Sri Lanka Cricket Grounds Guide: Galle, SSC, Colombo

There are grounds in this sport that a broadcaster can make look beautiful, and there is Galle, which requires no help at all. A wide-angle shot from behind the bowler's arm picks up the outfield, then the ramparts of a seventeenth-century Dutch fort, then the Indian Ocean, in that order, without the camera moving. People who have never watched a session of Test cricket recognise it.

The rest of the island's venues are less photogenic and, in cricketing terms, considerably more varied than their reputation suggests. Five grounds carry most of the international programme, and each asks a different question.

Galle International Stadium

The setting

The ground sits on a low headland at the southern tip of the island, hemmed in by the sea on two sides and overlooked by the walls of Galle Fort. The fort was begun by the Portuguese and extensively rebuilt by the Dutch in the seventeenth century, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Spectators watch from the ramparts. This is not an official viewing area with a ticket and a turnstile; it is a wall, and people sit on it, and they have done since the ground began hosting international cricket.

The site itself was a racecourse before it was a cricket ground. Test cricket arrived in 1998, when New Zealand played the inaugural match there, and Galle established a reputation almost immediately as the hardest place in the world for a visiting side to win a Test.

The 2004 tsunami

On 26 December 2004 the Indian Ocean tsunami struck the southern coast. Galle was among the worst-affected towns and the stadium, sitting at sea level with almost no protection, was destroyed. The playing surface, the stands and the buildings were wrecked. In the period that followed, the ground was used as a base for relief operations rather than for cricket.

Rebuilding took three years. Test cricket returned in December 2007, when England played there, and the ground has been in continuous international use since. It is worth stating plainly what that involved: a small coastal city rebuilt a Test venue while rebuilding itself, and the fact that Galle now looks like it has always been there is the point.

What the pitch does

Galle turns, and it turns early. The surface is dry, the ball grips from the first afternoon in most matches, and by the fourth day it is a spinner's pitch in the fullest sense. Sides winning the toss here bat, and sides batting fourth here have a well-documented problem.

This is the ground where Muttiah Muralitharan took his 800th Test wicket, off the final ball of his final Test in July 2010 against India, which is as neat an ending as the sport has produced. It is also the ground where more than one visiting team with a strong record everywhere else has been bowled out twice inside three days. Left-arm orthodox and off-spin have both flourished here for the reasons set out in the guide to the spin bowling tradition.

R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo

Known for years by its original name, Khettarama, and renamed after President Ranasinghe Premadasa, this is the country's principal limited-overs venue and its largest. It is floodlit, it is in Colombo, and it hosts the bulk of the white-ball international programme along with the showpiece matches of the Lanka Premier League.

What the pitch does

Slow and low, and slower as the match goes on. The surface holds up, cutters and slower balls grip, and spinners bowling into the pitch are difficult to hit down the ground. Totals here are usually below what the same teams would post in Australia or South Africa, and chasing sides have historically been helped by dew in evening matches, which takes the sting out of spin in the second innings. Captains winning the toss under lights frequently bowl for that reason.

The stadium has hosted matches at global tournaments on more than one occasion, including the final of the 2012 World Twenty20, in which West Indies beat Sri Lanka. It was also the venue for one of the sport's more absurd episodes, when the 2002 Champions Trophy final was rained off on two successive days and the trophy was shared between India and Sri Lanka without a result being achieved.

Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo

The SSC is a club ground at Maitland Place that happens to be a Test venue, and it is the traditional home of Sri Lankan Test cricket in the capital. Sri Lanka Cricket's offices sit alongside it, which means the ground has an institutional weight the others lack.

What the pitch does

Flat. Historically the flattest surface in the country and one of the flattest anywhere, a batting pitch on which sides have made enormous scores and bowlers have been asked to work very hard for very little. Spin becomes a factor on days four and five, but the first two days at the SSC have traditionally been a batting examination in the sense of concentration and heat rather than technique.

The defining performance belongs to Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, who put on 624 for the third wicket against South Africa in 2006, the highest partnership for any wicket in Test cricket. It took the best part of two days. It also tells you everything you need to know about the surface.

The other Colombo grounds

The P Sara Oval, owned by the Tamil Union club, is the oldest international venue in the country and staged the inaugural Test in February 1982 against England. It has been used intermittently for Tests since and offers rather more to seam than the SSC does. The Colombo Cricket Club and Nondescripts grounds host first-class and limited-overs domestic cricket, and their role in the club structure is covered in the guide to domestic first-class cricket.

