“A magnificent work of engineering” would be the most appropriate way to describe the Asgiriya Cricket Stadium, where some unprecedented milestones have been achieved for Sri Lanka Cricket, considering the hilly nature of Kandy.
The ground had to be carved straight out of the hill behind the pavilion before being levelled by ten feet, so that the end result would be one of the most alluring venues for sports in Sri Lanka. A special feature of this famous ground is the fact that it supports pace bowlers who are more commonly known as fast bowlers.
During the period of Trinity’s legendary Principal Rev. A. G. Fraser in 1915 the stadium was opened by the Governor, Sir Robert Chalmers. however, the conversion of the stadium to an international one was done under the guidance of Hon. Gamini Dissanayake, a prominent past pupil of Trinity College, in 1982. The then President of the country Hon. J R Jayawardane opened the stadium as the 2nd international cricket playing venue in Sri Lanka
Along with the forthcoming 41st limited overs encounter with St. Anthony’s College Kandy, this picturesque stadium will also celebrate the 40th anniversary of its first international test match which was played against Australia on the 22nd of April, 1983. Despite complete domination by the mighty Aussies in the above-said match, several promising cricketers such as Duleep Mendis, Arjuna Ranatunga and Sidath Weththamuny whom would later be named as Sri Lankan cricket legends scored several gritty innings.
Asgiriya also hosted a fixture in the 1996 ODI World Cup where Sri Lanka scored the highest-ever score in an innings at that time, 398 runs against Kenya.
However Arguably the most remarkable match which was ever hosted here would be the record-breaking test match against England in 2007, where several milestones were achieved. The most prominent being Muttiah Muralitharan becoming the bowler with the most wickets in test match history with the dismissal of Paul Collingwood. Although Muralitharan is an Antonian, he would be sure to have delightful memories at Asgiriya.
This significant test match also was the 100th test match of Chaminda Vaas, one of Sri Lanka’s greatest pace bowlers. Another highlight was the magnificent retirement to Sanath Jayasooriya’s test career where he smashed James Anderson for 6 boundaries in one over. Trinity’s own stalwart Kumar Sangakkara was the player of the match with a magnificent century, Sri Lanka won the game by 88 runs which was significant and well deserved for the last match to be played at this historic stadium.
Many Trinitians have represented Sri Lanka at the international level such as Ravi Ratnayake, Nilantha Rathnayake, Kumar Sangakkara, Ranjan Madugalle who incidentally is the only match referee in the world to officiate in 500+ matches and more recently Niroshan Dickwella and Matheesa Pathirana, Hasitha Boyagoda all of whom have been groomed and coached at this historic stadium.
The 41st one day encounter which is scheduled to be held on the 29th of April for Sir Richard Aluvihare trophy, will also be played at this historic venue where the lions will be looking forward to grabbing their final victory of their winning streak, which includes the all-island schools one day championship, all island schools two-day championship and the John Halangoda Trophy.
An Article by Chaniru Senhas, Nimuthu Pathiraja and Rehan Anandakumar
