Ginigalgodage Ramba Ajit de Silva (born 12 December 1952), or Ajit de Silva, is a former Sri Lankan international

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er, who played four

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

and six

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

s for Sri Lanka, bowling accurate

slow left arm Left-arm orthodox spin, Left-arm off spin also known as slow left-arm orthodox spin bowling, is a type of left-arm finger spin bowling in the sport of cricket. Left-arm orthodox spin is bowled by a left-arm bowler using the fingers to spin ...

spin.

International career

He proved an important member of the national squad for several years until 1982/83, when he toured with the rebel Arosa Sri Lanka team to

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. Due to this, he was excluded from world cricket, along with the rest of the players on that tour. This effectively finished his first-class career, beginning in November 1973, in which he claimed 161 wickets (av 27.44). He played a crucial part in Sri Lanka's first ODI victory on home soil – against

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in 1982. Sri Lanka had batted first, setting England 216 to win, and

Graham Gooch Graham Alan Gooch, (born 23 July 1953) is a former English first-class cricketer who captained Essex and England. He was one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation, and through a career spanning from 1973 until 2000, h ...

and

Geoff Cook Geoffrey Cook (born 9 October 1951) is a former English cricketer, who played in seven Test matches and six One Day Internationals from 1981 to 1983. Cricket writer, Colin Bateman, stated "A player held in great respect by his fellow professi ...

had set a good platform as the score moved to 109 for no loss. However, de Silva removed both openers (stumped by Mahes Goonatilleke), four players were run out, and England lost by three runs.

References

1952 births Living people Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers Sri Lanka Test cricketers Sri Lankan cricketers Cricketers at the 1975 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 1979 Cricket World Cup Alumni of Dharmasoka College People from Ambalangoda {{SriLanka-cricket-bio-1950s-stub