Welcome to Cricket Crazy Sri Lanka!

Oh Lanka how I adore thee, I love your sandy beaches, your mountains, your supreme natural beauty, your spicy food and the people with perpetual smiles on their faces, but above all I love the many public holidays that I get to enjoy all of my favorite things.

A couple of days ago while I was surfing the web (I am an addict) I ran out of things to read. More precisely I ran out of things that I perceived as being worthy of my time. It was while I was indulging in this addiction of mine that I came across the Sri Lankan Calendar for 2011. I knew that we had plenty of public holidays but 27? That’s only a few days short of a month! 

I grew up in the hill capitol, Kandy so I will from time to time post about my native land. Anyone who has ever set foot on Lanka will tell a tale of a country so unique that not even its own citizens will ever fully comprehend. To fully understand the country and its people one would have to study its 2000 years of History which thanks to Buddhist roots is well documented in the Mahawansha. It describes the life and times of the people who forged our nation, from the coming of Vijaya in 543 BCE to the reign of King Mahasena (334 – 361) (6th Century BC to 4th Century AD). A companion volume, the Culavamsa or Choolavansha ("lesser chronicle"), covers the period from the 4th century to the British takeover of Sri Lanka in 1815.

Nothing absolutely nothing feels better than returning home. I touched down in Sri Lanka last week for the first time in three years. This is also the first time that I am setting foot in a war free Sri Lanka (the three decade long civil war ended in 2009). To spice things up further the country is in the midst of co-hosting the Cricket world cup and a banner of ‘Welcome to Cricket Crazy Sri Lanka’ is the first thing one sees when entering the main terminal building at the airport. Life size posters of the nation’s star players line the walls while the employees sport matching blue and gold Cricket jerseys. Opposing teams are sure to feel a little intimidated and will know that they have entered the Lion’s den.

The last time that the tournament came to the subcontinent in 1996 Sri Lanka emerged victorious and will be hoping for a repeat. When the then captain Arjuna Ranatunga lifted the trophy in Lahore it set a nation off. The celebrations in Colombo lasted all night and in that moment an entire nation forgot that they were at war. It also made sure that Cricket became a part of the Lankan identity. The story of Sri Lanka Cricket since then is an amazing one that is worthy of its own blog.

In the last edition of the tournament held in 2007 the Sri Lankans went all the way to the championship game only to have their hopes shattered by a formidable Australian side on a rainy day in Barbados. Unlike in India where Cricket is a religion in Sri Lanka it is still a sport and the team was given a warm welcome. The country has forgotten that heart break and moved on and are now ready to mount a fresh assault.

There is of course more to Sri Lanka than Cricket and I will write a little more about it in the future. Whenever I write about Sri Lanka I am left with this sense that I did not do it justice because there is so much that I could write. However, I have no intention of writing a book so I will stick to short posts.    

For now it is goodbye from warm, sunny and Cricket crazy Sri Lanka!