History of Sri Lankan International Cricket

Early years

Ceylon, as the country was known before 1972, played its first first-class match under that name against MCC at Nomads Ground, Victoria Park, Colombo in 1926-27, losing by an innings. The team's first win came against Patiala at Dhruve Pandove Stadium in 1932-33. The Ceylonese side competed in the M. J. Gopalan Trophy games from the 1950s, through the change of name to Sri Lanka, well into the 1970s.

Test status and beyond

• Gained Test Status in 1981 and first played a Test Match in 1982
• Won the 1996 Cricket World Cup hosted by India, Sri Lanka & Pakistan
• Semi Finalists in the 2003 Cricket World Cup hosted by South Africa
• Runners up of the 2007 World Cup hosted by the West Indies.

Sri Lankan cricket's greatest moment undoubtedly came during the aforementioned 1996 World Cup, when they defeated the top-ranked Australian team in the Final. Sri Lanka's game style over the course of the series revolutionized One Day International Cricket, and was characterized by highly aggressive batting in the first fifteen over’s of the innings in order to take advantage of the fielding restrictions imposed during this period. This strategy has since become a hallmark of One Day International cricket.

Sri Lankan cricket supporters were once again overwhelmed with the team's tremendous performance at the NatWest Series, 2006. Although as a whole it missed its captain Marvan Atapattu and Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya together with Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Russel Arnold, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chaminda Vaas, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando and Farveez Maharoof played some fantastic innings.

Sri Lanka's performance during the 5-0 whitewash, England's heaviest home defeat in 13 years, was, some sloppy fielding in a couple of games aside, consistently excellent. Sanath Jayasuriya was both the Man of the Match and Man of the Series. They also made the highest score in One Day International Cricket of 443 against The Netherlands in the following series.