Club History

THE FORMATIVE YEARS...

In the beginning ..1980. . when cricket-mad Sri Lankans living in Wellington decided to enter the playing ranks and put forward a team in the Wellington Cricket Association’s 1-Day B Grade competition. The group comprised of some who had played college cricket back home, others who loved the game but had not taken the next step and others who just wanted to have a “go” at playing. Initially, SLSC had numbers to form two teams with the second team playing “friendlies” with similar teams on Sundays. The first eleven was captained by wicket keeper batsman Rohan Mendis. Sponsorships were not the norm those days and usually one had one’s own gear. We practiced on two days at the University grounds in Kelburn and these were keenly attended and was a requirement in team selection. The necessary rotation of players was never popular and always drew a fair degree of criticism. It came as a shock to some of our members when we turned up at the Ian Galloway Park for our first match. The ones who were not familiar with grade cricket in NZ expected matches to be played on grounds where only one match took place ! and thoughts of arriving at the grounds, fully kitted up with blazer etc were immediately abandoned.