Sri Lanka's home of cricket

England has Lord's, Australia has the MCG, and Sri Lanka has the Sinhalese Sports Club, the SSC. The history is not as long, and the names that figure in the annals of the ground's history are fewer - but for Sri Lankans, the SSC is the home of cricket.

It is where the game was nurtured, through schools matches and through club games, and, although it cannot claim to be the first Test ground in Sri Lanka, it can claim seniority by dint of having staged more Tests than any other.

My own association with the ground began as an 18-year-old when I turned up to play for Kandy against Colombo in the Under-19 district final. Apart from a few friends and some loyal family members, the ground was pretty deserted, but it was still impressive. To walk out to the middle was to imagine what it would be like to play in a Test match there; to take strike was to imagine how it would feel to make a hundred. Since that day, I have been fortunate enough to play Test cricket at the SSC and I did indeed make a Test hundred there.

The cricket history of the stadium goes back over a century to the days when Sri Lanka was Ceylon. In 1899 a cricket match between a Combined Schools XI, drawn from three schools - Royal, St Thomas's and Wesley - belonging exclusively to the majority Sinhala community of Ceylon, and Colts CC, a leading club, resulted in an unexpected one-run win in the first innings for the Schools. This single-run victory created a sensation, as school cricket was the centre of attraction at the time, and it was to remain so for the entire pre-Test era, with newspapers constantly carrying lavish praise of schoolboy achievements.

The Sinhalese Sports Club was established in 1899 and, in 1900, acquired the lease on land at Victoria Park, comprising sandy soil covered with cinnamon trees. The club was not short of development funds as it began to be patronised by the wealthiest of the Sinhalese, and the club duly unveiled its first turf wicket in 1917. Club membership was limited to Sinhalese men and, as in all Ceylonese clubs, the members imitated the British in every way from their mode of dress to the grammatical correctness - with a bit of slang thrown in - of their spoken English. They organised regular ballroom dancing, drank scotch and took great pride in their secondary education at leading Anglican missionary schools. They were also most particular in their use of fork and spoon instead of the fingers when eating the staple rice and curry. Arjuna Ranatunga, a man from a typical Sinhala background who went on to captain Sri Lanka in 56 Tests, once remarked in a television interview how uncomfortable he felt at the start of his career with the alien table manners of the SSC.

Originally, half-a-dozen workers attended to the duties at the ground. The numbers have now trebled, with much more care being taken to maintain the playing areas to international standards. The lawns and flowerbeds are manicured to give the premises the look of quality. Ranil Abeynaike, the club's curator, tells a story about the inherent dangers for the groundstaff: "The eastern side of the field was once not used for cricket and was neglected. It was a breeding place for the creeping, crawling and flying types, from vicious vipers to cobras, water monitors, iguanas and tortoises and many species of birds. There was only one incident of a human being falling victim to these creatures - a labourer sitting on a curled-up viper."

And you wonder why I became a wicketkeeper.

On February 17, 1982, Test cricket came to Sri Lanka. It was the dawn of an exciting new era and, after a slow start with just two Tests played there in the first six years, the SSC has emerged as the leading ground on the island. In its relatively short history, it has certainly staged some memorable matches. Some of them Sri Lanka won; others we lost. One of our victories, against Bangladesh in the Asian Test Championship in September 2001, gave the SSC a special place in the history books, as the Bangladeshi batsman Mohammad Ashraful became the youngest man to score a Test hundred - perhaps that should be boy, because he was one day short of his 17th birthday when he made his 114.

One of the defeats, however, came in August 1992, in a match that might be said to have changed the course of cricket history. Sri Lanka dominated the game, bowling Australia out for 256 and then piling up a massive 547 for 8 dec. There were hundreds for Ranatunga, Asanka Gurusinha and Romesh Kaluwitharana. The Australians batted better in their second innings, with everyone getting into double figures, but the target for Sri Lanka was only 181. The pitch was taking spin, but it was still very gettable.

At 127 for 2, Sri Lanka looked home and dry. Then Aravinda de Silva fell to Craig McDermott for 37, Ranatunga followed soon after, and panic set in with wickets tumbling at regular intervals. Only Gurusinha held firm but he could do nothing when Allan Border tossed the ball to a chunky bleach-blond legspinner. Having been caned all around the SSC in the first innings for a return of 0 for 107 in 22 overs, Shane Warne responded by taking the last three wickets for no runs in just 13 balls. Australia won by 16 runs, and the Warne legend was born.

Sri Lanka beat England in a one-off Test there in 1992-93, but we had a less happy experience when England came back in 2000-01. This time Graham Thorpe made 113 and we slipped to 81 all out in our second innings. England needed just 74 to win, but we almost did an Australia on them, as we took six wickets before Thorpe took them over the winning line. Maybe if we had had another 30 runs we would have won that one too.

Since that game the SSC has been good to us, as we have won five in a row there, three of them by an innings. Muttiah Muralitharan has had a lot to do with this success. He is easily the highest wicket-taker at the ground, and has taken five wickets in an innings seven times, with a best of 8 for 87 against India. With Murali, however, it is not just that he takes so many wickets; it's the aura that he brings with him to the team. We know going into a Test that the opposition are scared of him; many of the world's top batsmen do not have a clue how to play him. It seems to be only the left-handers who get to grips with him. Thorpe is one example, but Andy Flower and Brian Lara are others who have tamed him at the SSC.

As a Tamil within Sri Lanka he is also a unifying force, doing more for the peace process than any politician ever will. When Murali bowls, he bowls for the whole of Sri Lanka, and people from every corner of society, never mind their political beliefs, are behind him. As for questions about his action, I have no doubt that he is absolutely legal. To me he is a clean bowler and a great one. With all due respect to Warne, I believe Murali is the greatest spinner in the world. His figures speak for themselves, but they are doubly impressive when you consider that he has not had the back-up firepower that Warne has had with Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Brett Lee and so on.

Another bowler who has enjoyed himself at the SSC is Chaminda Vaas, a much-underrated left-arm swing bowler, who earned a place in the history books with 14 for 191 in our ten-wicket defeat of West Indies in 2001-02.

On a personal note, the SSC has been good to me. My first Test there was against South Africa in 2000. It happened to coincide with Ranatunga's last Test, so it was a very special occasion. I did not make many runs, but after batting at No. 6 in the first two Tests, I was promoted to No. 3 in the second innings. It was the real start of my run in the team. And yet, amid all that, my abiding memory will be of Arjuna tucking into pork chops for his lunch. Usually we had rice, lentils or salad for our lunch, but Arjuna had requested pork chops and Chinese food and, because it was his final Test, the team physio, Alex Kountouri, complied. I don't think I ever saw Arjuna quite so happy.

Having achieved one schoolboy ambition by playing for Sri Lanka, I was fortunate enough to fulfil another when, on December 28, 2001, I completed my first and, as I write, only Test century at the SSC. It came at the expense of Zimbabwe, and the best thing about it was that it led to an innings victory and ultimately a 3-0 series win. I made 128 and loved every moment of it. Sometimes, as a batsman, you have days when you know it is going to be your day and this was one of those, as I dropped into a rhythm right from the start. Conditions were perfect; the outfield was like glass. When I reached three figures I did not really take in the achievement. I was too involved in the game at hand and going on to make enough runs to put Zimbabwe under pressure. It was only when I was back in the pavilion, and then when the game was over and I was able to have a few days away from the cricket, that I was able to digest it.

I thought about this game and my part in it and then began to think about some of the others who have made Test hundreds at the SSC. It made me realise how privileged I am to have been a small part in the wonderful jigsaw that makes up the history of this great ground.