Aravinda de Silva quits as Sri Lanka Cricket chairman

Former Sri Lanka captain Aravinda de Silva has stepped down as chairman of the national board’s cricket committee for personal reasons after roughly a year in the top post, the committee said Friday. The veteran’s resignation from the post will take effect from June 30.

“It is understandable that (de Silva) needs to prioritise his personal commitments,” Sri Lanka Cricket president Thilanga Sumathipala said in a statement. “He has supported the strategic vision of this administration and been vastly instrumental in many of the developments we have made. We intend to continue to engage Aravinda’s expertise in our key cricketing activities on a consultancy basis.”

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The batting great was instrumental in guiding the islanders to their only 50-over World Cup triumph in 1996 before returning to the game as selector. Twice chosen as chief selector, Aravinda was instrumental in re-structuring Sri Lanka’s coaching programmes with emphasis on home-grown talent.

De Silva represented Sri Lanka from 1984 to 2003. He played 93 Tests and 308 One-Day Internationals (ODI) for the team. From 93 Tests, de Silva scored 6,361 runs at 42.97 and 9,284 runs at 34.9 in ODIs. He is one of the rare cricketer to have scored total First-Class career runs round figures. De Silva scored exactly 15,000 runs in First-Class cricket at 48.38.