cricket in sri lanka

By far the most popular sport in Sri Lanka is cricket.^[1][1]

Every child in Sri Lanka knows how to play cricket, and there are many cricket fields scattered across the island for children and adults to play the sport. The biggest pastime of the Sri Lankan population, after cricket, is watching the Sri Lankan national team playing cricket. It is common for businesses to shut down when very big matches are televised. This was the case in 1996 when the Sri Lankan team beat Australia in the finals to win the Cricket World Cup. The whole country shut down as though there were a curfew imposed upon the whole island.

The country co-hosted the 1996 Cricket World Cup with India and Pakistan, and has hosted the Asia Cup tournament on numerous occasions. It will also co-host the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

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). Internationally, the Sri Lankan national team has hosted several top sides including Australia, England and India; and Sri Lanka won the 1996 Cricket World Cup.

The Sri Lankan cricket team is a national cricket team representing Sri Lanka. The team first played international cricket in 1975, and were later awarded Test status in 1981, which made Sri Lanka the eighth Test playing nation.

The Sri Lankan team transformed themselves from the underdog status to a major cricketing nation during the 1990s. The team went on to take 1996 Cricket World Cup beating Australia in the finals, and becoming the World Champions. Since then, the team continued as a major force in international cricket, with ups and downs in certain periods.