The Singhalese Sports Club Cricket Ground (SSC Cricket Ground) ( si, සිංහල ක්‍රිඩා සමාජ ක්‍රීඩාංගනය; ta, சிங்களவர் விளையாட்டுக் கழக அரங்கம்) is one of the most famous

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

grounds in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, and the headquarters of

Sri Lanka Cricket Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is the governing body for cricket in Sri Lanka. It was first registered with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Sports (Sri Lanka), Ministry of Sports as the Board of Cricket for Sri Lanka (BCCSL) on 30 June 1975 as a national spo ...

, the controlling body of cricket in Sri Lanka. The ground is sometimes described as "the

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

of Sri Lanka", It hosts the most domestic finals and is an important international cricket venue. The ground staged its first

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

in 1984 against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and its first

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

in 1982 against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The Sri Lankan team has an impressive record here. Out of 38 Tests played at the SSC , Sri Lanka has won 18 matches, and drawn 14, with only 6 losses.

History

In 1899, a combined school cricket team, composed mainly of cricketers from

Royal College A royal college in some Commonwealth countries is technically a college which has received royal patronage and permission to use the prefix ''royal''. Permission is usually granted through a royal charter. The charter normally confers a constitut ...

, S. Thomas' College and Wesley College beat

Colts Cricket Club Colts Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. They have won 6 first class tournaments of Sri Lanka domestic league as in 1991/92, 1999/2000, 2001/02, 2004/05, 2008/09 and 2011/12 and 2 Premier Limited Overs Tourna ...

by a one run. A decision was made to form an all-

Sinhalese Sinhala may refer to: * Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka * Sinhalese people * Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka * Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language ** Sinha ...

club, and thus

Singhalese Sports Club The Singhalese Sports Club (SSC) is a first-class cricket club in Sri Lanka. Singhalese is the most successful club in Sri Lankan domestic cricket, having won the Premier Trophy a record 32 times to 2017. Although the name is correctly spelt wi ...

was founded. The club leased land in

Victoria Park Victoria Park may refer to: Places Australia * Victoria Park Nature Reserve, a protected area in Northern Rivers region, New South Wales * Victoria Park, Adelaide, a park and racecourse * Victoria Park, Brisbane, a public park and former golf ...

with sandy soil and covered with

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakfa ...

trees. In 1952 the club leased another and moved to its present location in Maitland Place, which had been used as an

aerodrome An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

by the allied forces in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Ground

The pavilion of the ground was built in 1956 with the sponsorship of Donovan Andree, a leading nightclub entrepreneur. A giant

scoreboard A scoreboard is a large board for publicly displaying the score in a game. Most levels of sport from high school and above use at least one scoreboard for keeping score, measuring time, and displaying statistics. Scoreboards in the past used ...

and sightscreens were built in the mid-70s. Later the current scoreboard was built. The ground also has a media center and commentary box with modern facilities. Various sponsors including Lankabell,

Seylan Bank Seylan Bank PLC ( si, සෙලාන් බැංකුව, ''Selan Bænkuwa'') is a publicly owned Commercial Bank in Sri Lanka. It has branches both in urban as well as rural areas of Sri Lanka. Seylan bank had 167 banking centres island wid ...

and HSBC have built stands bearing their brands. There are two grass embankments for the spectators.

Highlights

In 1992 Australian tour of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka lost the SSC Test match to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

by 16 runs after being set a target of only 181 runs. This is one of Sri Lanka's narrowest defeats in Test cricket.

Shane Warne Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer, whose career ran from 1991 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a right-handed batsman for Victoria, Hampshire and Australia ...

took three wickets in thirteen balls; this was his first notable performance in Test cricket. In the 2001–02 Asian Test Championship,

Mohammed Ashraful Mohammad Ashraful ( bn, মোহাম্মদ আশরাফুল; born 7 July 1984) is a Bangladeshi cricketer, who has represented the Bangladesh national cricket team, captaining the team in all formats of the game. A top-order batsman ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

become the youngest cricketer to score a Test hundred, one day before his 17th birthday. However Bangladesh went on to lose the match by an innings and 137 runs.

Chaminda Vaas Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas (born 27 January 1974) is a former Sri Lankan international cricketer, who played all forms of the game, and a former ODI captain who is often described as the greatest fast medium bowl ...

took 8 wickets for 19 runs in 2001–02 against

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

, the best bowling performance in a One Day International match. The Zimbabwean total of 38 was the lowest team innings total in ODIs at that point of time.

Kumar Sangakkara Kumara Chokshananda Sangakkara ( si, කුමාර් චොක්ශනාද සංගක්කාර; born 27 October 1977) is a Sri Lankan cricket commentator, former professional cricketer, businessman, ICC Hall of Fame inductee and the ...

and

Mahela Jayawardene Denagamage Praboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene ( si, දෙනගමගේ ප්‍රබෝත් මහේල ද සිල්වා ජයවර්ධන; born 27 May 1977) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who is the current consultant coach ...

shared a partnership of 624 runs against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in 2006–07 season, the highest partnership for any wicket in Test and first class cricket.

Ground Figures

Key

* P Matches Played * H Matches Won by Home Side * T Matches Won by Touring Side * N Matches Won by Neutral Side *D/N/T Matches Drawn/No Result/Tied Updated 26 July 2018

World Cup Cricket

1996 Cricket World Cup

ICC Champions Trophy Cricket

The

2002 ICC Champions Trophy The 2002 ICC Champions Trophy was a cricket tournament that was held in Sri Lanka in 2002. It was the third edition of the ICC Champions Trophy – the first two having been known as the ICC Knock Out Tournaments. The tournament was due to be h ...

was held in

. Six group matches played in SSC. Other matches played in R. Premadasa Stadium.

2002 ICC Champions Trophy

References

External links

Cricinfo SSC ground profileSSC website

{{Test Cricket Grounds of Sri Lanka Cricket grounds in Colombo Sport in Colombo Test cricket grounds in Sri Lanka 1952 establishments in Ceylon