[1] He bowled leg spin, and on the tour of Pakistan in 1982 he became the first Sri Lankan bowler to take five wickets in a Test innings.
[3][4][5] De Silva hails from a tiny village in Unawatuna and was initially educated at Mahinda College, Galle.
[12] He picked up the most number of wickets among spin bowlers during the 1975 World Cup with four scalps, in a tournament which was dominated by seamers.
de Silva took three wickets for 29, including Dilip Vengsarkar and Mohinder Amarnath, as India crashed to 191 all out.
[14] When Sri Lanka was finally awarded Test status, de Silva was nearing his forties, which naturally shortened his career.
[27] However, it wasn't a happy outing for him in his last ever test match appearance as he declared himself unfit to play when he turned his ankle while warming up in the nets.
Despite his ankle injury, the team management was keen and desperate to have in the playing XI given his experience and wicket taking abilities.
[32] In 2009 he was appointed by the then sports minister Gamini Lokuge as the interim chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket and served in the position until 2012 for three years.
Sri Lanka also reached number 3 position in ICC Men's Test Team Rankings under his tenure.