Arjuna's evolution

by A.C. De Silva

The Sri Lanka cricket team is the national cricket team of Sri Lanka. The team first played international in 1926-27, and were later awarded Test status in 1981, which made Sri Lanka the eighth Test cricket playing nation.

Ceylon, as the country was known before 1972, played its first first-class match under that name against Marylebone Cricket club 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.

Sri Lanka Cricket team's One Day International debut came in the 1975 Cricket World Cup and their first One Day International win against a Test cricket playing nation came in the 1970 Cricket World Cup against India. Sri Lanka was later awarded Test cricket status in 1981, by the International Cricket Council.

Arjuna Ranatunga (born 1st December 1963) is a presently a Cabinet Minister in the present government of Sri Lanka and before getting that high position, he served as the captain of the Sri Lanka cricket team for much of the 1990s, and the team won the 1996 Cricket World Cup under his leadership, followed by the ICC Champions Trophy in 2002 (co-champions with India), have been consecutive runners-up in the 2007 and 2011 Cricket World Cups, and have been runners-up in the ICC World Twenty20 in 2009 and 2012. The team has won the ICC World Twenty20 Championship for the first time in 2014.

The Sri Lanka cricket team currently holds several world record, including world records for highest team totals in all three forms of the game, Test, ODI and Twenty20. A specialist left-handed batsman and part-time medium pace bowler, Ranatunga's career with the Sri Lankan national team began in 1982.

Ranatunga made his first-class debut in 1981 at the age of eighteen and a year later played in Sri Lanka's inaugural Test natch. In this match he became the first Sri Lankan to score a Test half century.

Ranatunga went on to captain Sri Lanka in 1988, taking control of the national team for the next 11 years, transforming it from a weak, routinely defeated team into a competitive and successful unit. In June 2000, Ranatunga played in Sri Lanka's 100th Test match, becoming the only player to represent his country in their first and hundredth Test.

Milestones

Sri Lanka is the only ICC Trophy winning team to have gone on to win the Cricket World Cup at a later date. Sri Lanka is the only team to have participated in every edition of the Asia Cup.

Between 7 years (2007-2014) Sri Lanka have played five finals 2007 World Cup, ICC World Twenty20 in 2009, 2011 world Cup, ICC World Twenty20 in 2012 and ICC World Twenty20 in 2014 which is record and Sri Lanka have qualified to ICC World Twenty20, 2010 Semi-finals and ICC Champions Trophy 2013.