Cricket in Sri Lanka

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Cricket in Sri Lanka
Country Sri Lanka
Governing body SLC
National team(s) Men
Women
U-19
Nickname(s)Lankan Lions
National competitions
Club competitions
International competitions

Sri Lanka is one of the twelve nations that take part in Test cricket and one of the six 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.

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Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) was occupied by the British in 1796 and became a British colony in 1815. As in all places that the British arrived in large 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 (dating from 1938), now known as the Major League Tournament (Sri Lanka) and the Premier Limited Overs Tournament (starting 1988–89), now known as the Major Clubs Limited Over Tournament. Sri Lanka's one day international debut came in the 1975 Cricket World Cup. The country was awarded Test cricket status by the International Cricket Council in 1981.

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 all major domestic competitions

Club Tournaments:

Domestic cricket team

Inter-City Tournaments

The National Super League (NSL) is an inter-city tournament, in which each city is assigned a set of cricket clubs, where the best players are selected to play for each city, it covers all three formats (First Class, List A and T20), the tournament has a women's version.

National Super League 4-Day Tournament, established in 2022, currently with 5 teams. [1]

Defunct Tournaments

Several competitions have been arranged where teams were formed out of each of the major provinces, independent to the above clubs (these tournaments are defunct and are replaced with the National Super League):

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 total in Test Cricket [2]

Sri Lanka have won the Cricket World Cup in 1996, [3] the ICC Champions Trophy in 2002 (Co-champions with India), [4] the ICC World Twenty20 in 2014. [5]

They are also Six times champions of Asia Cup in 1986, 1997, 2004, 2008, 2014 & 2022 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. [6] Since then, the team has represented Sri Lanka in international women's cricket tournaments.

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sri Lanka Cricket</span> Governing body for cricket in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is the governing body for cricket in Sri Lanka. It was first registered with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Sports as the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka on 30 June 1975 as a national sports body. The board was renamed in 2003.

The Major League Tournament is the main domestic first-class cricket competition in Sri Lanka. It was established in 1938 and has existed under a number of different names. Matches before the 1988–89 season are not considered first-class. Relaunched as the Lakspray Trophy in 1988–89, it was renamed as the P. Saravanamuttu Trophy in 1990–91 and as the Premier Championship in 1998–99. There was a change of format in 2015–16 when it became the Premier League Tournament which was split into Tiers A and B the following year.

Kande Arachchige Isuru Udana Tillakaratna is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who represented Sri Lanka internationally in limited over formats. He currently plays domestic cricket for Tamil Union and Wayamba. Primarily a left arm fast bowler, Udana evolved as an all-rounder in late 2018. On 31 July 2021, Udana announced his retirement from international cricket.

Tisse Appuhamilage Milinda Siriwardana, commonly as Milinda Siriwardana is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer, who plays for limited over formats. He is a left-hand batsman and a left-arm spinner. He is playing Test, ODI, T20I for Sri Lanka and First class and List A in domestic arena. He studied at the Kalutara Vidyalaya. He usually fields at short cover.

Pathira Vasan Dushmantha Chameera is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer who plays for all three formats for the national team, He is a Right-arm fast bowler and also a handy Lower order batsman. He plays cricket domestically for Nondescripts Cricket Club. He made his international debut for Sri Lanka in January 2015. He is currently the most experienced fast bowler in the Sri Lanka Cricket team.

Kariyawasam Indipalage Charith Asalanka is a Sri Lankan professional cricketer who currently serves as the captain of the national team in white-ball formats of T20I and ODI. He plays the limited overs formats of the game for the national team and is the 14th T20I captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team. An aggressive left-handed batsman and trusted batter on number 5 middle order batting position, who bowls part time handy off spin. On pitches that favor spin, he has the potential to take useful wickets and contribute significantly as an all-rounder. Asalanka made his international debut for Sri Lanka in June 2021.

Jeffrey Dexter Francis Vandersay is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer who currently plays limited overs cricket for the national team. He is a past student of Wesley College, Colombo.

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Pasqual Handi Kamindu Dilanka Mendis, popularly known as Kamindu Mendis, is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer who plays for the national team and for Colombo Cricket Club in domestic cricket. He is an ambidextrous bowler who has bowled both right and left-arm deliveries during the same over.He made his international debut for the Sri Lanka cricket team in October 2018. He attended the prestigious Richmond College Galle which is known as the Eton of the Southern Province of Sri lanka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colombo Commandos</span> Sri Lankan cricket team

Colombo Commandos cricket team is one of the five provincial cricket teams which make up the Sri Lankan domestic cricket structure representing mainly three districts of Western Province, Sri Lanka, the Colombo District, the Gampaha District and the Kalutara district, and with some nearby provinces. In previous occasions, the province was divided into two halves as Basnahira North and Basnahira South, which was combined in this season as Colombo Commandos. The cricket team's first participation came during the Twenty20 competition known as the Inter-Provincial Twenty20 2016 season which was known as Super T20 Provincial Tournament.

In team sports, the term home advantage – also called home ground, home field, home court, or home ice advantage – describes the benefit that the home team is said to gain over the visiting team. This benefit has been attributed to psychological effects supporting fans have on the competitors or referees; to psychological or physiological advantages of playing near home in familiar; to the disadvantages away teams suffer from changing time zones or climates, or from the rigors of travel; and, in some sports, to specific rules that favor the home team directly or indirectly.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janith Liyanage</span> Sri Lankan cricketer

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The 2019–20 SLC Twenty20 Tournament was a Twenty20 cricket tournament that was held in Sri Lanka. It was played between twenty-six domestic teams in Sri Lanka, with the tournament running from 4 to 21 January 2020. Moors Sports Club were the defending champions.

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References

  1. "Sri Lanka Cricket to Launch the National Super League". Sri Lanka Cricket. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  2. "Records | Test matches | Team records | Highest innings totals | ESPNcricinfo.com". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  3. "Cricket World Cup History 1996: Winners, Runners-up, Stats of World Cup 1996". NDTVSports.com. Retrieved 2020-09-16.
  4. "India and Sri Lanka share the spoils". www.espncricinfo.com. Retrieved 2020-09-16.
  5. "Cool Sangakkara breaks final hoodoo". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
  6. "Netherlands Women tour of Sri Lanka, Netherlands Women tour of Sri Lanka 1997/98 score, Match schedules, fixtures, points table, results, news". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 2022-03-10.