Cricket returns to the controversial Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium when Sri Lanka 'A' take on Pakistan 'A' in the first of three four-day unofficial 'Tests' starting on Wednesday.

The stadium, built at an estimated cost of around Rs. 300 million, but now running close to the Rs. 500 million mark, is presently under intense scrutiny due to alleged financial mismanagement.

The Dambulla has hosted only two one-day limited-over games previously - both played early this year. One was a practice game including past and present Sri Lanka cricketers to inaugurate the ground, and the other, the first One-Day International between Sri Lanka and England played here on March 23.

The pitch was sluggish and England struggled against the off-spin of Muttiah Muralitharan who took four wickets for 29 runs to dismiss them for 143 well inside the 50 overs. Sri Lanka begun well, racing to 50 for one by the tenth over, but lost three wickets for eight runs within the space of 32 balls.

A fifth wicket partnership of 70 between Marvan Atapattu and Russel Arnold saw them through by five wickets with almost ten overs to spare. Graham Thorpe, making his debut as England captain, scored the only half-century of the match - a combative 62 not out off 107 balls.

A lot of water has flown under the bridge since that inaugural international match, and the once highly praised stadium, has suddenly become something of a 'social pariah' when the Sports Minister took it upon himself to replace the elected Cricket Board officials with an interim committee to administer the game.

How the Dambulla pitch will behave over four days is a matter of conjecture as no match of such a long duration has been played on it to date.

It was a wise move on the part of the Cricket Board's interim committee to shift the match from the NCC to Dambulla because of the bad weather being experienced in Colombo at present. Although Dambulla was chosen as a cricket venue to prevent the game from the vagaries of the weather, there is no guarantee that it will be free of it.

It rained here all Monday, and although there were threatening dark clouds hovering around the ground Tuesday, a stiff breeze kept the rains at bay allowing the two sides to practice.

The Cricket Board's chief curator Anurudda Polonowita who is handling the preparations of the ground here said the pitch would have more life than the one used for the One-Day International against England.

On paper, Pakistan 'A' look the more experienced side than their Sri Lankan counterparts with as many as seven of the 15 players having appeared in Test cricket and three others in one-day internationals.

Skipper Hasan Raza, Imran Farhat, Qaiser Abbas, Misbah-ul-Haq, Humayun Farhat, Danish Kaneria, and Irfan Fazil have all played at the highest level, and Shabbir Ahmed, Yasir Arafat and Kashif Raza in the shorter game.

Comparatively, Sri Lanka 'A' have only Kumar Sangakkara and Ruchira Perera with Test experience, and skipper Thilan Samaraweera, Chimera Silva and Akalanka Ganegama who have appeared in one-day internationals, even though the original squad invited for training consists of many experienced cricketers.

Although winning is part of the exercise, the most important aspect of these tours is to unearth new talent and feed them to the senior national side. In that aspect, Pakistan coach/manager Mudassar Nazar was more to the point when he said that he would be happy if by the end of the tour, he can pick four to five players who are ready to play at the highest level.

Sri Lanka won the last 'A' series played at home defeating Zimbabwe by 2-0 (1 drawn) in the three unofficial 'Test' matches. They were led on that occasion by Samaraweera who played a prominent role as an all-rounder scoring an unbeaten century at Galle and following it up with a match haul of nine wickets at Matara to seal the two wins.

The teams:
Sri Lanka 'A' (from):Thilan Samaraweera (captain), Dhammika Sudarshana, Ian Daniel, Kumar Sangakkara, Michael van Dort, Chimera Silva, Jeevantha Kulatunga, Sajeewa Weerakoon, Chandana Samarasinghe, Ruchira Perera, Akalanka Ganegama, Dinusha Fernando, Upekha Fernando, Gayan Wijekoon, Muthumudalige Pushpakumara.

Pakistan 'A' (from): Hasan Raza (captain), Imran Farhat, Taufeeq Umar, Salman Butt, Faisal Naved, Qaiser Abbas, Misbah-ul-Haq, Humayun Farhat, Shabbir Ahmed, Najaf Shah, Danish Kaneria, Azam Hussain, Irfan Fazil, Yasir Arafat, Kashif Raza.
Umpires: Gamini Silva and Ranmor Martinesz, Match Referee: Don Anurasiri.

© CricInfo