Sri Lanka Sports – The Most Popular Sports in Sri Lanka
Wondering what sports the Sinhalese like to play?
Discover everything about the most popular sports in Sri Lanka in this post. 🏏
The Most Popular Sri Lankan Sports
Find below Sri Lanka national sports, ranked by popularity:
| Rank | Sport |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cricket |
| 2 | Rugby union |
| 3 | Football |
| 4 | Auto racing |
| 5 | Netball |
So there you have them, the most popular sports in Sri Lanka! Keep reading below for more information about each sport in Sri Lanka.
What is the National Sport of Sri Lanka ?
The national sport of Sri Lanka is volleyball.
Sport as a whole has always been a very important part of Sri Lankan culture, and cricket is the most popular of them. However, the country’s Sports Ministry officially chose volleyball to be the national sport! While the sport itself is relatively appreciated by Sri Lankans, it is not amongst the top 5.
Learn More About Sri Lanka Popular Sports
Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, in the Indian Ocean. Its capital city is Colombo, which counts more than 752,000 inhabitants (but more than 5,648,000 if you include the metropolitan area!).
An interesting part of the country that I wanted to tackle is its most popular sports. In light of that, I have listed all Sri Lanka popular sports, and I hope you will love them:
Cricket
The most popular sport in Sri Lanka is, by far cricket.
Not only is cricket appreciated, but Sri Lanka is also very proficient at the sport: it is one of the twelve members that take part in test cricket (basically the hardest and most prestigious version of the sport). It is also one of the only seven countries that won a Cricket World Cup!
The sport has been around since the beginning of the 1800s, when it was brought by the British. A cricket club was founded somewhere around 1832, in Colombo.
Famous Sri Lankan Cricket players: Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasith Malinga, Arjuna Ranatunga, Angelo Mathews, Aravinda de Silva, Chaminda Vaas, Dinesh Chandimal, Marvan Atapattu, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kushal Janith Perera
Rugby union
The second most popular sport in Sri Lanka is rugby union.
There is no professional rugby union league in Sri Lanka, but the sport remains very popular, even at a semi-professional or recreational level. It was introduced to the island a long time ago as well, in 1879, and its governing body is the Sri Lankan Rugby Football Union (which has been in place since 1908). Its first name was the Ceylon Rugby Football Union.
Sri Lanka did not qualify for the World Cup yet, but the national team has seen a lot of success in the past couple years.
Number of Rugby union licensed players in Sri Lanka: 121,938
Famous Sri Lankan Rugby union players: Roshan Weeraratne, Danushka Ranjan, Dansha Dayan, Jason Melder, Sudharshana Muthuthantri, Buwanaka Udangamuwa, Omalka Gunaratne
Football
The third most popular sport in Sri Lanka is football.
The Football Federation of Sri Lanka oversees everything related to the sport on the island, and it was created in 1939. It governs the national football team as well as the Sri Lanka Football Premier League, the top-level football league in the country.
Similarly to rugby union, there is no professional league in Sri Lanka, but the sport remains very, very popular. The first football game in Sri Lanka was played in 1890.
Famous Sri Lankan Football players: Sujan Perera, Kavindu Ishan, Charitha Mudiyanselage, Nipuna Bandara, Wellala Hettige Chathura Gunaratne, Mohamed Izzadeen, Mohamed Zain
Auto racing
The fourth most popular sport in Sri Lanka is auto racing.
Believe it or not, auto racing is very popular on the island. The country organizes many racing events all around the year, including Fox Hill Motor Cross, Gajaba Supercross and Commando Supercross. These events are organized by the SRI LANKA ASSOCIATION OF RACING DRIVERS AND RIDERS.
The most famous Sri Lankan racing driver is definitely Dilantha Malagamuwa, who represents the country at an international level. He won the 2010 and 2016 GT Asia Series.
Famous Sri Lankan Auto racing players: Dilantha Malagamuwa, Eshan Pieris, Romani De Silva, Liam Lawrence, Dejan de Zoyza, Shanaka Clay, Romani De Silva, Yevan David, Liam Lawrence
Netball
The fifth and last most popular sport in Sri Lanka is netball.
Last but not least, netball in Sri Lanka dates back to 1921. It was played at Government Training College for the first time a bit later, in 1927, and this was a huge step towards spreading the sport around the island.
The rules of the sport were standardized after the 1960 netball meeting of Commonwealth countries, which took place in the country. The best national netball team in Sri Lanka is the women’s, as it is ranked 15th in the world.
Famous Sri Lankan Netball players: Gayanjali Amarawansa, Dharshika Abeywickrama, Hasitha Mendis, Dulanga Abeygoda, Dulangi Wannithileka, Thilini Waththegedera, Nauchalee Rajapakse
So there you have them, these were all the most popular sports in Sri Lanka. I hope you enjoyed them and that you learned something new today.
In case you want to learn more about sports in other countries, feel free to keep reading, as I still have lots of things to tell you about:
More Sport Facts!
Loved these Sri Lanka sports facts? Want to see what sports are the most popular in other countries?
Then check out these posts:
Or click here to see ALL the facts up on the blog! Spoiler alert: there’s A LOT of them.
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