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MAIN COMMERCIAL PARTNERS |
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International Cricket - Introduction |
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| Sri Lanka 1996 World Cup Champions |
Sri Lanka gained full membership of the International Cricket Conference (as ICC was then known) in July 1981 after years of waiting in the wings.
"If the main criterion to play Test Cricket was the mere ability and skill to play the game then perhaps we should have been playing Test Cricket very many years ago", wrote Hon Gamini Dissanayake, President of the Board of Control for Cricket at the time Test status was granted, who was also instrumental in setting up the Sri Lanka Cricket Foundation mainly to raise funds to develop infrastructure facilities.
The first Test match was played against England in February (17-22) 1982 at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium. Sri Lanka was captained by Bandula Warnapura while Keith Fletcher led England. It was also the Centennial Year celebrating 100 years when the first international game was played in Colombo - also against an England team. England won the first Test by 7 wickets.
Much progress has been made in developing the game since, reaching the climax with the winning of the ICC World Cup in 1996. The record against Test playing nations is quite impressive in both Test matches and One Day Internationals (ODI).
Sri Lanka recorded its 50th victory in Test cricket with a win over Bangladesh in Kandy in July 2007. It set a new record in terms of time, as it took Sri Lanka just over 25 years to achieve the feat.
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