The Colombo Cricket Club (CCC) is a first-class cricket club in Sri Lanka. It is the oldest in the country, having been formed in 1863,[2] and is headquartered at 31 Maitland Crescent, Colombo 7,[3] close to the headquarters of Sri Lanka Cricket.
History
The idea of a gentlemen's team for British colonists in Ceylon was first mooted among the patrons of the Colombo Club- a social club for the British upper class then located at the Galle Face Green (not to be confused with the 1871 club of the same name and location).[4] The beginnings of the club proper can then be traced back to a notice in the Colombo Journal of 5 September 1832, which called for "...gentlemen who may be inclined towards forming a Cricket Club..." to "...meet at the Library (located in the Pettah) at 2 o'clock precisely on the 8th instant".[5] Sources then differ as to the exact date of the formation of the club, some citing 8 September,[5] October,[6] or November[7] of the same year, with all sources agreeing that a cricket club was formed sometime in 1832.[8] The newly formed club was located in Slave Island, on the land that later became the Rifle Green (now the site of the Defence Services School).[8] The first officially recorded game of cricket in the country was that between the eventual CCC and a team fielded by the 97th Regiment of the British Army stationed in Ceylon at the time, in November 1832.[8][9][10] The club soon became a hub for cricketing activity in the country, becoming the de facto governing body for cricket in Ceylon.[11]
The Colombo Club went through an expansion phase in 1863, becoming the Colombo Gymkhana Club, a parent/umbrella organisation that acted as a social club while at the same time administering a number of different sports clubs- the CCC included (alongside the CH&FC for rugby and hockey in 1892 and the Queen's Club for tennis and squash in 1899).[4][8] The CCC is thought to have been formally named with its current name sometime in 1863, and moved to Galle Face Green sometime during this period as well.[4] In 1894, the club moved again, this time to its present address at Maitland Crescent.[8] It remained a Europeans-only club until 1962,[12] and celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2013.[4][8]
12Mangan, J.A. (2005). "Imperial Origins: Christian Manliness, Moral Imperatives and Pre-Sri Lankan Playing Fields- Beginnings". In Hong, Fan; Mangan, J.A. (eds.). Sport in Asian Society: Past and present. Taylor & Francis e-Library. ISBN0-203-49742-2.
↑Little, Charles (2012). "Cricket, Sri Lanka". In Nauright, John; Parrish, Charles (eds.). Sports Around the World: History, Culture, and Practice. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p.215. ISBN978-1-59884-301-9.
↑Gunawardena, Charles (2005). Encyclopedia of Sri Lanka (2nded.). New Delhi: Sterling Publishers. p.94. ISBN9781932705485.
