Cricket in Sri Lanka

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.

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:

First-class Tournament –
 * Major League Tournament (Sri Lanka)

List A Tournament –
 * Major Clubs Limited Over Tournament

Twenty20 Tournament –
 * SLC Twenty20 Tournament

The following clubs may take part:


 * Badureliya Sports Club (Maggona)
 * 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)
 * Kalutara Town Club (Kalutara)
 * Kandy Customs Cricket Club (Kandy)
 * Kurunegala Youth Cricket Club (Kurunegala)
 * Lankan Cricket Club (Colombo)
 * Moors Sports Club (Colombo)
 * Negombo Cricket Club (Negombo
 * Nondescripts Cricket Club (Colombo)
 * Nugegoda Sports and Welfare Club (Nugegoda)
 * Panadura Sports Club (Panadura)
 * Police Sports Club (Colombo)
 * Ragama Cricket Club (Ragama)
 * Saracens Sports Club (Colombo)
 * Sinhalese Sports Club (Colombo)
 * Sri Lanka Air Force Sports Club (Katunayake)
 * Sri Lanka Army Sports Club (Panagoda)
 * Sri Lanka Navy Sports Club (Welisara)
 * Sri Lanka Ports Authority Cricket Club (Seeduwa)
 * Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club (Colombo)

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.

First-class Tournament - National Super League 4-Day Tournament, established in 2022, currently with 5 teams.
 * National Super League (NSL)

List A Tournament –

Twenty20 Tournament –

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):
 * Inter-Provincial Cricket (1990-2011) Consisted of 5 teams (Basnahira North, Basnahira South, Kandurata, Ruhuna, and Wayamba)
 * Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) (2012) was a Twenty20 cricket competition in Sri Lanka. It was intended to be the premier Twenty20 league in the country, held by Sri Lanka Cricket, when it replaced the Inter-Provincial Twenty20 competition.
 * Super Four Provincial (2017-2018) Consisted of 4 teams (Colombo, Dambulla, Galle, and Kandy)

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

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 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. Since then, the team has represented Sri Lanka in international women's cricket tournaments.