top 100 batting performances Aravinda has six entries and only player to have more than him is the great West Indies player Viv Richards with one more entry.

Aravinda has been one of best entertainers of the game and his performances as a batsman is unrivalled even among the best of the game. His international cricket career was ended with the 2003 world cup where showed his majesty of batting by hitting all corners of the ground reminding his golden years. It is assure that his years of cricketing wealth are not going to be wasted as he was appointed as the national selector of Sri Lanka cricket.

Learn more about this author, Senadheera Jayakody.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.