Pallekelle Cricket Stadium seventh Test venue in Lanka on Dec.1

by S.M. Jiffrey ABDEEN - Kandy Sports Correspondent at Pallekelle

CRICKET: Pallekelle Cricket Stadium in the suburban area of Kandy will be the seventh Test venue in Sri Lanka when the third cricket Test match between Sri Lanka and West Indies gets under way at this new cricket stadium from December 1st to 5th.

This cricket stadium gets its Test venue status after P. Sara Stadium, SSC, R. Premadasa Stadium (all in Colombo) Galle Cricket Stadium, Asigiriya Cricket Stadium, Rangiri Dambula Cricket Stadium and the eigth one will follow at Sooriyawewa Stadium in South. It is a matter of pride that a small country like Sri Lanka has eight Test venues to chose from having different weather patterns when deciding on a Test venue.

Three World Cup cricket matches including the one between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe are scheduled to be played in this new venue which will give the cricket fans not only in Kandy in the entire Central Province a cricket fixture when foreign cricket teams visit Sri Lanka. For the tourists, it will be cricket coupled with tourism as Kandy has a large number of places of interest to be visited.

Former West Indies cricket captain Clive Lloyd representing the ICC visited the Pallekelle Cricket Stadium in mid-October and was delighted with the settings and the arrangements which are in hand and exclaimed "This is one of the most beautiful cricket grounds" he had ever seen. Yes indeed it is a beautiful Test venue hemmed on side by the Dumbara hills and the other by the Hewaheta and the Hantane ranges and a very cool wind often wafts across the grounds.

The ground is located on a nearly 24 acre land with easy access and the facilities are getting into place. This Cricket Stadium had its beginnings in late nineties but it took time to get off the launching pad, but got stuck midway till it was taken over by Sri Lanka Cricket in 2007 with partly constructed buildings and shrub jungle invading due to neglect for a couple of years. Bandula Warnapura as the Chairman of the Cricket Development Centre, did a tremendous amount of work to clear the shrub jungle and get the playing area ready.

Work Speeded

Last year, the present Chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket Interim Committee and former Sri Lanka Test cricketer D.S. de Silva visited this venue and took a decision that it will be a waste to allow this ground to progress at a snail's pace and decided that the work should be accelerated with a view of playing some of the 2011 World Cup matches and also should be made a Test venue replacing Asgiriya Stadium where only a small crowd could be accommodated and often recognised as a Test venue though the South Africans and the West Indians have played limited-over matches and the only match of significance which had been played at Asgiriya was in 1996 when Sri Lanka played Kenya and a world record score was scored. A packed stadium watched this match.

This new ground will have almost all the facilities for an international grounds. The work is going at great speed and the time this writer visited this venue on November 24, some 345 workers were working with the construction work being handled by the State Engineering Corporation

and a large ground staff was also present to complete the work for the World Cup ahead of time.

Seeing is believing. There was a heavy downpour lasting nearly two hours when this writer was present and though the wicket was covered, heavy rain fell on the outfield and there was indications that the ground will be flooded. But that was never to be. One hour later when this writer got to the grounds, all the water had drained off and the playing field was ready to play a match.

On inquiries it was revealed that it had the latest filtering system in which some 6000 feet of tubes were used to filter the water away.

Rs.750 million for full stadium

The Chairman of the SLC Interim Committee D.S. de Silva said that a sum of Rs. 750 million had been allocated to construct the present stage of this venue which will include the VIP enclosure, players pavilion, corporate boxes, flood lights, media box, terraces, open spaces, public toilets, scoreboard, practice wickets, sight screens, open areas roads and many other facilities.

He said in an interview with this writer that he had a vision to promote and develop cricket in the outstations. He took this decision to develop this ground with a view of giving Kandy an International Grounds. Kandy has a large following of cricket lovers and in the past it has given the country a large number of national cricketers who had brought fame honour to the country. Therefore Kandy should have a fully fledged International venue. There are many schools playing cricket in Kandy and these schools could make use of this venue. The clubs too could use them.

The operational work is presently handled by a former cricketer and a very hard working one at that who is at the venue from dawn to dusk but wishes to remain anonymous. He is assisted by a qualified curator to handle the wickets and he too wishes to remain anonymous. Both said that it is the work which is important and not the name. We want to give back to cricket what we have achieved from it. Only a cricketer will know the requirements of a cricketer and we are doing just that. A very humble and a modest statement from which official who is not a place seeker. National curator Anuruddha Polonowita is in overall charge of the wickets.

This ground could accommodate over 30,000 spectators at any given time and their requirement had been looked into from fresh drinking water to the toilets.

Full scoreboard later

The scoreboard will have seven storeys but this will not be ready for the Test match and a digital scoreboard will be used. Four floodlights have been installed using their own generators. This will be the first ground with flood light facility in Kandy.

The Media box will have four levels for print media, electronic media, TV crew, commentators box, radio commentators box, Camera desk, The third and fourth levels will be for print media. A total of over 150 media personnel could be accommodated.

The dressing rooms will have carpeted floors, lookers and Deluxe toilet fittings - the best which is available. Comfortable chairs and other facilities are available.

The playing area has been planted with Santana grass (an Australian variety) and obtained from Victoria Golf and Country Resort's Turf Management and the wicket will have 'blue grass'. All 7 wickets will have 80 metre boundary lines. A total of 22 covers will cover the playing area during a match. There is also a grass nursery for the wickets and the playing area. Officials have taken the precaution to plant the vacant area with Santana grass to neutralise any effects if there is a dispersal of seeds and no damage will be done. The grounds will have its own water system with three deep wells and two dial sumps and in all have 104 sprinklers.

Pallekelle Cricket Stadium which is in the mid country dry zone is going to be an extremely popular cricket venue and Kandy should be proud of it. It is only about 14 kilometres from Kandy with good roads and only a stone throw's distance from the Pallekelle Board of Investments with good roads and plenty of public transport available.