Pallekelle Cricket Stadium will be opened on Nov. 27

by S. M. Jiffrey ABDEEN - Kandy Sports Corr.

CRICKET: The Pallekelle Cricket Stadium owned by Sri Lanka Cricket will be baptised on Friday November 27, when the playing fields will be formally declared open with a soft opening with a warm up match being played.

This opening will certainly boost cricket in the hill country and will open new vistas for the game. It holds a good future for the sport with international matches including World Cup cricket matches lined up for the future.

Pallekelle Cricket Stadium was mooted at least about 7 or 8 years ago when S. B. Dissanayake was the Minister of Sports and the foundation stone was laid, but, the work did not progress and next during the tenure of office of Lakshman Kiriella as Minister of Sports this project came under review. There were some dispute at that time the land earmarked for this project partly belonged to the Mahaweli Authority.

But despite all these problems the work on the grounds and the infrastructure started but mid way was halted for many reasons and shrub jungle took over the grounds and the partly constructed buildings presented a sorry picture till it was taken over by the Sri Lanka Cricket a few years back and as a first step, the playing field was cleared of the shrub jungle.

Last year in December, the Kandurata Cricket Centre was formally declared opened with an office and C. P. P. Raj as Operations Manager. Since then the wicket had been rehabilitated over a period of time and the outfield looks as good as any ground in Sri Lanka with a luxuriant growth of grass and officials and the workers working hard on it as this ground will be the cricket centre probably for the hill country due to it being centrally placed and easily accessible for cricketers and above it experiences a lesser a rainfall than Kandy. Therefore the chances of rain interfering play is lesser than the Asgiriya Stadium. This area is known as mid-country dry zone.

There is talks of 2011 World Cup matches being staged at the Pallekelle Stadium which is indeed very good as Kandy has not seen any World Cup matches being played except the one between Sri Lanka and Kenya played at the Asgiriya Stadium in 1996 where Sri Lanka posted a record total of 398 which stood for many years.

Very few limited over international matches have been played in Kandy which has been probably identified as a Test venue and even this has become a thing of the past, as it has been over two years since a Test match was played in Kandy.

It is ironical that both Sri Lanka's national Captain Kumar Sangakkra and Vice-Captain Muttaih Muralitharan hail from Kandy and had their cricket foundation laid in this hill city.

Third player Chamara Kapugedera too is from Kandy and Sri Lanka's opening batsman Tharanga Paranavitharane too is from the Central Region and the cricketers from Kegalle come under the purview of the Central Province and they represent this province.

Thus Kandy should not be neglected from international cricket and the opening of the Pallekelle Cricket Stadium may be the panacea for all these ills and a step in the right direction.

Having a good cricket stadium, international cricket will be certainly played there without having to depend on a school ground used for many sports. The position will be such that it will be available for any match at short notice as only cricket will be played and the grounds maintained to highest standards. But a lot more work requires to be done especially the infrastructure if the World Cup matches are to be staged at this venue Sri Lanka with the materials at its disposal could meet these deadlines.

It is understood that initially the under 19 Triangular series matches involving Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh are expected to be play at Pallekelle commencing on November 29th and on conclusion of these matches it will be known how the wickets behave and adjustments if any, could be made under the guidance of the National Curator Anuruddha Polonowita.

Thus November 27 is going to be a big day for cricket fans in the hill capital, though the weather gods could be a little unkind as they had been diverting their attention in the hill country as they had been doing in other parts of the country these days.