Hendahewage Sanjeewa Gayan Sameera Silva (born 14 January 1974), known as Gayan Silva, is a former Sri Lankan-born international

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who represented the United Arab Emirates national team. A left-handed batsman and

wicket keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a catch, stump the batsman out, or run out a batsman when occasion arises. The wicket-ke ...

, and very occasional right-arm medium-fast bowler, Silva played

club cricket Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obse ...

for the local Police Sports Club and particularly Singha Sports Club. He has scored over 3,200 first class runs, but has not yet scored higher than 95, and has also played a handful of one day games, including matches against

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Early life

Silva war born in January 1974, in

Balapitiya Balapitiya is a coastal town, in south west Sri Lanka. It is located in the Southern Province in Sri Lanka. It is situated south of Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by popu ...

Career

First class cricket

Silva made his debut in 1993 for Singha Sports Club, playing Moors Sports Club on 8 January. He would go on to play 74 matches for Singha Sports Club, averaging 21.41, scoring 2,656 runs with a best of 95. On 11 January 2007, Silva played a first class match for UAE against Scotland, scoring 60 in a 140 run partnership with

Saqib Ali Saqib Ali (Hindi: साकिब अली, Urdu: ثاقب علی; born January 21, 1975) is a former State Delegate in the Maryland House of Delegates, having been elected in 2006 to represent the 39th District. Ali is an American of Indian and ...

. He then scored a second half-century, reaching 87. The match, however, ended in a draw. On 8 November 2007, UAE faced

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

, opening the batting and scoring 17 and four. Forming two solid opening partnerships, however UAE suffered batting collapses after his wicket was lost in both innings.

One day cricket

Silva played his first one-day match in 1998, facing the Moors Sports Club on 3 December. He opened the batting and made 46. Silva played a total of six matches for the Police Sports Club, the Singha Sports Club and the UAE respectively, averaging 3.50, 22.00 and 25.40 respectively.

Notes

1974 births Emirati cricketers United Arab Emirates One Day International cricketers Living people Cricketers from Southern Province, Sri Lanka Sri Lankan emigrants to the United Arab Emirates Sri Lankan expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Ruhuna cricketers {{SriLanka-cricket-bio-stub