In the early days of the Women’s ODI World Cup, on a muggy night in Colombo, Sri Lanka head coach Rumesh Rathnayake looked preoccupied as he oversaw training at the Colombo Cricket Club Ground. A crucial game against Australia beckoned, and Sri Lanka’s laws with the bat and in the field had been laid bare.

The team’s extremes in experience are striking. A 40-year-old Udeshika Prabodhani leads the pace attack, 39-year-old Inoka Ranaweera remains its ace spinner, 35-year-old Anushka Sanjeewani has been among the best keepers in the tournament, and the side continues to rely on 35-year-old Chamari Athapaththu for both performance and inspiration. At the other end are 20-year-olds like Vishmi Gunaratne and Dewmi Vihanga, still finding their footing on the most competitive stage they’ve experienced.

“Unfortunately, it’s a game of runs and wickets,” Rathnayake tells Sportstar. “Look at just the batting. We’ve wanted to elevate the others to Chamari’s level, and we had some heartening results. We narrowed that difference a lot. I just wish everyone got to see that a lot more on the big stage.”

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The mood is reminiscent of the 2024 T20 Asia Cup campaign, which Sri Lanka won by beating India in the final. That tournament, too, was about finding answers beyond Athapaththu, who had begun hinting that her international career was nearing its end.

Harshitha Samarawickrama and Kavisha Dilhari carried Sri Lanka home then, while Athapaththu, like a mother watching her children in a school final, nervously bit her nails on the sidelines. These are the faces of Sri Lanka’s future, but for all the promise, consistency remains elusive.

This World Cup feels markedly different from the 2022 edition in New Zealand. For one, Sri Lanka wasn’t even there, having played no ODIs in the lead-up to that tournament because of the pandemic. Since then, the team has played 36 ODIs and won 12 — a modest but meaningful improvement. The Harshithas, Vishmis, and Kavishas have been the focus of Sri Lanka’s rebuild, while bowlers such as Vihanga and Malki Madara have been blooded. But the gulf between the senior pros and the emerging generation is still evident to the coach.

“We are aware that the ladies start cricket a bit late, so age is not a big issue,” Rathnayake told this publication during the T20 World Cup in the UAE last year.

“We try to encourage youngsters coming through, and the board has arranged key opportunities for youngsters to show themselves off. The actual fruit of that exercise will come through in another five years. For us here, though, the challenge is upskilling our group.”

The problem, of course, is that upskilling cannot, and should not, happen during a World Cup.

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Step by step

Shashikala Siriwardene, Sri Lanka’ first bona fide star and Athapaththu’s predecessor as captain, recalls how passion once powered the sport in a landscape with little financial incentive.

Her own journey began with her father’s quiet commitment to her early coaching — a small act of belief that mirrored many others across the island. For players like Athapaththuit was often an uncle or a relative who filled that role, people who trusted a system that had yet to take shape.

“It was a struggle to demonstrate to our people our ability to play cricket, making it challenging to maintain the team’s cohesion. Each individual faced their own unique set of difficulties,” she tells Sportstar.

It also took visionaries who thought well ahead of their time to fight for the women’s game to be seen on its own merit, separate from the men’s structure. One such pioneer was Gwen Herath, the founding president of the Sri Lanka Women’s Cricket Association, who passed away earlier this year. She rallied funds for the team, brought in the appliance brand Singer as a sponsor, and ensured Sri Lanka made it to the 1997 World Cup in India.

When compared with Pakistan and Bangladesh, where domestic fixtures are irregular, Sri Lanka benefits from a long-standing club ecosystem. Representation from the Armed Forces — Army, Navy, and Air Force — has historically provided a steady supply of players who later graduated to the national side.

Today, clubs serve as the first tier of the pathway, feeding players into provincial teams that compete in the National Super League (instituted in 2024).

“There was a significant increase in cricket activity over time. Initially, there were approximately six to eight matches annually, involving six or seven clubs. Additionally, two to three schools participated in cricket. However, with the advent of district and provincial tournaments, as well as 50-over, T20, NSL, and school cricket, the number of clubs and opportunities thereafter has grown,” Siriwardene adds.

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“We have quite a decent system in Sri Lanka. School cricket is picking up, and solid coaches are entering the fray. We have solid Under-17s, U-19s, and emerging A teams that are getting more opportunities,” former cricketer Hashan Tillakaratne, who has coached both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in recent years, tells Sportstar.

His optimism is reflected in the U-19 side’s 5-0 T20 whitewash over a touring Australian outfit. “There was a time when we were struggling to put the side together; now you have some of these girls in the rankings. It’s a definite step up,” he says.

Colleges such as Devapathiraja College in Rathgama, the hometown of breakout all-rounder Kavisha Dilhari, are now central to nurturing Sri Lanka’s best talent. SLC has even facilitated occasional exposure tours where visiting international teams train and interact with these players.

Kavisha herself embodies a system that has finally begun to produce talent rather than merely chase parity. She benefited from the Foundation of Goodness (FOG), a social non-profit co-founded by cricketers Kushil Gunasekera and Muttiah Muralitharan that now supports sporting talent. Several national players have risen through its grassroots programs, making FOG a pillar of Sri Lanka’s sporting ecosystem.

Its work has drawn support from Surrey Cricket Club, the Marylebone Cricket Club, various Australian academies, and even pop star Bryan Adams, who contributed to building facilities on the island.

“That Asia Cup win definitely did something here in mushrooming interest in the women’s game. So many girls from rural areas suddenly emerged wanting to play like Chamari, Kavisha, and Harshitha. Our job then becomes to ensure there are facilities for these dreams,” Gunasekara tells Sportstar.

The ground in Seenigama, Gunasekara’s native village, now serves as FOG’s High-Performance hub. Its scouting camps reach across the country in search of players to feed into the national structure. FOG has built playgrounds in several villages and hopes to expand further into the northern province and the central tea-estate regions.

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Bridging the gap

Even as Sri Lanka’s system grows, the gap between the senior team and its feeder tiers remains an uncomfortable truth.

Rathnayake is blunt: “It’s a concern. I won’t lie, but this is what I have.”

A large part of the issue lies in exposure. Like many ‘smaller’ cricketing nations, Sri Lanka rarely plays top-tier opposition. Before this World Cup, the team had not faced Australia in an ODI since 2019 — and the fixture, on home turf this time, was eventually washed out.

“We were not often given the chance to compete against those teams. We did have the opportunity to play India in the Asia Cups and Asian Games, but encountered the others only during ICC events. In my 17-year career, I participated in just one bilateral series with Australia,” Siriwardene says.

Sri Lanka’s first win of the tournament came in a scrappy match against Bangladesh, a contest where the team that made fewer mistakes prevailed. It was sealed by yet another Athapaththu masterclass: three wickets for one run in the final over when Bangladesh needed nine to win. For now, the senior side and its management will reflect on a difficult campaign before resuming domestic duties.

Sri Lanka’s World Cup has been shaped as much by the weather as by form, with four of its five Colombo fixtures affected by rain. So much for home advantage. The rains have also dampened attendance. SLC announced free entry at the R. Premadasa Stadium and refunds for those who had already paid. Crowds, mostly families from the surrounding Maligawatta suburb, made an evening of it regardless.

One fan summed it up best: “Things in Sri Lankan cricket always happen as miracles. Look at Chamari!”

For years, sparks of brilliance have kept the women’s game alive on this island. The challenge now is to turn those sparks into a steady flame.

Published on Oct 25, 2025