Born as Pinnaduwage Aravinda de Silva on 17 October 1965 in Colombo, he is a former Sri Lankan cricketer, who is considered one of the finest batsmen produced by the country in world cricket.

De Silva made his debut in Test cricket in 1984 at Lord’s against England. In his early part of the career he was known as a dashing but inconsistent batsman, which earned him the nickname “Mad Max” for his tendency to get out to rash shots. But later he showed up matured and aggressive batting style. He also hold the history of having a successful season of first-class cricket for the English county Kent in 1995 marked a turning point in his

career. De Silva was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s triumph in the 1996 Cricket World Cup. He also has scored a century in each innings of a Test match on two separate occasions. Once of these doubles was 138 and 105, both undismissed, against Pakistan at Colombo’s Sinhalese Sports Club in April 1997. De Silva’s highest test score of 267 happened at Basin Reserve in 1991 against New Zealand. He retired from international cricket in 2003.

Aravinda De Silva joined the English county side Kent in April 1995 after Carl Hooper left Kent to join the West Indies team for the summer. He showed an elegant batting performance in the county cricket owning a couple of brilliant scores taking kent to wins in a row. He was the third most prolific batsman of the County Championship in 1995 after Mark Ramprakash and Nasser Hussain with 1661 runs at an average of 59.32 and six centuries including the highest score of the season, 255.

One of the best performances from him came in the 1996 World Cup Final against Australia, where he took 3 wickets for 42 runs, two catches and then followed that with 107 not out with the bat to secure Sri Lanka a convincing 7 wicket victory. He was also chosen for the Man of the Match award. De Silva was recognized by Wisden in 2002 as the eight most significant batting performance in ODI cricket while his bowling was ranked 82nd in Wisden top 100 bowling chart.

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When the Australian batsman Matthew Hayden says farewell to international cricket, a list of records are safe in his kitty. He batted for just six matches in the first six years of his career. His inauspicious debut was in 1994 in South Africa. The left-hander then went on a record-breaking spree in the next eight years.

Hayden physically towered over his opponents. Thanks to the hugely build batsman’s statistics.

After an unforgettable debut, Hayden became a regular member of the Test team in

2001. He outshined others with his massive 549 at an average of 109.80 against India.

In the next summer, he hit tons in four consecutive Tests against South Africa, and narrowly missed making it five, before going back to pavilion for 96 in Cape Town.

Within the span of 12 months, he scored an impressive1,509 Test runs at 71.85. He was awarded the Allan Border Medal in Feb 2002. His tally of 1,391 Test runs in the 2001 calendar year was an Australian. Hayden was named as the Wisden cricketer of the year in 2003. Hayden scored highest individual innings in Test history next year. He knocked 380 against Zimbabwe by breaking the record of 375 made by Brian Lara. But later Brian Lara posted the first quadruple-century in Test history. In 2005, he again made four centuries in four Tests against England, the West Indies (and the World XI).

Hayden hammered the highest ODI score by an Australian when he scored an unbeaten 181 against New Zealand. The big left-hander also made an impressive performance at the 2007 World Cup, when Australia defended its crown. He scored 659 runs at 73.22. He scored the fastest century in World Cup history (66 balls) and became the third person to score three centuries in a single World Cup.

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