Kandy District Cricket Association under the leadership of Roland Perera and Janaka Pathirana , said that the committee will be “hell bent” on getting cricket back to normal as soon as the situation with the Covid-19 pandemic improves. The game was resumed in Kandy, with the 2020 KDCA limited overs cricket tournament, which took off on 20th August and half way it was halted with twenty nine teams in action and the tournament was in full swing with, nearly forty games being played.
This tournament gave a boost to local talent by giving them an excellent opportunity to play good cricket under the guidance of seasoned players. Malcolm Perera the vice president mainly responsible for cricket structure of the KDCA with years of experience in the game gave of his best
The sport of cricket in the Kandy city has a long cricket history, It was around 1863 that cricket was first played in the Kandy District and it was mainly in the Knuckles/Rangala areas and Kandy town. Members of the Kandy Dancing, Boating, and Rowing Club also played cricket. It was this club that later became the Kandy Sports Club (KSC) in recent years dominated Sri Lanka rugby. Until about the World War I (1914-18) Europeans did not permit locals to join their clubs in the country.
This was true of KSC as well. However, from the 1920s KSC invited locals to play for the club.. In 1889 Ceylon, as the island was officially known until1971, played the first unofficial test twelve years after the first England vs.Australia test was played in 1877. The 1889 match was played on the Bogambara grounds.
During the inter-war period several foreign visiting cricket teams including an Indian University team played in Kandy. In addition to Bogambara the other cricket venue was the Trinity College grounds at Asgiriya. World War II halted most sports activities.
After the war ended Kandy physician Dr. V H L Anthoniz who was a passionate cricketer took the lead to revive the game in Kandy. The Central Province Cricket Association was formed in the late 1940s with Dr.Anthonisz as president. He offered the Dr. V H L Anthoniz Shield for which clubs in the area including KSC, University Scheme SC, Kandy YMCA, and KandyYMBA competed. KSC led by Francis Amarasinghe won the first tournament. In 1947 Central Province Cricket Association participated in the Zonal Tournament conducted by the Ceylon Cricket Association.
The Central Province Cricket Association has hosted a large number of foreign cricket teams that visited Kandy between 1950 and 1976. These included the Commonwealth Team (1950 and 1951), MCC (1952, 1969,1973), All India (1956 and 1974), Pakistan (1964 and 1976), Hyderabad Blues(1966), State Bank of India (1967), and Australia (1969).This was the pre-test status era. In a way it was these matches that proved that Sri Lanka was worthy of test status that the country gained in 1981.
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