Sri Lanka national cricket team


The Sri Lanka national men's cricket team, nicknamed The Lions, represents Sri Lanka in men's international cricket. It is a Full Member of the International Cricket Council with Test, One-Day International and T20 International status. The team first played international cricket in 1926–27, and were later awarded Test status in 1981, which made Sri Lanka the eighth Test cricket playing nation. The team is administered by Sri Lanka Cricket.
Sri Lanka's national cricket team achieved considerable success beginning in the 1990s, rising from underdog status to winning the Cricket World Cup in 1996. Since then, the team has continued to be a force in international cricket. The Sri Lankan cricket team reached the finals of the 2007 and 2011 Cricket World Cups consecutively. They ended up being runners up on both occasions.
Under the captaincy of Arjuna Ranathunga, Sri Lanka won the Cricket World Cup in 1996, the ICC Champions Trophy in 2002, and the ICC T20 World Cup in 2014. They have been consecutive runners up in the 2007 and 2011 Cricket World Cups, and have been runners up in the ICC T20 World Cup in 2009 and 2012. The Sri Lankan cricket team currently holds several world records, including the world record for the highest team total in Test cricket.

History

The Sri Lanka national cricket team began with the formation of the Colombo Cricket Club in 1832. By the 1880s a national team, the Ceylon national cricket team, was formed which began playing first-class cricket by the 1920s. The Ceylon national cricket team achieved Associate Member status of the International Cricket Council in 1965. Renamed Sri Lanka in 1972, the national team first competed in top level international cricket in 1975, when they were defeated by nine wickets by the West Indies during the 1975 Cricket World Cup at Old Trafford, England.
After Sri Lanka awarded Test status in 21 July 1981 as eighth Test playing nation, they had to wait until 6 September 1985, where Sri Lanka recorded their first Test win by beating India, in the second match of the series by 149 runs at the Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo. They have also won the 2001-02 Asian Test Championship, defeating Pakistan in the final by an innings and 175 runs.
Sri Lanka registered their first ODI win against India at Old Trafford, England on 16 June 1979. They also won the 1996 Cricket World Cup, co-champions in 2002 ICC Champions Trophy and also became five times Asian champions in 1986, 1997, 2004, 2008 and 2014.
Sri Lanka played their first Twenty20 International match at the Rose Bowl, on 15 June 2006, against England, winning the match by 2 runs. In 2014, they won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20, defeating India by 6 wickets.
As of July 2018, Sri Lanka have faced nine teams in Test cricket—only recent Test nations Afghanistan and Ireland are missing from their list of opponents—with their most frequent opponent being Pakistan, playing 51 matches against them. Sri Lanka has registered more wins against Pakistan and Bangladesh than any other team, with 14. In ODI matches, Sri Lanka has played against 17 teams; they have played against India most frequently, with a winning percentage of 39.49 in 149 matches. Within usual major ODI nations, Sri Lanka have defeated England on 34 occasions, which is their best record in ODIs. The team have competed against 13 countries in T20Is, and have played 15 matches against New Zealand. Sri Lanka have defeated Australia and West Indies 6 occasions each. Sri Lanka was the best T20I team in the world, where they ranked number one in more than 32 months, and reached World Twenty20 final in three times.
As of 10 July 2018, Sri Lanka have played 272 Test matches; they have won 86 matches, lost 101 matches, and 85 matches were drawn. As of 10 July 2018, Sri Lanka have played 816 ODI matches, winning 376 matches and losing 399; they also tied 5 matches, whilst 36 had no result. As of 10 July 2018, Sri Lanka have played 108 T20I matches and won 54 of them; 52 were lost and 1 tied and 1 no result match as well.
From 8 July 2017 to 23 October 2017, Sri Lanka lost twelve consecutive ODI matches, which is their second longest losing run in ODIs. In the meantime, Sri Lanka involved 5-0 whitewash in three times against South Africa, India and Pakistan in 2017. And a 3-0 whitewash against the West Indies 3 years later

