From the Archive: The First Ever Twenty 20 Cricket Tournament in Sri Lanka

Cricket is a fascinating game with many ebbs and flows. It has three international level formats. Tests, 50 over games and 20 over games.

Freehit Contributor – Thushan Perera

Initially it had only multiday games, these games ended sometimes with results and sometimes without. It uses a strip called pitch where two teams with 11 players each vying to score more runs than the other team, yet they could go home without a result at the end of the day.

This is how cricket has been played over the years. Even in 1939, two teams decided to play a timeless test, yet both teams went home without seeing a result.

The world saw 3 industrial revolutions and we are currently on the 4th, changing the world dramatically. Suddenly working on weekdays and playing or watching cricket on the weekends is not an option anymore. Every time we stopped to rest, our competitors grew taller and ran faster.

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In a such a competitive world, cricket – the Uranus equivalent of the sports universe began showing cracks to keep up with the competition.

The prestigious county championship saw a 17 percent drop in attendance at the turn of the century. 

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) conducted a research study that unveiled the reason for meagre attendance for domestic games.

The research shed light on not only on who was coming to cricket matches but also who was not and why. 

Stuart Robertson, the marketing manager’s game plan of scrapping the boring part of a game and reducing playing hours to three and half, paved the way to the shortest format of professional cricket.

The first ever Twenty20 game was played between Hampshire and Sussex at Southampton on 13 June 2003. Both sides put on their Sunday best for the game. Some of the names on the team sheets were Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmad, Matt Prior, John Crawley, Simon Katich, Nic Pothas, Smitri Mascarenhas and Murray Goodwin.

After winning a thriller by a whisker, Ed Giddins of Hampshire said, ‘That was the best game of cricket I’ve ever played in – the atmosphere was amazing’.

The First Twenty 20 Cricket Tournament in Sri Lanka

It was a familiar sight for Sri Lankan fans to watch the Sanath-Kalu combo dispatching clueless bowlers to every nook and corner of R. Premadasa stadium over and over again in late 90s. It is fair to say, Sri Lanka was ahead of its times back in the 90s when it comes to limited overs cricket. 

However, this new format posed different challenges. 

Sri Lanka Cricket organized an inter-club T20 tournament in Sri Lanka using the brand new format to explore new avenues back in the 2004/05 season. This is a revisit to that very first tourney.

History Made

The first ever tournament was scheduled from 17 August 2004 to 03 September 2004. The tournament comprised of 15 games with 8 first round games followed by 4 Quarter Finals, 2 Semi Finals and the Final.

16 teams competed for the trophy. The teams were Bloomfield, Burgher RC, Chilaw Marians CC, Colombo CC, Colts, Galle Cricket Club, Kurunegala Youth, Moors Sports Club, NCC, Panadura SC, Police SC, Ragama CC, Sebastianites, SSC, Sri Lanka Air Force SC and Tamil Union.   

The First Game

The first ever Twenty 20 game in Sri Lanka on record commenced between Bloomfield and Police SC on 17 August 2004 at Colts Cricket Club Ground (115th Twenty20 game in history). Pradeep Udawatta of Police SC faced the first ball and Darshana Gamage of Bloomfield delivered the first ever ball in Twenty20 domestic cricket in Sri Lanka.  

Brief Scorecard

Toss won by Bloomfield and elected to field first. 

The first ever Twenty20 match in Sri Lanka domestic cricket was won by Bloomfield. The match was officiated by BPJ Mendis and BBJ Nandakumar.

However, simultaneously there were another 7 games held on the same day at NCC Grounds, Police Park, Moors SC Grounds, respectively.

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A special incident was Mahela Jayawardene delivering 3.3 overs for SCC vs. BRC at NCC Grounds for 31 runs. Mahela also made his Twenty20 debut in this tournament. 

Record Books

The first tournament was a refreshing experience for players.

