Kandy will be back in domestic club cricket in March, after the current school season. When school matches are on it is difficult to get grounds. Kandy District Cricket Association with the backing of the Central Province Cricket Association are all out to bring club cricket back to its former position. At present club cricket in Kandy is stagnant. Last year too the Kandy District CA tried to organise domestic tournaments but failed, due to lack of grounds and sponsors. Now the Kandy District CA has planned to bring back all the former tournaments back to the field.
At one time cricket was the number one sport in Kandy both at school and club level. Even today school cricket is going good, but club cricket needs a push up. Cricket at club level has hit rock bottom, Kandy officials only come alive when there is an international game played here. In the early days there were nearly five domestic tournaments, Six-a-side for Dr. JC Blok trophy, double wicket tournament for Dr. C.D.L. Fernando trophy, T20 for Dr. M.S Uduwella trophy, one-day cricket for George Hemachandra trophy and a normal two-day tournament.
Cricket was played in Kandy from about 1863 mainly in the Knuckles-Rangala and Kandy town which had the ABCD Club. In 1896 ABCD Club became Kandy Sports Club. The first unofficial Test in Ceylon was played at the Bogambara ground in 1889. The exclusive European Kandy Sports Club invited local Ceylonese to play for them from 1920. In 1914 and 1916 overseas teams played at Bogambara and Asgiriya and in 1935 an Indian University team met the Up-Country team. The Province Cricket Association was formed with Dr. Anthonisz as president. He offered the “Dr. VHL Anthonisz” shield for competition amongst clubs in the Kandy district. The revival of Kandy district cricket took place on August 16, 1946 with Dr. Anthonisz as secretary and Col. Gordon Piper as president. The inaugural tournament was won by Kandy SC led by Francis Amarasinghe.
The inaugural first class match at Asgiriya was between the Sri Lanka Board President XI and Intikhab Alam’s Pakistan side in 1976. The Test era began in Kandy on February 9, 1982 with a three-day game. On 22-2-1983 a year later Asgiriya became the third Test venue in Sri Lanka and the 54th in the world. Since that game almost every team that visited Sri Lanka has played at Asgiriya.
After Sri Lanka gained Test status, people like late Dr. C.D.L. Fernando, late Dr. M.S. Uduwella, Harindra Dunuwille and Roy de Silva, who were past presidents of Kandy CA made cricket flourish at club level.
One should not forget the yeoman services rendered by late Z.M. Jauffer and Aubrey Kuruppu when they were secretaries and also people like M.B. Samarakoon, E.W. Balasuriya, Col. S. Baha, Dr. Deva Athureliya, M.E. Marikar, Deva Amunugama, Malcolm Berenger, Bertie Gomes, D.H. de Silva, Malcolm Perera, H. Marikar, J.D. Shaw Wilson, V. Vartharaja, Jayantha Weerasekara, Raja Abeyanayake, R. Karunaratne and Y. Thiyakaran.
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