Test match at Asgiriya after 16 months

BY S.M. JIFFREY Abdeen - Kandy Sports Correspondent

ASGIRIYA Cricket Stadium will be the venue of the Second cricket test match between Sri Lanka and West Indies which will commence on Thursday, July 21 and conclude on Monday July 25.

This was disclosed at the Committee Meeting of the Kandy district Cricket Association by its Honorary Secretary Janaka Pathirana and the meeting was presided over by its President Tillina Tennakoon.

This test match will be the first in 16 months at the Asgiriya Stadium which at one stage faced the danger of losing its Test status if a Test match was not staged in a venue for 24 months.

The weather at present is keeping fine in the hill capital with a little intermittent showers which had tremendously helped the growth of grass which looks luxuriant and beautiful. Two hundred bags of clay has been used for the preparation of the wicket.

Trinity College who are the owners of the grounds, have agreed to release the grounds for the Test match despite the heavy schedule of their own program of playing junior cricket matches and also for practices for other sports.

The ground hire charges requested by Trinity College is Rs. 75,000 per day which means a sum of Rs. 375,000 would have to be set aside as payment for grounds.

Since this match is scheduled to commence on July 21st which is the Esala Full Moon Day, the officials of the Kandy District Cricket Association and the Central Province Cricket Association are due to meet the Mahanayakes of the Asgiriya Chapter and the Mahanayake of the Malwatte Chapter and the Diyawadane Nilame of the Sri Dalada Maligawa Nilanga Dela Bandara and obtain special permission for staging of this match on that day.

This permission is a must as the hill capital is hallowed deep in religious traditions and the month of Esala is of special significance to the city during which the famous Kandy Esala Perahera - Asia's most colourful religious festival is staged later in the month.

Janaka Pathirana said that due to the tight schedule in view of the forthcoming triangular limited over cricket tournament involving Sri Lanka, India end West Indies it is not possible to put off the commencement of this match even by a day.

Thus the fate of the match hangs on the granting of permission to play this match on a Full Moon Poya Day or putting off the commencement of the test match by a day. If either fails, they may even have to consider starting play on Wednesday July 20th and have the Poya Full moon day as rest day and then resume the match on July 22.

But this alternative has been not discussed but something has to be done if the staging of this match on a Poya Full Moon Day does not meet with any approval. thus the local officials have a difficult task in their hands in staging this match.

All match arrangements will be handled by the officials of the Interim Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket with the support of officials from the Kandy District Cricket Association and the Central Province Cricket Association who will have to concentrate on the pre-match arrangements and look into shortcomings and give the final touches.

The West indies and the Sri Lanka Cricketers are expected to arrive in Kandy on July 17 and they will be accommodated at the luxury Mahaweli Reach Hotel at Weerakoon Gardens in Kandy.

This multi reamed five star hotel nestling on the banks of the Mahaweli River and in close proximity to the venue.

In fact in the past some of the local cricketers have been seen jogging after the days play to the hotel.

The two teams will have net practices on July 18 and 19 according to the Kandy District Cricket Association.

At the moment the weather up in the hill capital is keeping fine but when it comes to playing a test match, the weather could change for the worse dramatically as experienced in the past.

This is something which is inexplicable and a grudge which the weather Gods have against cricket in Kandy.

Asgiriya Stadium also holds the record for the shortest cricket Test match in the history of test cricket when only 51 minutes play was possible in a test match against India in July, 1993.