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Galle stadium back in contention by May?
By Channaka de Silva
The tsunami-devastated Galle International Cricket Stadium will be back to life earlier than expected and could be hosting international cricket once again as early as in May.

The picturesque stadium situated next to the historic Dutch fort in Galle was completely destroyed by the December-26 tsunami and there was no expectation for cricket at the venue for quite some time, and the renovation costs were expected to run into hundreds of millions.

Sri Lanka Cricket, which manages the stadium, has decided to do some rapid repair work only in the essential areas and make cricket possible at the only test venue in the South. They had observed that this could be achieved with only a little bit of work and some work has already progressed.

The earlier plan had been to play an international match between Sri Lanka 'A' team and either of Pakistan or England 'A' teams who arrive in Sri Lanka this week for a triangular tournament. But that idea had to be shelved, as there was not sufficient time for necessary repairs and they now plan to host a match in Galle when West Indies 'A' tours Sri Lanka in May, Sri Lanka Cricket media manager Ray Illangakoon confirmed.

Illangakoon said that they are yet to estimate the cost of the renovation required, but said it was likely that Sri Lanka Cricket would contribute the money for the project.

World's leading test bowler Shane Warne who captured his 500th test victim at the stadium, visited the venue last month and pledged his and the City of Melbourne's financial support to re-build the stadium.

In the meanwhile, a new city plan to re-build Galle town prepared on behalf of the government proposed to shift the cricket stadium to a new location near the Koggala lagoon at Habaraduwa, and keep the Galle stadium intact as a playground.

The devastated stadium earlier forced a cancellation of the disputed centenary edition of the Galle's big match between Richmond and Mahinda, and Mahinda principal Susil Premanath told "Sunday Times" that if the stadium is brought back to a suitable condition, they preferred to have the match played, though not on a big match scale, just to keep the tradition going.

Richmond College Old Boys Association Secretary Anura de Silva said that the school authorities and old boys have pondered an idea to conduct the match in Colombo at the SSC as Galle stadium was rendered unplayable.

The centenary match committee organising committee joint chairman Air Vice Marshal Ravi Arunthavanathan claimed there was no problem to hold the match in Colombo, but said that he has not been officially informed about such a plan.

"The A-level exams are also coming and we have to play the match before that if we are going to have it at all. So, the only possible way to have it before the exams is to have it in Colombo. If the two schools tell us to organise it in Colombo, I don't see any difficulty in doing that" claimed Arunthavanathan who is also the president of the Richmond College Colombo Union.

However Premanath said they did not like the idea of playing the match in Colombo. "I agree that the match should be played before the year ends. But I don't think we can agree to play it in Colombo. Anyway Richmond College has not made such a proposal to us. But as I learn from Mr. Jayananda Warnaweera who is the manager at the Galle Stadium that it would be ready for cricket shortly, I think we should play it there" Premanath said.

Premanath played down the controversy about the centenary match issue, but confirmed that if they play the big match "it will only be a two-day affair".

Before the tsunami, the plans were to have the match on a grand scale over three days as it was claimed to be the centenary match of the series. However it was later revealed by historians that the series which began in 1905, did not have matches on six occations, making it actually the 95th match of the series this year. The blunder had been caused by a repeated error in the official souvenir published annually.

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