The Ground
Situated in the dry zone, the original rationale behind the project was that it provided Sri Lanka with the potential to host one-day matches throughout the year. Construction was funded by the Board of Control for Cricket in Srilanka (BCCSL) and championed by the then BCCSL President, Thilanga Sumathipala. Construction took only 167 days. After construction and the inaugural match it sat idle due to complications with the lease and the contractors. International cricket finally returned in May 2003, the venue staging all seven matches of the tournament because of monsoon rains in the south.
The pitch is bowler friendly. Seamers benefit in the morning because of the high water table and heavy sweating. Spinners benefit in the afternoon when the pitch can crumble.
Read more about this topic: Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium
Famous quotes containing the word ground:
“Nature herself has not provided the most graceful end for her creatures. What becomes of all these birds that people the air and forest for our solacement? The sparrow seems always chipper, never infirm. We do not see their bodies lie about. Yet there is a tragedy at the end of each one of their lives. They must perish miserably; not one of them is translated. True, “not a sparrow falleth to the ground without our Heavenly Father’s knowledge,” but they do fall, nevertheless.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre. It is the medium of past experience, as the ground is the medium in which dead cities lie interred.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)