Asgiriya grounds, the only international Test venue in Kandy-By Hafiz Marikar

The famous Asgiriya cricket ground owned by Trinity College has helped many sportsmen. Great cricketers have played on the picturesque ground which has helped all sports in a big way, especially cricket. Most of the world’s great cricketers who visited Sri Lanka have played at Asgiriya. Famous cricket writer, Robin Malar when he visited Kandy said that this ground compared with the best in the world and West Indies fast bowler ‘Big Bird’ Joel Garner in his last outing in Kandy said that he has heard this ground is one of the best in the world.

This ground came alive due to the helping hand given by the white sahibs of the early days. In 1910 they gave Trinity College permission to put up their own grounds. That was during Rev. A.G. Fraser’s tenure as the principal. He was instrumental and was behind the construction of the venue. Trinitians started work and in 1910 it was opened ceremonially by Sir Robert Chalmers, the Governor of Kandy on 15 January 1915. The first inter-school match to be played at Asgiriya was between Trinity and S. Thomas’ Mount Lavinia on 24th and 25th of February 1915. This game was won by Trinity by an innings. Prior to Asgiriya being built, Trinity played their cricket at the Bogambara grounds. Since that time various changes have taken place to the ground.

When he assumed office as Principal of Trinity College in 1904, Rev. A.G. Fraser, was conscious about the lack of a suitable playing ground with 400 students out of them 200 being boarders. The school needed a suitable cricket field, and the possible site was at Asgiriya which was 300 yards away from the school, through the temple a five minute walk.

It was then an abandoned waste land of the War Department. Notice of Rev. Fraser’s application on behalf of Trinity College, for the lease of the Crown land called the Military Grounds was gazetted in Ceylon Government Gazette. Permission was granted to the school to commence work, pending the formal execution of and indenture of lease. The Government Agent at the time had said that the annual lease rental would be Rs. 30 per annum. To make the ground it took five long years. After 67 years, when Gamini Dissanayake, an old Trinitian, took over the leadership of Sri Lanka Cricket, he used modern machinery and within a short period of 150 days made it into an International Cricket Stadium. That was in 1981. Late Gamini Dissanayake was the first to put the sod to start work and on 5 January 1982, the late President J. R. Jayewardene a fine cricketer himself at Royal, ceremonially opened the stadium.

It was during the principal-ship of late Rev. Dr. W.G. Wickremasinghe the stadium became a reality. Trinitians from all walks of life extended their fullest support to Gamini Dissanayke to bring the ground to international standard. A modern pavilion, which has three floors, was constructed – ground floor exclusively for players, umpires and officials with all facilities and the other two floors to accommodate over 1500 spectators. A well equipped media box and a modern scoreboard was also constructed.

The turf wicket was prepared by late T. M. Omardeen under the supervision of late Abu Fuard who coordinated on behalf of the Cricket Board. Old Royalist Shaw Wilson who was Trinity cricket coach at that time, became the first curator and later Trinity’s late Alex Lazarus was there for a quite a sometime. At one time all Kandy schools played their cricket big matches at Asgiriya.

The venue was used when an international team toured Sri Lanka for a Test Match. Asgiriya became Sri Lanka’s second Test venue, after the P Sara Oval when it hosted Greg Chappell’s Australian cricket team in Sri Lanka in 1983.

Sri Lanka’s first Test win at Asgiriya came in 1998 against Zimbabwe, 15 years after the ground hosted its first Test. More success soon followed in the coming years as Sri Lanka won their first Test against Australia in 1999, which was Sri Lanka’s first Test win against Australia; a game remembered for the dreadful collision between Steve Waugh and Jason Gillespie. Both players had to be airlifted to Colombo for medical treatment after being seriously injured. Waugh broke his nose while Gillespie had a broken bone in his shin. Asgiriya has also hosted a 1996 Cricket World Cup fixture between Sri Lanka and Kenya, when Sri Lanka made 398, the highest World Cup score at the time and highest ODI team total. Asgiriya Stadium has hosted a total of 22 Test Matches and seven of them have been won by Sri Lanka.