Asgiriya Stadium only school Test venue

By Hafiz Marikar

The Asgiriya International Stadium in the heart of Sri Lanka's rolling hill-country, is the home ground of Trinity College one of the most prestigious schools in Sri Lanka. Given the lack of flat space in central Sri Lanka the ground was carved straight out of the hill behind the pavilion before being levelled ten feet, and so the end result is one of the most beautiful cricket playing grounds in the world.

Great Cricketers and legends have played at Trinity College, Asgiriya Grounds which is now called as Asgiriya Stadium is one of the most picturesque grounds in the world. The stadium continues to be internationally famous. This ground which is owned by Trinity College has helped almost all the schools in Kandy. Every school used this grounds for 'Big Matches' and even for sports meets and hockey matches at a very nominal fee which helped many sportsmen. Even the Kandy cricket playing clubs were looked after and most of their matches were played at this venue. At this famous stadium, the Asia cup and World Cup cricket matches have also taken place. Every team that visited before and after Test status have played at this venue and have always commented saying that this was one of the best stadiums in the world.

Once when Robin Malar the World famous cricket writer visited this venue he noted that the ground was comparable with the best in the World. Before Asgiriya came in as a playing field, Trinity College used the Bogambara grounds for all their sports activities. With the construction of the Pallekele Stadium all schools except Trinity and St. Anthony's crossed over to play their 'Big Matches', paying there an exorbitant rate as ground fees. After this stadium was inaugurated all international cricket matches have been shifted and are played at the new venue.

Asgiriya has been a venue which has attracted some of the World's great cricketers who visited this country, to name some of them - Herbert Sutcliff, Keith Miller, Tom Graveney, Brian Close, Frank Worrell, Fazal Mohamed, Bill Lawry, Colin Cowdrey, John Edrich, Tony Greig, Jack Hobbs, Leslie Ames, Lindsay Hassett, Sunil Gavaskar, Ajith Wadekar, Geoff Boycott, Kapil Dev, Intikab Alam, Majid Khan, Imran Khan, Javaed Miandad, Mustaq Mohamed, Zaheer Abbas, Wasim Akram, Richard Hadlee, Denis Lille, Jef Thomson, Bob Simson, Ian Chappel, Sachin Tendulkar, Vivian Richards, Garry Sobers, Brain Lara, Shane Warne, Greg Chappel, Wasim Akram, Mohamed Azzarudin, Rameez Raja and Inzamamul Haq.

It was in 1910, 103 years ago that permission was given to start work at Asgiriya grounds by the White Sahibs. The Principal of Trinity at that time was Rev. A.G. Fraser the man behind the construction of this grounds. It was completed in 1915 and the grounds was ceremonially opened by Sir Robert Charmers the then Governor of Ceylon on January 15, 1915. On this day a cricket match was played between a combined team of past and present players of Trinity College against Dr. V.R. Schokman's team from Colombo. The first delivery came from R. Ellawela to Trinity's Richard Aluwihare and it is said that it was lofted to mid wicket. So on that day the happiest man would have been the man who was behind the good work of preparing the grounds the Principal of Trinity College Rev. A.G. Fraser.

The first cricket match to be played at this venue was between Trinity College and S. Thomas' College, Mt. Lavania, that was on January 25, 1915, which game the Trinitians won by an innings. Since the playing field was ready in 1915, after that various changes have taken place at this venue. The Old Pavilion still stands after 67 long years. The old scoreboard is replaced, but a similar one is put up in front of the Old Trinity Sports Club. The old scoreboard was a gift of the Old Boys, who collected money for it during a match against St. Thomas' College.

It was directly opposite the old pavilion.The late Gamini Dissanayake who is an old Trinitian and President of Sri Lanka Cricket at that time, with the permission of then principal, the late Rev. W.G. Wickremasinghe used modern machinery and within a short period of only 150 days made the ground to international standards. On June 6, 1981 Gamini Dissanayake as the President of the Cricket Governing Body, cut the first sod to start work and on February 5, 1982, the then President of the country an old Royalist J.R. Jayewardene ceremonially opened the stadium amidst a vast gathering.

Within a few days of the opening, the first International cricket match was played between Keith Flecher's England team and the Sri Lanka side led by Duleep Mendis. The first official Test to be played at this venue was between Greg Chappell's Australian side and Duleep Mendis's Sri Lanka team. After Sri Lanka won Test status there had been several International games.The sport loving public of Trinity College and Kandy should not forget the people who helped turn this grounds into an international stadium, the turf wicket was prepared by T.M. Omardeen under the supervision of Abu Fuard who coordinated on behalf of the cricket Board, with J.J.D. Shaw Wilson as the first curator. During that time people from all walks of life in Kandy extended their support to the late Gamini Dissanayake.

The Chairman of the project was the late Rev. W.G. Wickremasinghe the Principal, late S. Bandaranayake, late H.M. Halimdeen, Harindra Dunuwille, late Kavan Rambukwella, Jayantha Jayawardene, late Rohan Wijenayake, all old boys of Trinity College, Gamini Kannangara and S. Mubarak from the Water Resources Board were some of the officials who did a tremendous amount of work to make this ground an International Stadium.

At present, Trinity College is under the able leadership of principal - Brig. Udaya Ariyaratne who is one of the most vibrant principals and has extensive plans to do up the grounds; this school is the only school in the world to have a Test playing venue. Brig. Ariyarathne a powerful personality and he had the most wonderful gift of inspiring loyalty and services. Under his guidance Trinity has performed at its best both in education and sports, the standard of administration and education has had a great impact on the results at all examinations recorded after Brig. Ariyaratne took over the school. In particular, discipline and conduct of students within the school and outside. The OBA, parents and the public extend their grateful thanks for the contribution made for his Alma Matar as Principal.