Dihan Avishka Gunawardene (born May 26, 1977 in Colombo

Colombo

Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...

) is a Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

n cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er. He is an explosive left-handed batsman who first came into the public eye during the 1998 Commonwealth Games

Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years....

, when he scored a century and achieved the highest score in the South Africa

South African cricket team

The South African national cricket team represent South Africa in international cricket. They are administrated by Cricket South Africa.South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council, also known as ICC, with Test and One Day International, or ODI, status...

n defeat.

Despite a few centuries, avoidable dismissals stopped Gunawardene from regularly appearing for the team. Gunawardene's opportunity arose in the Asia Cup in 2005 when Marvan Atapattu

Marvan Atapattu

Marvan Samson Atapattu is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and former Sri Lankan captain. Towards the end of his career he joined the Indian Cricket League and captained the Delhi Giants...

 was rested for a game. Gunawardene has been involved in Twenty20 cricket since 2004. A ban on he and four other Sri Lankans (imposed for joining the Indian Cricket League

Indian Cricket League

The Indian Cricket League was a private cricket league funded by Zee Entertainment Enterprises that operated between 2007 and 2009 in India...

) was lifted in September 2008, meaning Gunawardene was free to play domestic cricket in Sri Lanka. He is coded in EA Sport's CRICKET series as A.Gonwarria