The Sri Lankan cricket team is a national cricket team representing Sri Lanka. The team first played international cricket in 1975, and were later awarded Test status in 1981, which made Sri Lanka the eighth Test playing nation. The Sri Lankan team transformed themselves from the underdog status to a major cricketing nation during the 1990s. The team went on to take 1996 Cricket World Cup beating Australia in the finals, and becoming the World Champions. Since then, the team continued as a major force in international cricket, with ups and downs in certain periods. The Sri Lanka team did well to reach the finals of 2007 Cricket World Cup but lost to Australia in a rain affected match to become the runners up. The batting of Sanath Jayasuriya and Aravinda de Silva (retired), backed up by the bowling of Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas among many other talented cricketers has led to the successes of Sri Lankan cricket during the last 15 years. It is administrated by Sri Lanka Cricket country was known before 1972, played its first first-class match under that name against MCC at Nomads Ground, Victoria Park, Colombo in 1926-27, losing by an innings. [2] The team's first win came against Patiala at Dhruve Pandove Stadium in 1932-33. [3] The Ceylonese side competed in the M. J. Gopalan Trophy games from the 1950s, through the change of name to Sri Lanka, well into the 1970s.Sri Lankan cricket's greatest moment undoubtedly came during the aforementioned 1996 World Cup, when they defeated the top-ranked Australian team in the Final. Sri Lanka's game style over the course of the series revolutionized One Day International Cricket, and was characterized by highly aggressive batting in the first fifteen overs of the innings in order to take advantage of the fielding restrictions imposed during this period. This strategy has since become a hallmark of One Day International cricket.Sri Lankan cricket supporters were once again overwhelmed with the team's tremendous performance at the NatWest Series, 2006. Although as a whole it missed its captain Marvan Atapattu and Muttiah Muralitharan; Sanath together with Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Russel Arnold, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chaminda Vaas, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando and Farveez Maharoof played some fantastic innings.
