Dihan Avishka Gunawardene (born 26 May 1977), is a former Sri Lankan

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 Tests and ODne Day Internationals. He served as the Sri Lanka A team coach for many years, and was later appointed batting coach of the national team in 2017. At present, he is the Head Coach of the Sri Lanka Under-19 cricket team.

International career

He is an explosive left-handed opening batsman who first came into the public eye during the 1998

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

, when he scored a half century and achieved the highest score in the

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n defeat. His only ODI century was 132 against West Indies at Nairobi during the

ICC KnockOut Trophy The ICC Champions Trophy is a One-Day International (ODI) cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council. The 2013 tournament was intended to be the final edition of the Champions Trophy, but it was extended to 2017 due to i ...

in 2000. In that match, he revived the Sri Lankan innings from a precarious 10/2 to 287/6 and handed the Lankans 108 runs victory. He did not succeed in the longer version of the game. He made his Test debut against Pakistan during the Asian Championship in 1999 with 43 which remains his highest individual score in his 6 Tests. Despite a few centuries, avoidable dismissals stopped Gunawardene from regularly appearing for the team. Gunawardene's opportunity arose in the

Asia Cup The Asian Cricket Council Asia Cup is a men's One Day International and Twenty20 International cricket tournament. It was established in 1983 when the Asian Cricket Council was founded as a measure to promote goodwill between Asian countries. ...

in 2004 when

Marvan Atapattu Deshabandu Marvan Samson Atapattu (born 22 November 1970) is a Sri Lankan cricket coach and former cricketer who played for 17 years for Sri Lanka. Considered one of the most technically sound batsman in his era, Atapattu has scored six double ...

was rested for a game. Gunawardene has been involved in Twenty20 cricket since 2004. He made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

debut on 17 August 2004, for

Sinhalese Sports Club The Singhalese Sports Club (SSC) is a first-class cricket club in Sri Lanka. Singhalese is the most successful club in Sri Lankan domestic cricket, having won the Premier Trophy a record 32 times to 2017. Although the name is correctly spelt wi ...

in the

2004 SLC Twenty20 Tournament The 2004 SLC Twenty20 Tournament is the 1st season of the official Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Sri Lanka. 15 teams in total, five representing four provinces of Sri Lanka and a Sri Lanka Schools XI team participating in the competi ...

. A ban on him and four other Sri Lankans (imposed for joining the Indian Cricket League) was lifted in September 2008, meaning Gunawardene was free to play domestic cricket in Sri Lanka.

Controversies

In May 2019, Gunawardene was charged by the ICC with involvement in match fixing during the

2019 T10 League 2019 Abu Dhabi T10 was the third season of the Abu Dhabi T10. The matches had a 10-over-a-side format with a time duration of 90 minutes. The tournament was played as a round robin followed by semifinals and the final. It was played from 15 to 24 ...

, but he was cleared of all charges in May 2021, allowing him to resume participation in cricket related activities.

Coaching career

Soon after his retirement Gunawardene served as the head coach of

for 9 consecutive seasons and was the coach of the winning SLPL 2012 team Uva Next. He has also functioned as the Director of Cricket at Royal College Colombo. In August 2021, he was appointed as the batting coach of Afghanistan national cricket team. In September 2021, Sri Lanka Cricket announced the appointment of Avishka Gunawardene as the Head Coach of the Sri Lanka Under-19 team.

Personal life

Gunawardene was born in Colombo and was educated at

Ananda College ''Appamādo Amathapadan'' (Buddhist quote from the Apramada Vagga in the Dhammapada) , motto_translation = Heedfulness, Punctuality leads to Nirvana , location = P De S Kularatne Mawatha , city = Colom ...

where he played for the school's cricket team alongside . He serves as a Director at Legacy Travels (Pvt) Ltd.

References

1977 births Living people Alumni of Ananda College Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers Sri Lanka Test cricketers Sri Lankan cricketers Basnahira North cricketers Sinhalese Sports Club cricketers Nondescripts Cricket Club cricketers Cricketers at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Uva cricketers North Central Province cricketers Cricketers at the 2003 Cricket World Cup Sri Lankan cricket coaches Commonwealth Games competitors for Sri Lanka {{SriLanka-cricket-bio-1970s-stub