Sinhalese Sports Club Cricket Ground

The Sinhalese Sports Club Cricket Ground sits at 35 Maitland Place in Colombo, a patch of land that was once an Allied air base before the club leased it in 1952. That earth gives the ball seam movement early in the match. The ground has lived through decades of change: a pavilion funded by nightclub entrepreneur Donovan Andree finished in 1956, followed by a giant scoreboard and sightscreens in the mid-1970s.

It hosted Sri Lanka's first Test victory against India in September 1985 and their first ODI win against a Test-playing nation, Pakistan, in 1986. During the 1996 Cricket World Cup, the venue staged a group stage match where Sri Lanka defeated Zimbabwe by six wickets, one of the few games played in the country at the time due to security concerns. More recently, the ground underwent a major reconstruction costing approximately Rs. 1.8 billion in preparation for the 2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. That project brought a state-of-the-art LED lighting system with 630 fixtures on six high-mast towers, allowing the venue to host floodlit matches for the first time. Refurbished dressing rooms and new offices for match officials were part of the same work.

The seating capacity stands at 10,000, a modest number for a ground that has seen everything from World Cup group games to local club fixtures. The club, founded in 1899, moved here from Victoria Park and has kept its identity rooted in the city. The ground is sometimes referred to by its location name, Maitland Place, a reminder that the city knows it better by street than by title.