Cricket was brought to the nation when it was colonized by the British. As everywhere that the British arrived in numbers, cricket soon followed and it is reasonable to assume that the game was first played on the island by 1800. The earliest definite mention of cricket in Ceylon was a report in the
Colombo Journal on 5 September 1832 which called for the formation of a cricket club. The
Colombo Cricket Club was formed soon afterwards and matches began in November 1833 when it played against the 97th Regiment. Throughout the 20th century, the game became increasingly popular in Sri Lanka. It was in the 1975 inaugural Cricket World Cup that they made their international debut. They lost to the West Indies by 9 wickets. They did however turn heads at the same tournament with an excellent display in their match against Australia. The
national team won the
ICC Trophy in 1979. On 21 July 1981, Sri Lanka was admitted to full membership of the ICC and was awarded Test Match status. The inaugural Test was played at
Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium in
Colombo in February 1982 against
England that Sri Lanka lost by 8 wickets. Sri Lanka won the
1996 Cricket World Cup by defeating Australia. Sri Lanka won the
2014 ICC World Twenty20 by defeating India. In 2023, SLC faced accusations of corruption and declining standards, with Minister for Sports
Roshan Ranasinghe having considered its board to be "traitorous and corrupt". After being eliminated from the
2023 Cricket World Cup, Ranasinghe called for the resignation of the SLC board. On 6 November 2023, after the board's secretary Mohan De Silva resigned, Ranasinghe removed the entire SLC board and replaced them with a seven-member interim committee led by
Arjuna Ranatunga—captain of Sri Lanka's 1996 World Cup-winning team. The next day, in response to a petition by the board's president
Shammi Silva, the
Appeal Court ruled that the previous board was to be reinstated for a period of two weeks pending hearings. On 10 November 2023, the ICC suspended SLC for failing to meet "the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and ensure that there is no government interference in the governance, regulation and/or administration". While the board of the ICC ruled that the suspension would not affect Sri Lanka's day-to-day participation in international cricket, the country was stripped of its rights to host the
2024 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. On 28 January 2024, the ICC lifted the suspension, after its board ruled that SLC were no longer in breach of membership obligations. On 29 April 2026,
Shammi Silva, president of Sri Lanka Cricket, along with all office-bearers and members of the executive committee, resigned from their posts with immediate effect.
Eran Wickramaratne, a former Member of Parliament, was appointed chairman of a nine-member interim committee (Sri Lanka Cricket Transformation Committee) to manage Sri Lanka Cricket until fresh elections are conducted. The appointment was made by
Sunil Kumara Gamage,
Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, to address current issues in the sport and implement structural reforms. ==Domestic competitions==