I decided to travel to Sri Lanka before I left England for the Baltic States. I had often thought about travelling there and finally decided to do it.

Vague Memories of 1966
I was briefly in the then Ceylon in late 1966 when I travelled to the UK with my parents. We were on the P&O ship the Canberra. This was a scheduled ‘passenger’ voyage from Melbourne to Southampton, albeit we got off in Naples.

The ship stopped off in Colombo for day and a half. I have a vague recollection of the stopover.

After leaving Colombo, the ship passed through the Suez Canal. As it turned out this was the last time this happened before the canal was closed due to the ‘Six Days’ war.

ODI in Colombo
Anyway, getting back to 2018, as it turned out, my visit to Sri Lanka coincidental with the England Cricket Team’s tour of the country.

By the time I had arrived, the Englishmen had already won four of the five One Day Internationals (ODIs). This final match was being played in Colombo. I decided to go at the last minute.

I took a Tuk Tuk to the ground. The driver dropped me off at a point that turned out to be almost exactly opposite to the main gate and ticket office.

I was immediately surrounded, by a group of blokes, all trying to sell me a ticket. The group got larger as I made way around to the main gate. I walked up to the ticket office where I was told, I my complete amazement, that it was “not possible to buy a ticket”. I was told that I should buy a ticket off “one of the men behind me”.

This seemed very strange as I had no way of knowing what a legitimate ticket was and what wasn’t.

As I stood there pondering what to do, I heard a bloke with a English ascent say “I think I may be able to help you”.

It turned out that he was at the ticket office with his Sri Lankan wife to collect tickets they had been given. She spoke to three or four blokes trying to sell me tickets and picked one she trusted. I handed over the required Rupees and took the ticket.

I ended up sitting with the English bloke and his wife. He is from Birmingham and albeit, he is in his fifties, he is still playing competitive cricket. As he proudly pointed out, he bears a remarkable resemblance to Ian Botham, the English all-rounder. He has some very interesting things to say about all things cricket both in England and Sri Lanka.

As it turned out it was a bit of dud, match. The Sri Lankans batted first and got off to excellent start. They were only a couple of wickets down after 25 overs and then powered on to get 366.

When the Englishmen came out to bat, the conditions has changed completely. The lights were on and the humidity had shot up with rain threatening.

The ball was swinging all over the place. The Englishman lost with only runs on the board. They lost another on 28. They then consolidated, but the match was already lost.

After about 15 overs, I decided to give a day and go to the Cricket Club Café, about 2 kilometres away, for a late dinner.

Just as the Tuk Tuk arrived at the café, the heavens opened. The Englishmen were 9 down for just 132 and the match was decided using the Duckworth-Lewis formulae. The result was England’s heaviest ODI loss ever. I suppose I had witnessed some sort of history.

Train down to Galle
There was nearly a two week break between the ODI series and the start of the ‘real stuff’, i.e. the Test Matches. I went to the ‘highlands’ and the ‘north’ of the country during this time. More about that in separate post.

I decided to go to Galle for the first Test Match. This meant catching the train heading south along the coast from Colombo. It was not possible to reserve a seat, you can only buy them ‘on the day’.

When I arrived at the Colombo Fort train station, I was confronted by a long queue of mainly grey haired, or bald, Englishmen waiting to buy tickets. Clearly, they were also heading to Galle.

The system is that everyone, who wants a ticket is sold one. There is no relationship between the tickets sold and the number of seats on the train.

When the train arrived, there was clearly going to far more passengers than seats. We all piled on. The locals and ‘non-English Cricket Supporter’ tourists were clearly bemused (or stunned) to see so many old and middle-aged men and some women on the train.

Anyway, everyone found a spot somewhere and the train head off down the coast. We stopped frequently and at one point I managed to score a seat used by a departing passenger. The line goes very close to the ocean at various points and is quiet spectacular.

Guest House
I had had some problems trying to book accommodation in Galle, clearly because of the cricket. I ended up booking two nights in a guest house about 2 kilometres out of the town.

I took a Tuk Tuk to the Guest House. It was different to say the least. This put it this way, the Booking.com description was less than completely accurate.

After checking in, I headed to the luxury hotel across the road for lunch.

Day on the Fort Wall
Next day I walked into town for the first day of the cricket.

Not surprisingly, the ground was sold out. A lot of the tickets were taken by the 12 or so, organised England supporters’ groups. These groups include the famous (possibly infamous) ‘Barmy Army’. When I was Colombo, I meet a English bloke who had some experience with these groups. He told me that some were charging over GDP 5,000 for these tours. That seems to be a total rip-off, albeit you are given the opportunity to have dinner with ex-players like Ray Illingworth and David Lloyd.

Given I couldn’t get into the ground, I was ‘forced’ to watch the cricket from the top of the wall of the Fort. This isn’t a problem given it is so close to the ground. In fact, it is just like watching from the stands at the Sydney or Melbourne cricket grounds.

There were lots of England support on the Fort. I recognised some from the train.
As you can imagine there was lot of banter and amusing comments.

I got into a conversation with a couple from near Bolton near Manchester. They were including a bit of cricket as part of holiday in Sri Lanka. They invited me to join them and some of their friends for lunch. We found a restaurant a short walk from the ground.

As far as the cricket was concerned, England had already lost 4 wickets and it looked as though their losing record away from home was going to be kept intact.

However, in the afternoon, England played well with their new Keeper, Foakes making the conditions look easy.

After the cricket, I checked out some of the accommodation, and found a vacancy for the next day in place in Pedlar St.

Moving into the Fort
The next day I moved into the guesthouse I had found. The ground was still sold out, so I spent some more time watching the cricket from the Fort, albeit it was very hot. I spent most of the day in the Fort area including a long lunch.

Final Days
I managed to get into the ground for the final days. The cricket was very good. The England opener Jennings scored a century in the second innings to help set up an England win.

Set a difficult target, Sri Lanka finally fell to the three-pronged England spin attack. The match finished late on the fourth day.

Possibility that Test Cricket will be Moved
There is talk that Test Cricket will be moved from the current ground to a larger, purpose built 30,000 plus arena outside of the town of Galle.

Because of its UNESCO heritage status, there are limits to the developments allowed to the Fort ground. In fact, the stand at the end opposite to the Fort needs to be demolished to comply with UNESCO requirements.

It will be a real pity if Test Cricket is no longer played at the ground. It is unique, being so small. It is great how it possible to watch from the Fort Wall.

Also, it is really good to be able to walk such a small distance into the Fort area, will its restaurants and boutique hotels.

Flickr Link
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmvpdUNf

UNESCO Site
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galle_Fort

Scorecards
5th ODI
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/scorecard/ECKO43487
1st Test
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/scorecard/ECKO43491