Chamara Silva

Chamara Silva is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who arrived on the international scene in 1999 as a young 19-year-old prodigy with old-school batting technique. He had a leg-side bent stance and was best known for his classic cover drives, which often led to comparisons with Aravinda de Silva. 

Making his debut at 19, Silva started his international career with a composed 55 against Australia during the Aiwa Cup of 1999. Silva failed to cement his place in an already star-studded Sri Lankan line-up, after playing a handful of games in his debut season. The prodigy was also part of the Sri Lanka team during the famous NatWest Series of 2002 but he got dropped after the England tour. 

Silva went to the domestic circles where he captained Panadura Cricket Club. He regularly topped the top run-scorer charts for the next four years that grabbed the attention of Sri Lankan coach, Tom Moody on the promising talent. 

Due to the national coach, Silva got selected for Sri Lanka A and later got promoted to the national team. At 27, he made his Test debut against New Zealand to get a pair but he redeemed himself with a 61 & 152* in the Wellington Test.

His miraculous comeback continued in the white-ball format as well. Silva followed it up with his maiden ODI century against England in India, just three weeks before the World Cup that cemented his spot for the ICC event spot. He extended his good form with 350 runs in the World Cup where Sri Lanka went to the finals.

A quick success after the comeback earned the Sri Lankan an IPL contract by Deccan Chargers for the inaugural edition of the league. However, he could only play three games during the tournament, before getting unsold in the 2009 auctions.

Although inconsistency became Silva’s friend, he was irregular from the national side. He was also part of the Sri Lanka squad for the 2011 World Cup, but later that season got dumped. After playing 11 Tests, 75 ODIs, and 16 T20Is; Silva’s international career ended.

(As of April 2021)