Kandurata is the current champion of Inter-Provincial Limited Over Tournament, and has won title in 2010–11, 2009–10, and the joint title in 2007–08 series.[2] In 2007/08 Inter-provincial Limited overs tournament, Kandurata reached the finals by winning all their round robin matches, but the game was washed out due to rain.[3]
Name
From the commence of Inter-Provincial Cricket Tournament, the team representing Central Province is known as Central province team. But from the 2007/08 season, the team known as "Kandurata" team. "Kandurata" is Sinhala for "Hill country". The hills or central highlands are mainly situated in central province.
In the first first-class Inter-provincial tournament, which was called the 1990 Singer Inter-Provincial Trophy, Kandurata, then called Central Province, captained by J.R.Ratnayeke, had come second out of the four provinces, losing none but second to Western Province on points, with 11.4. Western Province went on to win the tournament, not losing a game.[5]
Establishment of Twenty20 (2000–2010)
With the establishment of Twenty20 cricket in 2003, it came to Sri Lanka in 2004 as the Twenty20 Tournament, however this was replaced with the Inter-Provincial Twenty20 in 2008. Wayamba won the 2007–08 Inter-Provincial Twenty20, which was the first edition of the tournament. They had won four out of five matches in the group stage and eventually won their way into the finals with Ruhuna. Wayamba won by 31 runs.[6]
2010–present
Grounds and Sponsorship
Pallekele International Cricket Stadium
PICS
Full name
Muttiah Muralitharan International Cricket Stadium
Pallekele International Cricket Stadium is one of the newest cricket stadiums in Sri Lanka and the newest in the city of Kandy. The stadium was declared opened on 27 November 2009.[7] The stadium is located about a half-hour drive from Kandy.[8] The Pallekele stadium is wholly owned by Sri Lanka Cricket and is set to displace the Asgiriya Stadium, which has hosted Tests from 1983 to 2007, as the international venue of choice around Kandy. The stadium was built by the State Engineering Corporation of Sri Lanka and is designed along the lines of SuperSport Park in Centurion, South Africa.
Mas Holdings, a Sri Lankan apparel industrial firm is the team's sponsor.[9]
Kandurata has some reputed Test cricket players such as Kumar Sangakkara and Muttiah Muralitharan.[10] Unlike in India and Australia, where cricketers represent their home province or state, it is the norm in Sri Lanka for outside cricketers to play for another province in Inter-Provincial Tournament. This is because uneven distribution of cricketer population among provinces.[citation needed] Therefore, it resulted in players like Nishantha Ranatunga and Sanjeeva Ranatunga from Western Province, where the most cricketing population occurs, playing in Kandurata or Central Province.
^"New Pallekele International Cricket stadium opens today". Lankapuvath – National News Agency of Sri Lanka. 27 November 2009. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
