Cricket in Sri Lanka

Cricket is the most popular sport in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is one of the ten nations that take part in test cricket and one of the five nations that has won a cricket world cup. Cricket is played at professional, semi-professional and recreational levels in the country and international cricket matches are watched with interest by a large proportion of the population.

Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) became a British colony in 1802. 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. 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 1832. Since then, the sport has grown domestically with major events such as the Premier Trophy (starting 1938) and Premier Limited Overs Tournament (starting 1988–89). Sri Lanka's one day international debut came in the 1975 cricket world cup and were later awarded Test cricket status in 1981, by the International Cricket Council.

Governing body

Sri Lanka Cricket, formerly the Board for Cricket Control in Sri Lanka (BCCSL), is the controlling body for cricket in Sri Lanka. It operates the Sri Lankan cricket team, Sri Lanka A cricket team, Sri Lankan women's cricket team and first-class cricket within Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a full member of the International Cricket Council and the Asian Cricket Council. Sri Lanka co-hosted the 1996 Cricket World Cup and the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

Domestic competitions

Sri Lanka Cricket oversees the progress and handling of the major domestic competitions: the First-class tournament - Premier Trophy; Emerging Trophy; the List A tournament - Premier Limited Overs Tournament and the Twenty20 competition - Twenty20 Tournament, in which all of the following first-class teams take part:

Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club (Colombo)
Burgher Recreation Club (Colombo)
Chilaw Marians Cricket Club (Colombo)
Colombo Cricket Club (Colombo)
Colts Cricket Club (Colombo)
Galle Cricket Club (Galle)
Moors Sports Club (Colombo)
Nondescripts Cricket Club (Colombo)
Panadura Sports Club (Panadura)
Ragama Cricket Club (Katunayake)
Sebastianites Cricket and Athletic Club (Moratuwa)
Sinhalese Sports Club (Colombo)
Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club (Colombo)

They also organise and host the Inter-Provincial Cricket Tournament, a competition where the above first-class do not take part, but instead teams representing the different provinces of Sri Lanka compete:

Basnahira – Western Province
Kandurata – Central Province
Ruhuna – Southern Province
Wayamba – North Western Province
Uturu-Meda- North Central Province

National cricket team

The Sri Lankan cricket team is the national cricket team of Sri Lanka. The team first played One day international cricket in the 1975 Cricket World Cup and were later awarded Test status in 1981, which made Sri Lanka the eighth Test cricket playing nation.

The Sri Lankan team transformed themselves from the underdog status to a leading cricketing nation during the 1990s. Sri Lanka currently holds the record for the highest Team totals of all formats of the games.

Sri Lanka have won the Cricket World Cup in 1996, the ICC Champions Trophy in 2002 (Co-champions with India), the ICC World Twenty20 in 2014.

They are also five times champions of Asia Cup in 1986, 1997, 2004, 2008, 2014 and have been runners up in the 2007 Cricket World Cup, 2011 Cricket World Cup, 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and 2012 ICC World Twenty20.

Women's cricket team

The Sri Lankan women's cricket team is the team that represents Sri Lanka in international women's cricket matches.Sri Lankan women's cricket team's international debut came in 1997 with a three match ODI series against the Netherlands. Since then, the team has represented Sri Lanka in international women's cricket tournaments.

References

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