Pallekele International Cricket Stadium

Built in the hills outside Kandy in the run-up to the 2011 World Cup, Pallekele took over from the old Asgiriya Stadium as the central province's international venue. Asgiriya, a school ground on a hillside, had hosted Tests for decades and is fondly remembered; Pallekele is a purpose-built modern stadium with floodlights and a considerably better view of the surrounding hills than of the city.

What the pitch does

More carry than the coastal grounds. The elevation and the cooler, wetter climate produce a surface with a little more pace and bounce, which makes Pallekele the venue where visiting seamers are most likely to feel useful. Spin still matters, but a fast bowler who hits the pitch hard gets something back here that Galle and the Premadasa will not give him.

The weather is the other characteristic. Kandy's climate interrupts cricket. Matches at Pallekele lose sessions to rain with a frequency that groundstaff have become extremely good at managing, and a five-day Test here rarely runs without an interruption.

Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium

Dambulla sits in the dry zone of the north central province, near the rock temple complex that gives the town its name and within reach of Sigiriya. The ground was constructed in a remarkably short period around the turn of the millennium, which at the time was held up as evidence of what the board could achieve when it wanted to, and it was built specifically to take international cricket out of Colombo.

What the pitch does

Dry-zone conditions, a hard surface early and progressive slowing. Batting is straightforward in the first innings and appreciably harder in the second as the ball stops coming on. It is primarily a limited-overs venue and has hosted a large volume of ODI cricket, including multi-team tournaments, and it is used regularly for the domestic T20 league.

The venues at a glance

Ground	City	Primary use	Traditional character
Galle International Stadium	Galle	Tests	Turns early and heavily; fourth-innings chases very difficult
R. Premadasa Stadium	Colombo	ODIs, T20s	Slow and low; cutters and spin effective; dew a factor at night
Sinhalese Sports Club	Colombo	Tests	Flat batting surface; spin arrives late in the match
P Sara Oval	Colombo	Tests, domestic	The original Test venue; more assistance for seam
Pallekele	Kandy district	All formats	More pace and carry; frequent weather interruptions
Rangiri Dambulla	Dambulla	ODIs, T20s	Hard early, slows through the innings; dry-zone heat
Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium	Hambantota	Limited-overs	Built for the 2011 World Cup; used intermittently

The general principles behind why these surfaces behave as they do, and why soil and grass cover matter more than climate alone, are set out in the guide to cricket pitch types.

Reading a venue before a match

Three habits are worth having when a series here is announced.

Check which grounds are on the schedule. A three-Test series with two matches in Galle is a different proposition from one split between the SSC and Pallekele. Selection follows the venue list, and touring sides that pick two spinners for a Galle-heavy itinerary are reading the schedule correctly.

Watch the toss. At Galle it is close to decisive in a Test. At the Premadasa in a day-night limited-overs match it is close to decisive in the other direction. Very few countries have venues where the toss carries this much weight, which is part of what makes touring here awkward.

Look at the balance of the eleven. A visiting side that has picked three seamers and a part-time spinner for a Galle Test has usually made its decision before a ball is bowled. The reasoning behind team composition in different conditions is covered in the guide to building a playing XI.

Why the grounds matter to the national side

Home advantage here is not a vague notion. It is a specific, measurable thing built on surfaces that reward the skill the country produces in greatest abundance, and it explains a home Test record that has embarrassed several superior touring sides over the decades. The corollary is the away record, which for long stretches has been poor, because a cricketer raised on Galle and the SSC has learned a different game from the one required at Headingley or Perth. That trade-off is examined in the history of Sri Lanka cricket, and the deeper roots of the venue culture in the origin of cricket in Sri Lanka.

Contrast is instructive. The venue-by-venue variation that shapes the Ashes grounds is a different problem entirely, and the range of conditions across the sport is set out in cricket around the world. Career records for the players named above are in the player index, and the rest of the material on this country is collected on the cricket in Sri Lanka hub.

Sources and method

This guide draws on published international match records and scorecards for each venue, official venue and heritage listings for Galle Fort, contemporaneous reporting of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the subsequent reconstruction of the Galle ground, and the historical record of Test and one-day fixtures at each stadium. Pitch behaviour is described from the aggregate pattern of results and scoring at each ground rather than from any single match, and is stated qualitatively because surfaces are relaid and preparation changes. No capacities, ticket prices or current facilities details are given. This site is not affiliated with Sri Lanka Cricket or with any ground or club named here.