During the tournament, Colombo Cricket Club became the first team in Sri Lanka to post 200 runs in a Twenty20 match. They posted 200 vs. Panadura SC at Police Park Ground. The highest score of the innings was Damitha Hunukumbura’s 77 runs in 40 balls. 

The highest Run Scorer in the tournament was Shantha Kalavitigoda of Colts with 141 runs in 4 games with a SR of 125.89.

The most wickets were taken by Muthumudalige Pushpakumara of Colts. He took 7 wickets at 11.71 runs apiece. 

The Semi Finals

After 8 games of the first round and 4 Quarter Finals, Colts CC, Bloomfield, Chilaw Marians and BRC qualified for the Semi Finals.

The first Semi Final was played between BRC and Chilaw Marians. 

A one sided game saw Chilaw Marians winning by 58 runs to become the first team to qualify for the finals.

Romesh Kaluwitharana blitz in the second Semi Final

The second Semi Final was a nail-biter between Colts and Bloomfield.  

Bloomfied won the toss and elected to bowl on a placid surface at the R. Premadasa that saw Colts accumulating 183 for 7 wickets in their 20 overs. Reviving the memories of 1995 B&H World Series, Romesh Kaluwitharana blasted 80 off 56 balls for Colts. 

Sanath Jayasuriya took 3 scalps for 27 runs including the in-form Kalavitigoda. Kaushal Lokuarachchi chipped in with 2 wickets for 27 runs including the dangerous Kaluwitharana.  

The Bloomfield chase began with mixed results. Sanath Jayasuriya was dismissed for 10 runs off 5 balls before Saman Jayantha briefly sparkled with a 16 ball 27. Despite 2 wickets, Bloomfield was on the course to chase down the target. 

However, 4 quick strikes from Colts saw Bloomfield collapse from 101-3 in 10.5 overs to 143-7 in 15 overs. Bloomfield eventually lost by 1 run despite the late revival from Gihan de Silva and Darshana Gamage. 

Muthumudalige Pushpakumara and Harsha Vithana grabbed 2 wickets each for Colts CC.

The Final

The Hasantha Fernando led Chilaw Marians were due to meet Romesh Kaluwitharana’s Colts at R. Premadasa stadium for the final after winning their respective Semi Finals.

Hasantha Fernando’s Chilaw Marians was much like Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals in the 2008 IPL or Billy Beane’s Oakland Athletics baseball team in the 2002 season. The Chilaw team was much stronger than people thought despite having no big names.

Chilaw Marians won the toss and elected to bat first on a flat track in the final. The match was officiated by Asoka de Silva and Tyron Wijewardene. 

Tuan Muthaliph and Arosha Perera both lost their wickets when the score was 31. Then we witnessed unprecedented hitting from two domestic stalwarts, Hasantha Fernando and Malintha Gajanayake as they began to express themselves and built a quick fire 98 run partnership for the 3rd wicket in 62 balls. 

Hasantha Fernando was dismissed for well-made 58 in 32 balls. 

Despite the loss of the skipper, the former under-19 skipper – Gajanayake (76 runs in 40 balls) was still at the crease. He steered the Marians innings along with the late middle order to a mammoth score of 227 for 6.

All the Colts bowlers suffered from the onslaught. The skipper, Kaluwitharana took matters into his  ownhands to take 2 valuable wickets of Dilruwan Perera and Udara Jayasundera for 24 runs in 2 overs.     

The Colts chase began with a bang. The Colts openers blasted 30 runs in 11 balls. However, the chase was derailed by 3 quick wickets of in-form Kalavitigoda, Kaluwitharana and Jeevantha Kulatunga.

The spin triplets of Chilaw – Ranil Dhammika, Dilruwan Perera and Janak Gunaratne shared 5 middle order wickets for 54 runs to dismiss Colts CC for 124 to win the inaugural Twenty20 domestic tournament in Sri Lanka.

 Brief Scorecard

*Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of ThePapare.com.