Hon. Sunil Kumara Gamage - Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports
Hon. Sunil Kumara Gamage provided details on Sri Lanka’s cricket infrastructure, stating that there are seven international cricket stadiums, including five owned by Sri Lanka Cricket and two club grounds used for international matches, with two further stadiums proposed in Diyagama and Jaffna. He said lists of grounds with turf, gravel or other pitches, school turf-wicket grounds, and district association grounds or proposals had been provided in annexes. He also stated that Sri Lanka Cricket allocates approximately Rs. 1.5 billion annually through the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association for school cricket development, including infrastructure, equipment, coaching, assistance and competitions.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, the answer is as follows.
¶ 02 (a) (i) There are 07 international cricket stadiums in Sri Lanka: - Five owned by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC): • R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium – Colombo • Galle International Cricket Stadium – Galle • Pallekele International Cricket Stadium – Pallekele • Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium – Dambulla • Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium – Hambantota - Two principal club grounds used for international matches: • Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) Cricket Ground • P. Saravanamuttu (Sara Oval) Cricket Ground
¶ 03 Additionally, two proposed international stadiums are to be constructed: • Colombo International Cricket Stadium – Diyagama • Jaffna International Cricket Stadium – Jaffna
¶ 04 (ii) Across the island there are numerous cricket grounds with turf pitches and with gravel/other pitches, including: • Premier club grounds • Armed forces grounds • SLC member association grounds • Public grounds with turf wickets • National grounds Lists of: • Grounds with turf pitches (Annex 01) • Grounds with gravel/other pitches (Annex 02) • School grounds with turf wickets (Annex 03) • District cricket association grounds/proposals (Annex 04)
¶ 05 (iii) A list of school grounds having turf wickets is provided (Annex 03), including schools district-wise such as Royal College, Thurstan, D. S. Senanayake, Wesley, Nalanda, Ananda, Zahira, St. Benedict’s, St. Joseph’s, St. Peter’s, St. Thomas’ Mt. Lavinia, Prince of Wales, St. Sebastian’s, Moratu Vidyalaya, Dharmapala (Pannipitiya); and schools in Gampaha, Puttalam, Anuradhapura, Jaffna, Kurunegala, Kandy, Kalutara, Galle, Polonnaruwa, etc.
¶ 06 (vi) Sri Lanka Cricket actively contributes to developing and upgrading school cricket. Approximately Rs. 1.5 billion is annually allocated by SLC to support school cricket development through the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association, ranging from improving infrastructure to providing equipment, coaching sessions, assistance, and competitions.
¶ 07 (b) Does not arise.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Friday, 24 October 2025 ·No. 22644 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
- Permalink
/lk/speeches/28735
Cite as: Hon. Sunil Kumara Gamage - Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 24 October 2025. No. 22644. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/28735