Lankans will play first at the Rose Bowl

Hampshire's Rose Bowl will host a Test match for the first time when England face Sri Lanka in 2011. This will be the first time that Sri Lanka is down to christen a Test venue in England. The Southampton venue will also stage one-day internationals against Australia in 2009 and 2010, West Indies in 2010, and India in 2011.

The first ever official Test match commenced on the 15th of March 1877, contested by England and Australia at Melbourne Cricket Ground, where the Australians won by 45 runs. Since then test 1869 Test matches have been played on 96 different grounds the world over with the last one played at the Providance Stadium, Guyana in the West Indies which incidentally was the inaugural Test match on that venue. Sri Lanka won that match by 121 runs. Given below are some of the Test venues that Sri Lanka has christened. Sri Lanka took on Australia at the Bellerive Oval, Tasmania from 16 to 20th December 1989. Sri Lanka played the first ever ODI on that ground when they took on New Zealand on January 12th 1988.

In New Zealand the inauguration of the Seddon Park has some memories for Sri Lanka. During this drawn Test match which was played from 22 to 26th February 1991, Sri Lanka’s stylish left-hander Asanka Gurusinha made twin centuries of 119 and 102 while the legendary Sanath Jayasuriya made his first appearance in the test arena.

Besides the Providance Stadium, Sri Lanka also played the first Test match at the Arno Vale ground, Kingstown, St. Vincent. In this game Muttiah Muralitharan finished with a match bag of seven wickets while skipper Arjuna Ranatunge held the side together with an unbeaten 72 to force draw as they went to stumps at 8 for 233.

In the neighbouring India Sri Lanka has christened three Test venues. At the Barabati Stadium, Cuttack, Orissa in the match played from 4 to 7 January 1987 Rumesh Ratnayake became the then Indian Champion bowler Kapil Dev’s 300th victim. The other two venues were the Sector 16 Stadium, Chandigarh, (from 23 to 27 November 1990) and the K.D. Singh Babu Stadium, Luknow from 18 to 22 January 1994.

At the Jinnah Park Ground Sialkot, Sri Lanka took on Pakistan on 27 October 1985 to Inaugurate Test Cricket at that venue. In this match burly Ravi Ratnayake sent down a memorable spell to capture a then Sri Lanka record haul of 8 for 83. The other venue that Sri Lanka christened in Pakistan was the Arbab Niyaz Ground in Peshawar from 8 to 12 September 1995.

In Bangladesh the Ground that Sri Lanka played an inaugural Test match was the Shaheed Chandu Stadium which started on 8th Match 2006. Nevertheless the first International cricket Match was played between the United States of America and Canada on 24 and 25 September 1844 in Manhattan, USA.