New challenges in ancient Dambulla

Cricket stadia the world over are recognised and often revered for their unique geographical and topographical quirks.

The WACA Ground’s afternoon breeze that regularly sweeps in from the Indian Ocean at the height of the Australian summer.

The north-south slope that Lord’s has exhibited since before cricket’s international birth, and the enlivening effect that the daily tidal variations reputedly have on the way the pitch behaves at Durban’s Kingsmead Ground.

But few juggle vagaries both ancient and new with such distinctive character as the Rangiri International Stadium on the outskirts of the central city of Dambulla that hosts today’s third (and next Wednesday’s fourth) ODI between Sri Lanka and Australia.

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Hewn from dense surrounding jungle at the turn of the current century on land leased from the nearby Rangiri Dambulla Temple, which is best known for its association with the World Heritage listed Dambulla cave temple that dates back to the first Century BC.

Built from scratch in a much shorter time frame – less than six months from when it was championed by current Sri Lanka Cricket President Thilanga Sumathipala to its completion – the vast, bucolic arena stands jarringly juxtaposed between historic landmarks symbolic of the island’s Central Province.

Or ‘dry country’ as it is known given that for much of the year it is spared the monsoonal downpours that make year-round cricket impossible in the more heavily populated and constantly humid south.

Immediately to the north-east of the stadium lies the huge Ibbankatuwa Wewa ‘tank’, one of the thousands of man-made reservoirs dug across a millennium  beginning around 300BC and regarded as one of the ancient world’s engineering master projects.

It is the wind that often howls off the ‘tank’ and blasts across the playing field with barely a grassed mound and some temporary seating to impede its progress that makes for one of Dambulla’s defining features.

On the southern flank rises Dambulla Rock that houses the series of sacred, historic cave temples, home to carved statues of the Gautama Buddha as well as representations of ancient Sri Lankan kings.

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But the newcomer to the heavily forested plateau that is renowned as Sri Lanka’s premier location for elephant safaris as they congregate around the ‘tanks’ in surrounding national parks, has not enjoyed the same revered status as its antique neighbours.

All but abandoned during a tenancy dispute with the land holders in its formative, a scheduling victim of the vicissitudes of board-level politics, and most recently deemed unsuitable by the ICC to host day-night fixtures because of the lack of luxe from the eight low-rise light towers that sway alarmingly when the wind picks up off the ‘tank’.

A shortcoming that saw it restricted to day matches only, and subsequently struck from the Sri Lankan Board’s scheduling for more than three years between 2010 and 2013.

But the return of Sumathipala earlier this year for his fourth stint as SLC President coupled with a pledge to install brighter LED lights means that day-night cricket returns to the venue for the first time since 2010.

Which also means, given the new-look Sri Lanka team’s relative youth and the fact that Australia’s last ODI outing at Dambulla came in the early years of Ricky Ponting’s captaincy in 2004, neither team can claim much experience at the ground.

Indeed, Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews carries such fleeting recollections of his time at Dambulla he overlooked the fact that he led his country to an ODI loss at the ground against Pakistan last year, and a win against the same opponents a year earlier (2014).

Along with veteran opener Tillakaratne Dilshan, who is retiring from one-day international cricket at the conclusion of today’s game, Mathews is the only member of either team to have experienced a day-nighter at Dambulla.

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And that was six years ago, in the Asia Cup Final where Sri Lanka defeated arch-rivals India.

"Even we haven’t played a lot of cricket in the recent past,” Mathews said today when quizzed about the idiosyncrasies of the expansive, windswept ground.

"I think the last time I played here was in 2013, so we haven’t played here for a while.

"Obviously it is different conditions to Colombo.

"Dambulla is slightly cooler than Colombo, it’s not as humid as Colombo but it’s going to be a tough wicket once again so you have to scrap your way through.”

Of the 26 day-night ODIs played at Dambulla between 2003 and 2010, victories have been evenly split between the teams batting first and those batting second.

Similarly, history (the contemporary version relating to the stadium) shows winning the toss also delivers no sizeable advantage.

But even though the high water table courtesy of the adjoining reservoir means a Dambulla pitch is at its liveliest in the morning and increasingly takes spin as the day takes heat, the pitch for today’s match will start dry and only dry further.

That has hardly surprised the Australians, who were more eager to learn how successful has been the upgrading of the wattage and accordingly extended their pre-match optional training session last night to gauge the effectiveness or otherwise of the lighting.

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Of greater strategic significance will be the impact of the wind if today and next Wednesday are ‘tank’ days, as allrounder James Faulkner noted before he and his teammates experimented to find which boundaries could and could not be feasibly targeted and defended if the breeze is up.

"We definitely noticed that with the wind, and with the temperature," Faulkner said.

"It’s a lot cooler so we’ll have to assess the conditions and play to them as well.

"Whether one side’s harder to score or we need to protect one, we’ll sum that up as the game unfolds.

"We’ll play the conditions depending on the wind, and try and protect one side."

Whether that’s tank side or rock side, it would appear both teams will be learning as they go.