SPORT IN SRILANKA

Sport in Sri Lanka is a significant part of Sri Lankan culture. Volleyball is the national sport in Sri Lanka. Cricket is the most popular sport in Sri Lanka. Rugby union is also popular. Other popular sports are water sports, badminton, athletics, football, basketball and tennis. Sri Lanka's schools and colleges regularly organize sports and athletics teams, competing on provincial and national levels. Cricket Cricket is the most popular sport in Sri Lanka. It is one of the ten nations that are full members and take part in test cricket and one of the five nations that has won a Cricket World Cup. Cricket is played at professional, semi-professional and recreational levels in the country and international cricket matches are watched with interest by a large proportion of the population. Cricket was brought to the island by the British and was first played in the 1800s. The earliest definite mention of cricket in Ceylon was a report in the Colombo Journal on 5 September 1832 which called for the formation of a cricket club. The Colombo Cricket Club was formed soon afterwards and matches began in November 1832. Since then, the sport has grown domestically with major events such as the Premier Trophy (starting 1938) and the Premier Limited Overs Tournament (starting 1988-89). Sri Lanka's one day international debut came in the 1975 Cricket World Cup and were later awarded Test cricket status in 1981, by the International Cricket Council, which made Sri Lanka the eighth Test cricket playing nation. The Sri Lanka national cricket team transformed themselves from the underdog status to a major cricketing nation during the 1990s. Sri Lanka have won the Cricket World Cup in 1996, the ICC Champions Trophy in 2002 (Co-champions with India) and have been runners up in the 2007 Cricket World Cup and the 2011 Cricket World Cup as well as the ICC World Twenty20 in 2009. Sri Lanka Cricket, formerly the Board for Cricket Control in Sri Lanka (BCCSL), is the controlling body for cricket in Sri Lanka. It operates the Sri Lanka national cricket team, the Sri Lanka A cricket team, the Sri Lanka national women's cricket team and first-class cricket within Sri Lanka. Rugby union Rugby union is mainly played at a semi-professional and recreational level. It is a popular team sport with a history dating back to 1879. The Sri Lankan Rugby Football Union is the governing body in the country. The Sri Lanka national rugby union team was founded in 1908 and joined the IRB in 1988. The first rugby club in Sri Lanka, the Colombo Football Club, was founded in 1879. The first rugby match played between two selected teams occurred on the 30th of June of that year between Colombo and a 'World' Team. The nation's first 'national' match involved an All Ceylon team against the All Blacks. Sri Lanka is yet to qualify for the Rugby World Cup, however the national team has enjoyed success in recent years, rising to 42 on the world rankings in 2006. Despite not performing well on the international stage, Sri Lanka is sometimes considered one of the rugby's success stories, with crowds of forty or fifty thousand turning out for club games.] In 2010, they made it into the Asian Five Nations main tournament. They currently compete in Division One of the Asian Five Nations. Sri Lanka also has a national sevens team. Sri Lanka's problems have been threefold - first, a lack of finance, second, third world infrastructure, and third, the country has been war torn for a number of years. Sri Lanka hosts the Singer Sri Lankan Airlines Rugby 7's and the Carlton 7’ Sri Lanka at the Olympics Sri Lanka first participated at the Olympic Games in 1948, and has sent a delegation to every Summer Olympic Games since then, except for the 1976 Games. Sri Lanka has never participated in the Winter Olympic Games. Sri Lankan athletes have won a total of two Olympic silver medals, both in athletics. The National Olympic Committee for Sri Lanka was created in 1937 and recognized by the International Olympic Committee that same year. The nation was designated as Ceylon (country code "CEY") until 1972.