Sri Lanka National Cricket Team

The Sri Lankan cricket team is the national cricket team of Sri Lanka. The team first played international cricket in 1926–27, and were later awarded Test status in 1981, which made Sri Lanka the eighth Test cricket playing nation. The team is administered by Sri Lanka Cricket.
Sri Lanka's national cricket team transformed the country from underdog status to a major cricketing nation during the 1990s. The team went on to win the 1996 Cricket World Cup, beating Australia in the finals, and becoming World Champions. Since then, the team has continued to be a major force in international cricket. The Sri Lankan cricket team reached the finals of the 2007 Cricket World Cup but lost to Australia in a rain-affected final match. The batting of Sanath Jayasuriya (retired) and Aravinda de Silva (retired), backed up by the bowling of Muttiah Muralitharan (retired) and Chaminda Vaas (retired), among many other talented cricketers, has underpinned the successes of Sri Lankan cricket during the last 15 years.
Sri Lanka have won the Cricket World Cup in 1996, the ICC Champions Trophy in 2002 (co-champions with India), have been consecutive runners up in the 2007 and 2011 Cricket World Cups, and have been runners up in the ICC World Twenty20 in 2009. The Sri Lankan cricket team currently holds several world records, including world records for highest team totals in all three forms of the game, Test, ODI and Twenty20. Sri Lanka is the third nation to reach two consecutive World Cup Finals (2007 and 2011), after West Indies (1975 and 1979) and Australia (1996, 1999, 2003 and 2007).History:Early years
Ceylon, as the country was known before 1972, played its first first-class match under that name against MCC at Nomads Ground, Victoria Park, Colombo in 1926–27, losing by an innings. The team's first win came against Patiala at Dhruve Pandove Stadium in 1932–33.  The Ceylonese side competed in the M. J. Gopalan Trophy games from the 1950s, through the change of name to Sri Lanka, well into the 1970s. Sri Lankan cricket team'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.

 Test status and beyond

• Gained Test Status in 1981 and first played a Test Match in 1982
• Won the 1996 Cricket World Cup hosted by India, Sri Lanka & Pakistan
• Semi Finalists in the 2003 Cricket World Cup hosted by South Africa
• Runners up of the 2007 World Cup hosted by the West Indies
• Runners up of the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 hosted by England
• Semi Finalists in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 hosted by West Indies
• Runners up of the 2011 Cricket World Cup hosted by India, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh
  

Cricket, and was characterized by highly aggressive batting in the first fifteen overs of the innings in order to take advantage of the fielding restrictions imposed during this period. This strategy has since become a hallmark of One Day International cricket.

 Milestones

• Sri Lanka is the only ICC Trophy winning team to have gone on to win the Cricket World Cup at a later date.
• Sri Lanka is the only team to have participated in every edition of the Asia Cup.
  

 2009 shooting incident

where they were scheduled to begin the third day of the Second Test. After the incident the test match was called off by the Sri Lankan Cricket board. Sri Lanka had agreed to tour Pakistan, replacing India who refused to do so citing security concerns.

 Governing body