The SSC finally steps out of the sunshine and into the floodlights

For over a century, the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) has been the quiet, dignified heartbeat of Sri Lankan cricket. To walk through its gates is to walk through a gallery of greats, and ghosts. This is where Muthiah Muralidaran turned the ball as if by magic, claiming 166 of his 800 Test wickets - a world record for a single venue to date. It is where Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara built their 624-run monument to patience, and where Chaminda Vaas' 8 for 19 left Zimbabwe in ruins.

But for all the prestige the SSC had as the 'Lord's of Sri Lanka,' the modern game had begun to grow beyond its reach. For years, the ground was a sanctuary for the traditionalist, a place of white kits and long afternoon shadows. One that has fed more players and captains to the national team than any other. But while the world embraced the floodlit frenzy of T20 cricket, the SSC remained a daytime relic.

The last limited-overs international hosted there was a women's T20I in 2023, while the last men's white-ball game was an ODI in 2020. Its T20I history, meanwhile, frozen in time, preserved in the memory of Associate clashes between Canada, Ireland, and Afghanistan in the afternoon heat of 2010.

This Saturday, while the sun will still be high over Colombo, the 16-year drought finally ends. As the rumble of the T20 World Cup curtain-raiser between Pakistan and the Netherlands echoes across the ground, six towering sentinels will stand watch over the turf - an LKR. 1.8 billion crown of LED floodlights waiting to signal the club's belated arrival to the present. The journey to this moment, though, has been long.

"My God, for the last two decades," exclaimed SSC cricket committee chairman Samantha Dodanwela, his voice carrying the relief of a man who has finally crossed the finish line.

Since 2009, the dream of floodlights was mired in the complexities of a private members' club - disputes, corporate hesitancy, and protective instincts of a historic membership. It took the backing of Sri Lanka Cricket and the skills of a legal firm to ensure that this modernisation wouldn't cost the club its soul or autonomy.

The result is a venue that feels both intimate and international. With a capacity of 12,000, it is a 'boutique' World Cup experience, though a plan for a 6000-seater three-tier stand is already moving from the boardroom to the western hill.

"This venue is in the heart of the city," Dodanwela noted, eyeing the urban sprawl of Colombo that surrounds the club. "You will see members patronising the club in the evenings; the crowd will always be there."

For Dodanwela, who joined the club in 1990 and took stewardship of its Cricket Committee in 2011 - albeit with a short gap when Jayawardene took over briefly from 2020-22 - the lights are a guarantee of relevance. While the heritage of the SSC is built on the craft of Test cricket, he knows the future is T20.

"The SSC pitch is the best in Sri Lanka. If you are a good bowler, there is life early on. But if you survive? There are loads of runs. And in T20, what we need is runs."

As the Oman vs Zimbabwe clash kicks off at 3pm on February 9, and Pakistan vs USA plays out fully under lights the following night, the transition will be complete.

The membership may look back fondly on a past defined by Test cricket, but the SSC's future is set to begin with the glow of flood-lit mayhem in the heart of Colombo.