Beginnings[edit]
Cricket was brought to the nation when it was colonized by the English. The first recorded cricket match was played in the country as for back as 1832. although the country then known as Ceylon was playing first class cricket in 1905,it was in the 1975 inaugural world cup that they made their international debut. They were humbled here losing to the west Indies by 9 wickets. They did however, turn heads at the same tour name at wit an excellent display in their match against Australia.
Sri Lanka, formerly known as
Ceylon, has an age-old civilization. It came under European influence and control after Dutch colonists arrived in the 17th century; although the interior hilly region of the island remained independent for over a century with its capital at
Kandy. The
British East India Company established control of the island in 1796, using war with France as its excuse for commandeering Dutch territory. Ceylon was declared a
Crown Colony in 1802, but the island was never to be officially connected with
British India. The fall of the kingdom of Kandy in 1815 unified the island under British rule.
As everywhere that the British arrived in numbers, cricket soon followed and it is reasonable to assume that the game was first played on the island by 1800.
Ceylon was renamed Sri Lanka in 1972
Early developments[edit]
The earliest definite mention of cricket in Ceylon was a report in the
Colombo Journal on 5 September 1832 which called for the formation of a cricket club. The
Colombo Cricket Club was formed soon afterwards and matches began in November 1833 when it played against the 97th Regiment.
[1]
In October 1882,
Ivo Bligh's team played an odds game in Colombo
[2] en route to Australia, where they "recovered those Ashes". In 1888–89, an English team led by
George Vernon toured Ceylon and India, including an 11-a-side game against All-Ceylon at Kandy. In 1890, the Australian team
en route to England played in Colombo.
First-class cricket in Ceylon became restricted to games against visiting touring teams, notably the English and Australian teams who used Ceylon as a stopover on the long voyage to each other's country.
Douglas Jardine's infamous "
bodylineteam" was there in 1932–33. Occasionally, teams representative of Ceylon played matches abroad, especially in India.
From 1953–4 until 1975-6, the Ceylon Cricket Association played a first-class match against
Madras (latterly renamed Tamil Nadu) for the Gopalan Trophy. This fixture was played in Colombo roughly every two years, with one further fixture in 1982-3, alternating with the fixture being held in
International cricket[edit]
Domestic cricket[edit]
Premier Trophy[edit]
Main article:
Premier Trophy
In 1938, the first domestic competition was established when 12 teams competed for the
Daily News Trophy.
[3] The tournament's title was changed to the P Saravanamuttu Trophy in 1950–51 and then the Robert Senanayake Trophy in 1976–77. After Sri Lanka began playing Test cricket in 1982, the inevitable sponsors came on board and the tournament was rebranded as the Lakspray Trophy for the
1988–89 season when, for the first time, it was designated
first-class.
Subsequently, the title of P Saravanamuttu Trophy was resurrected from 1990 and since 1998 it has been called the
Premier Trophy.
Premier Limited Overs tournament[edit]
Leading players by season[edit]
The lists below give the leading runscorers and wicket–takers in each domestic season.
