Inter-Provincial Cricket

Inter-Provincial Cricket Tournament

Countries	Sri Lanka
Administrator	Sri Lanka Cricket
Format	First-class, List A, Twenty20
First tournament	1990
Tournament format	Round-robin tournament and knockout
Number of teams	5

Inter-Provincial Cricket is a cricket tournament that includes the three domestic cricket competitions in Sri Lanka. It started with the Inter-Provincial First Class Tournament in 1990 because of the general idea that club cricket alone would be not enough to keep Sri Lanka cricket competitive.^[1] Sri Lanka remains today as the only Test cricket playing country to have club cricket as their form of first-class cricket. The tournament stopped after the 1994–95 season but was revived 10 years later with the 2003–04 season.^[2] The Inter-Provincial Limited Over Tournament and Inter-Provincial Twenty20 were created for the 2007–08 domestic season. The last First Class Tournament was held in 2009–10. The Twenty20 tournament was last held in 2011 and subsequently replaced by the Sri Lanka Premier League.

History

From the inauguration of the tournament participating teams varied from year to year. 1990 the tournament started with four provincial teams. They were Western Province, Central Province, Southern Province and North Western Province. But in 1991 Western province as the major player contributor to Sri Lankan Cricket had two teams, City team and Suburb team. Then three teams in 1992 and therefore total teams participating was six. 1993 Western province presented three teams again as one City team and two suburban teams. After nearly 10 years of hiatus tournament revived in 2004. Teams yet again changed, only one team from Western province and teams for North Central Province, Uva Province participated for the first time. Then again in 2008 Limited Over Tournament comprised two teams from Western province. For the Twenty20 Tournament 2008 five provincial teams and schools invited team participated.

Teams

Inter-Provincial Twenty20 teams.

Teams participation by series

List of the teams for each tournament as follows.

Team	Series
	1990	1990/91	1992	1993/94	1994/95	2003/04	2004/05
Western Province	Western Province	City, Suburbs	Suburbs, North, South	City, North, South		Western Province
Central Province	Central Province
Southern Province	Southern Province
North Western Province	North Western Province
North Central Province						North Central Province
Uva Province						Uva Province

Teams participation by series, from 2007/08

From the 2007/08 Inter-provincial limited overs tournament started naming teams in Sinhalese.

Team	Series
	2007/08	2008/09	2009/10	2010/11
Western Province	Basnahira North, Basnahira South			Basnahira
Central Province	Kandurata
Southern Province	Ruhuna
North Western Province	Wayamba
Uva Province				Uva
Eastern Province				Nagenahira
Sri Lanka Schools XI	Sri Lanka School XI (Twenty20 only)

Current teams

Team name Home ground First season   Basnahira North Western Province North R. Premadasa Stadium 1992 as Western Province in 1990   Basnahira South Western Province South Sinhalese Sports Club Ground 1992 as Western Province in 1990   Kandurata Central Province Asgiriya Stadium 1990   Ruhuna Southern Province Galle International Stadium 1990   Wayamba North Western Province Welagedara Stadium 1990

Former Teams   Team name Home ground First season   Western Province Western Province 1990   Western Province City Western Province Cities 1990–91   Western Province Suburbs Western Province Suburbs 1990–91   North Central Province North Central Province 2003–04   Uva Uva 2003–04

See also

• Inter-Provincial First Class Tournament
• Inter-Provincial Limited Over Tournament
• Inter-Provincial Twenty20

References

1. "Tournaments in Sri Lanka". cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
2. "The future is provincial". cricinfo.com. Retrieved 22 September 2008.

External links

• Cricinfo-provincial archive