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 SLC operates all of the Sri Lankan national representative cricket sides, including the Men's, Women's and Under-19 sides. The SLC is also responsible for organising and hosting Test tours and one day internationals with other nations, and scheduling the home international fixtures.
History
Cricket was brought to the nation when it was colonized by the British. 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 1833 when it played against the 97th Regiment.[3]
Throughout the 20th century, the game became increasingly popular in Sri Lanka. It was in the 1975 inaugural Cricket World Cup that they made their international debut. They lost to the West Indies by 9 wickets.[4] They did however turn heads at the same tournament with an excellent display in their match against Australia. The national team won the ICC Trophy in 1979.[5] On 21 July 1981, Sri Lanka was admitted to full membership of the ICC and was awarded Test Match status. The inaugural Test was played at the Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo in February 1982 against England but Sri Lanka lost by 8 wickets.[6] Sri Lanka won the 1996 Cricket World Cup by defeating Australia.[7] Sri Lanka won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 by defeating India.[8]
In 2023, SLC faced accusations of corruption and declining standards, with Minister for Sports Roshan Ranasinghe having considered its board to be "traitorous and corrupt". After being eliminated from the 2023 Cricket World Cup, Ranasinghe called for the resignation of the SLC board. On 6 November 2023, after the board's secretary Mohan De Silva resigned, Ranasinghe removed the entire SLC board and replaced them with a seven-member interim committee led by Arjuna Ranatunga—captain of Sri Lanka's 1996 World Cup team.[9][10] The next day, in response to a petition by the board's president Shammi Silva, the Appeal Court ruled that the previous board was to be reinstated for a period of two weeks pending hearings.[11]
On 10 November 2023, the ICC suspended SLC for failing to meet "the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and ensure that there is no government interference in the governance, regulation and/or administration".[12][13] While the board of the ICC ruled that the suspension would not affect Sri Lanka's day-to-day participation in international cricket, the country was stripped of its rights to host the 2024 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.[14][15] On 28 January 2024, the ICC lifted the suspension, after its board ruled that SLC were no longer in breach of membership obligations.[16]
Domestic competitions
Sri Lanka Cricket oversees the progress and handling of the major domestic competitions in the country:
- T20
- First Class
- List A
They also organize and host the Inter-Provincial Cricket Tournament, a competition focusing on provincial-level teams with pooled talent rather than on individual cricket clubs.
Former Competitions