Batsmen[edit]
- 1988–89 – DSBP Kuruppu – 339 @ 113.00 (HS 126)
- 1989–90 – WAA Wasantha – 519 @ 57.66 (HS 134)
- 1990–91 – UNK Fernando – 656 @ 65.60 (HS 160)
- 1991–92 – MC Mendis – 551 @ 78.71 (HS 177*)
- 1992–93 – PA de Silva – 591 @ 53.72 (HS 143)
- 1993–94 – MAR Samarasekera – 701 @ 50.07 (HS 191)
- 1994–95 – MS Atapattu – 1302 @ 93.00 (HS 181)
- 1995–96 – RP Arnold – 1430 @ 79.44 (HS 217*)
- 1996–97 – RS Kaluwitharana – 1172 @ 73.25 (HS 179)
- 1997–98 – MS Atapattu – 868 @ 96.44 (HS 223)
- 1998–99 – TM Dilshan – 1027 @ 51.35 (HS 194)
- 1999–00 – DA Gunawardene – 711 @ 41.82 (HS 140)
- 2000–01 – RPAH Wickramaratne – 830 @ 51.87 (HS 139)
- 2001–02 – DPMD Jayawardene – 1426 @ 89.12 (HS 274)
- 2002–03 – SKL de Silva – 938 @ 42.63 (HS 133)
- 2003–04 – TM Dilshan – 1284 @ 51.36 (HS 151)
- 2004–05 – S Kalavitigoda – 885 @ 49.16 (HS 152)
- 2005–06 – WMG Ramyakumara – 993 @ 62.06 (HS 150*)
- 2006–07 – BARS Priyadarshana – 822 @ 43.26 (HS 140)
- 2007–08 – NT Paranavitana – 1059 @ 81.46 (HS 236)
- 2008–09 – AD Mathews – 1038 @ 79.84 (HS 270)
- 2009–10 –AD MATHEWS
Bowlers[edit]
- 1988–89 – SD Anurasiri – 24 @ 13.12 (BB 8–53)
- 1989–90 – KPJ Warnaweera – 71 @ 13.47 (BB 7–16)
- 1990–91 – FS Ahangama – 39 @ 14.89 (BB 5–44)
- 1991–92 – GP Wickramasinghe – 38 @ 13.10 (BB 10–41)
- 1992–93 – CM Hathurusingha – 35 @ 16.65 (BB 8–40)
- 1993–94 – AMN Munasinghe – 46 @ 16.43 (BB 9–38)
- 1994–95 – SD Anurasiri – 78 @ 15.67 (BB 8–90)
- 1995–96 – M Jayasena – 67 @ 21.41 (BB 5–72)
- 1996–97 – ADB Ranjith – 70 @ 16.40 (BB 9–29)
- 1997–98 – UC Hathurusingha – 35 @ 16.17 (BB 7–55)
- 1998–99 – PP Wickramasinghe – 76 @ 13.01 (BB 8–47)
- 1999–00 – D Hettiarachchi – 55 @ 15.09 (BB 5–20)
- 2000–01 – S Weerakoon – 80 @ 12.97 (BB 7–51)
- 2001–02 – M Muralitharan – 87 @ 13.47 (BB 9–51)
- 2002–03 – PN Ranjith – 69 @ 17.10 (BB 6–27)
- 2003–04 – M Muralitharan – 96 @ 14.40 (BB 7–46)
- 2004–05 – S Weerakoon – 52 @ 20.80 (BB 7–81)
- 2005–06 – SADU Indrasiri – 60 @ 13.55 (BB 7–61)
- 2006–07 – RMGK Sirisoma – 60 @ 15.50 (BB 7–42)
- 2007–08 – BAW Mendis – 68 @ 10.51 (BB 7–37)
- 2008–09 – S Weerakoon – 71 @ 20.35 (BB 7–40) and S Prasanna – 71 @ 20.70 (BB 8–59)
- 2009–10 –
Pre-Test era International tours of Sri Lanka[edit]
Australia[edit]
Several Australian teams stopped and played matches in Ceylon while traveling to England and back.
It was not until
1969–70 that another Australian team arrived in Ceylon. This team played one first-class match against the national Ceylon team before going on to India for a five-Test series.
During Sri Lanka's Test era, there have been five Australian tours of the country, four of which featured Test cricket. The visitors in 1996 were there to make up the numbers in a
One Day International (LOI) tri-series against India and Sri Lanka. Australia reached the final of the tri-series but lost by 50 runs to Sri Lanka.
England[edit]
| This article is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (April 2012) |
1956–57[edit]
1973–74[edit]
India toured Sri Lanka in January and February 1974. India played two first-class and two limited overs matches versus Sri Lanka and two further first-class matches versus the Sri Lanka Board president's XI. India defeated Sri Lanka at the
Sinhalese Sports Club Ground by 6 wickets but the other three first-class games were impacted by the weather and were drawn.
New Zealand[edit]
All-Ceylon made 227 for 8 wickets with De Saram top scoring with a typical brick by brick innings of 90.
