[4] Following his illustrious cricket career, de Silva came under fire with several accusations of match fixing, along with Arjuna Ranatunga, which he vehemently denied.

[8] The season proved to be a mix of disappointment and success for Kent, as they finished last (18th) in County Championship with only three wins and four draws out of 17 matches played.

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.

[13][14] De Silva did not play in Kent's two last County Championship matches having left to join the Sri Lankan squad on their tour of Pakistan.

"[8] De Silva was instrumental in Sri Lanka's triumph in the 1996 Cricket World Cup where his unbeaten century and three wickets earned him the Man of the Match award in the final against Australia.

His other notable achievements include scoring a century in each innings of a Test match on two occasions (only bettered by India's Sunil Gavaskar, Australia's Ricky Ponting and David Warner, who each performed this feat three times).

[21] His batting form slumped lower in the three-test Series in Australia, where the Sri Lankan batsmen struggled with the bowling of Glenn McGrath, who took 21 wickets while de Silva managed 98 runs at an average of 16.33.

The tournament was won by Australia, who beat Sri Lanka in both final matches, confirming their favourite position in the forthcoming ICC World Cup in the Indian sub-continent.

Neither Zimbabwe nor Kenya were able to truly test Sri Lanka team – in both matches de Silva was selected man-of-the-match following his 91 and 145 runs with bat.

India proved a stronger opponent, but despite Sachin Tendulkar's 137 runs, Sri Lanka cruised to a comfortable six wicket victory.

Winning the toss at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, India selected to field and had a very good start with Javagal Srinath dispatching the Sri Lankan opening pair for only one run.

[26] After India had collapsed to 120 runs for 8 wickets at 34.1 overs, a densely packed home crowd vented their anger by throwing bottles on to the outfield and setting fire to the seating.

[27] However, the highlight of his career was almost certainly the 1996 World Cup Final against Australia, where he took 3 wickets for 42 runs (including the Australian captain Mark Taylor and the future captain Ricky Ponting), two catches and then followed that with 107 not out with the bat to secure Sri Lanka a convincing 7 wicket victory, thereby clinching the World Cup, and also the Man of the Match award.

[34] de Silva was again appointed as the head of the national selection committee on 7 March 2016, by Sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekara, prior to 2016 ICC World Twenty20 tournament.

Following an investigation before a local enquiry in 2001, headed by Desmond Fernando, Gupta failed to testify before this inquiry, and thus both de Silva and Ranatunga were cleared.