Test cricket

Sri Lanka were awarded Test cricket status in 1981 by the International Cricket Conference. They played their first Test match against England at P. Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo, on 17 February 1982. Bandula Warnapura was the captain for Sri Lanka in that match, which England won by 7 wickets.
Sri Lanka won their first Test match under the leadership of Duleep Mendis on 11 September 1985 against India, winning by 149 runs at P. Saravanamuttu Stadium. Eventually they won the three-match Test series, 1–0. Sri Lanka had to wait more than seven years for their next series victory, which came against New Zealand in December 1992, when they won the two-match series 1–0. This was immediately followed by a one-wicket victory against England in a one-Test series.
Two years later, on 15 March 1995, Sri Lanka won their first overseas Test match under the leadership of Arjuna Ranatunga against New Zealand, when they beat them by 241 runs at Napier. This win also resulted in their first overseas Test series victory, 1–0. Their next series too was an overseas series, against Pakistan, and that one too resulted in Sri Lankan victory.
On 11 September 1999, under the leadership of Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka won their first Test match against Australia, when they beat them by six wickets at Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy. Eventually they won the three-match Test series, 1–0.
On 14 June 2000, Sri Lanka played their 100th Test match. It was against Pakistan, at SSC, Colombo, under the leadership of Sanath Jayasuriya. Pakistan won by 5 wickets.
On 4 August 2016, they played their 250th Test match when they played Australia in Galle. They won the match by 229 runs, and also won the Warne-Muralidharan trophy for the first time since its inception. On 17 August 2016, under the leadership of Angelo Mathews, Sri Lanka whitewashed Australia 3-0 for the first time in Test cricket.
Until 2017, Sri Lanka had whitewashed Zimbabwe three times, Bangladesh once and Australia once in Test cricket.
Sri Lanka played their first day-night Test match on 6 October 2017 against Pakistan at Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Under the captaincy of Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lanka convincingly won the match by 68 runs and sweep the series 2–0. In the match, Dimuth Karunaratne became the first Sri Lankan to score a fifty, a century and a 150 in a day-night Test. Lahiru Gamage, who debut in the match became the first Sri Lankan to take a wicket in a day-night Test, whereas Dilruwan Perera became the first Sri Lankan to take five-wicket haul in a day-night Test.

Governing body

Sri Lanka Cricket, is the governing body for cricket in Sri Lanka. It operates the Sri Lankan cricket team and first-class cricket within Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka Cricket oversees the progress and handling of the major domestic competitions: the First-class tournament Premier Trophy, the List A tournament Premier Limited Overs Tournament and the Twenty20 Tournament. Sri Lanka Cricket also organises and hosts the Inter-Provincial Cricket Tournament, a competition where five teams take part and represent four different provinces of Sri Lanka.
Most of regions of Sri Lanka that are rural areas apart from the Capital could not produce the successful cricketers to the national and international side yet due to the lack of resources and opportunities while only few major areas such as Galle, Matara, Kandy, Kurunegala usually produce successful cricketers to the national and international side instead of the capital. So government is trying to distribute the game within whole country organizing some programmes such as 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament.

International grounds

Updated 4 March 2020.

Team colours

In Test matches, the team wears cricket whites, with an optional sweater or sweater-vest with a dark blue and blue V-neck for use in cold weather, such as Australia, England, and New Zealand tours. The Sri Lankan flag is found on the left side of jersey's chest with the Test cap number usually below the flag; helmets are a deep blue and the fielder's hat is colored similar. The sponsor's logo displayed on the right side of the chest and on the sleeve with the Sri Lankan Cricket logo deployed on the left in test cricket. The period between 2000 and 2010 saw the sponsorship pass between Ceylon Tea, Reebok, Mobitel Sri Lanka and Dialog Axiata; Dilmah has remained a sponsor since the early 2000s, replacing Singer, which was the main sponsor in the 1990s. Former manufacturers were Reebok, AJ Sports, Asics, ISC and Adidas.
Sri Lanka's One Day and Twenty 20 kits vary from year to year with the team wearing its bright blue colour in various shades from kit to kit with yellow stripes in shoulders and waist. Historically, Sri Lanka's kits have had shades of bright blue and golden yellow. In the World Series Cup in 1984–85, Sri Lanka wore yellow uniforms with blue stripes.
For official ICC tournaments such as ICC Cricket World Cup, ICC World Twenty20 and Asia Cup, "SRI LANKA" is written on the front of the jersey in place of the sponsor logo, with the sponsor logo being placed on the sleeve. A remarkable change in the colour of the kit of Sri Lanka can be found during the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 edition in South Africa. The team coloured with pale silver and the kit has never seen since then in the team. Since then, Sri Lankan kit never changed from the usual brilliant blue colour and very fine yellow stripes. For 2016 ICC World Twenty20, orange and green colours in the flag also included in to the jersey. In 2017 ICC Champions Trophy pool game against India, the kit changed to mostly yellow colored shirt with stripes of blue and usual blue trousers.
In 2019 for the 2019 Cricket World Cup, Sri Lankan jersey was made by recycled plastic sea waste from the Sri Lankan coast. In the process, other than MAS Holdings, Sri Lanka Cricket also announced their partnership with Kent RO Systems as principle sponsors for the World Cup. On the side of the blue background, there is a drawing of a turtle on shirt.
However, for non-ICC tournaments and bilateral and tri-nation matches, the sponsor logo features prominently on the front of the shirt. Currently the main sponsors for Sri Lanka cricket are Ceylon Tea, Dialog Axiata, Huawei and MAS Holdings.

Logo

Sri Lanka's cricket team's logo is a golden lion with a sword bearing on the right arm and the background in bright blue in colour. The name "Sri Lanka Cricket" is written below the lion. In Test cricket, the logo in the cap is slightly changed, where the lion with a sword is surrounded by petals of lotus and then a blue circle surrounds the crest and yellow circle surrounding the blue circle.

Tournament history

A red box around the year indicates tournaments hosted or co-hosted by Sri Lanka.

Current squad

The squad comprises players who have represented Sri Lanka since 1 March 2019.

Coaching staff

Selectors: