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Sri Lanka’s First International Cricket Half-Century – By Vinod Moonesinghe Source : roar.media On 5 September 1832, a notice appearing in the Colombo Journal inviting “gentlemen who may be inclined towards forming a Cricket Club” to attend a meeting at the Colombo Library three days later, resulted in the formation of the Colombo Cricket Club (C.C.C.). Shortly after, the first recorded cricket match in Sri Lanka took place between the C.C.C. and the British 97th Regiment of Foot (now the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment), on the Rifle Green in Slave Island. The C.C.C. faded away afterward, but revived in 1863. Ethnic Cricket The players on both sides were all White British—in fact, the C.C.C. remained European-only until 1962. British planters formed the Radella Club (officially Dimbula Athletic and Cricket Club) in 1856, and the Darawella Club (Dickoya Maskeliya Cricket Club) in 1868—which year saw the first Dimbulla-Dickoya cricket encounter. Other, all-European outstations clubs, such as ...