Douglas Dias Jayasinha was the first man from the Southern Province to play for All Ceylonwho was an opening batsman was held back by S. Saravanamuttu the skipper, who felt it was too much of a gamble to risk sending the young man in, that early. He was a free scoring batsman at the time and since there was overnight rain on the SSC grounds they wanted a more sedate start than what D.D. promised. This they got through George Hubert and Louis Mendis. Eventually Jayasinha made his way to the wicket at the fall of the fifth wicket and made a patient yet uncharacteristic 24 runs in 45 minutes to help Derrick de Saram at the other end towards his mammoth individual score. In reply, New Zealand made 177 for 5 wickets with Vivien 68 not out and Walter Hadlee, father of Richard, himself making 18. That team also consisted of such well-known names as Martin Donnelly and Mervyn Wallace, all of whom had done so well in England just a few weeks before.
1984–85[edit]
New Zealand played two limited overs internationals versus Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka won the first match by 4 wickets and New Zealand won the second by 7 wickets.
Pakistan[edit]
1948–49[edit]
The
Pakistan national cricket team visited Ceylon in April 1949 to play two first-class matches versus
Ceylon. Both games were played at the
Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium in
Colombo. Pakistan, captained by
Mohammad Saeed, won the first match by an innings and 192 runs, Saeed himself top-scoring with 93. The great Pakistan bowler
Fazal Mahmood took 4–15 as Ceylon were bowled out for only 95 in their second innings. Pakistan won the second match by 10 wickets despite some good batting by Ceylon in their first innings.
1972–73[edit]
Pakistan visited Sri Lanka in November 1972 to play a single first-class match versus the Sri Lanka national team at the
Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium in
Colombo. The match was drawn after being affected by rain. Pakistan, captained by
Intikhab Alam, scored 262–8 declared and 48–3 declared. Sri Lanka scored 133 and 120–3.
1975–76[edit]
Pakistan toured Sri Lanka in January 1976 to play three first-class and two limited overs matches. Sri Lanka surprisingly won the opening first-class match at
Colombo Cricket Club Ground by 4 wickets and then Pakistan won the second match at the same venue by the same margin. In between, Pakistan played the
Sri Lanka Board president's XI at
Asgiriya Stadium in
Kandy and they won this by 7 wickets.
1978–79[edit]
Pakistan, captained by
Majid Khan, visited Sri Lanka in April 1979 to play a limited overs match versus the Sri Lanka national team. The match at the
Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium was won by Pakistan by 55 runs after scoring 164–8 in their 40 overs. Sri Lanka in reply could only manage 109–8.
West Indies[edit]
1948–49[edit]
1966–67[edit]
1974–75[edit]
West Indies visited Sri Lanka in February 1975 as part of a wider tour of
India and
Pakistan. Captained by
Clive Lloyd, West Indies played two first-class matches against
Sri Lanka, that were both drawn, and a limited overs match that West Indies won by 8 wickets.
1978–79[edit]
Zimbabwe[edit]
1983–84[edit]
Multi-national teams[edit]
1930–31[edit]
The
Maharajkumar of Vizianagram (
aka "Vizzy") raised a team that toured Ceylon in December 1930 and played three first-class matches against a team called Dr J Rockwood's Europeans XI at the Nomads Ground in Victoria Park, Colombo. The tourists won the first game by an innings & 259 runs. The other two games were drawn.
Vizzy's team included some notable players, including the England opening partnership of
Jack Hobbs and
Herbert Sutcliffe. Several good Indian players were involved, including
CK Nayudu and
Mushtaq Ali.
1949–50[edit]
1950–51[edit]
1967–68[edit]
An International XI cricket team toured Ceylon,
India and
Pakistan during the winter of 1967–68 and played one match in Ceylon versus the Ceylon Board president's XI at the
Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium in
Colombo. The International XI won by 194 runs. The team consisted of
Mickey Stewart (captain),
Roger Tolchard (wk),
Derek Underwood,
Dennis Amiss,
Keith Fletcher,
Khalid Ibadulla,
Harold Rhodes,
Gamini Goonesena,
Ken Suttle,
Harry Latchman and
Mike Denness. Ceylon had no answer to the guile of Underwood, who produced outstanding figures of 8–10 and 7–33.
Test, ODI & T20 series[edit]
One-day International[edit]
Twenty20[edit]