Sri Lanka - Modern Perspectives from an Ancient Melting Pot

Island Files: Nicholas Brookes on Cricket, Culture, and Community in Sri Lanka

• Dee Gibson • Season 3 • Episode 3

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Island Files: Nicholas Brookes on Cricket, Culture, and Community in Sri Lanka

In this episode of 'Sri Lanka: Modern Perspectives from an Ancient Melting Pot', we dive into the compelling journey of Nicholas Brookes, a journalist, ghostwriter and the author of the multi-award-winning 'An Island's Eleven: The Story of Sri Lankan Cricket'. He has covered sport, travel and culture for publications including The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and Middle East Eye, and podcasts regularly on Sri Lankan cricket for The Murali End. He is currently working on a biography of Jasprit Bumrah and co-authoring a book with the Sri Lankan chef Rishi Naleendra.

Nick discusses how he moved to Sri Lanka as a young man to explore its cricket culture, a project that culminated in his critically acclaimed book, 'An Island's 11'. His conversation covers his unexpected career path, his experiences living and teaching in Sri Lanka, and how cricket became more than just a sport to the nation, especially during tumultuous political times. We also touch upon gender politics, the rise of women's cricket, and the rich, communal culture of the island, from food stalls to vibrant community games. Nick illustrates how cricket transcends boundaries, fostering unity and healing amidst division.

01:09 Guest Introduction: Nicholas Brook

04:22 Nick's Journey to Sri Lanka

09:35 Living and Teaching in Sri Lanka

20:58 Writing the Book: An Island's Eleven

25:41 The Rise of Cricket in Sri Lanka

32:49 Unity in Turbulent Times: Sri Lanka's Cricket Symbolism

34:18 Impact of Cricket Legends on Sri Lankan Cricket

36:32 Rise of Women's Cricket in Sri Lanka

41:37 Volleyball: Sri Lanka's Overlooked National Sport

51:47 Tourism and Cultural Identity in Sri Lanka

55:48 Closing Thoughts and Future Projects


Find Out More on Nicholas Brookes

An Island's Eleven: The Story of Sri Lankan Cricket is MCC/Cricket Society & Wisden Book of the Year.

Now available in the UK and India. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Islands-Eleven-Story-Lankan-Cricket/dp/0750998814

Podcast - The Murali End 




Title: Sri Lanka: Modern Perspectives from an Ancient Melting Pot
Host: Dee Gibson — Sri Lankan-born, award winning designer based in London and founder of boutique hotel Kalukanda House in Sri Lanka. www.kalukandahouse.com | instagram @deegibson2017 & @kalukandahouse

Podcast Themes:

  • Modern Sri Lankan identity and culture
  • Architecture, art, and design
  • Sustainability and heritage
  • Diaspora experiences and storytelling

Why Listen:
This podcast offers deep, intelligent storytelling about Sri Lanka’s evolving identity — a blend of East and West, ancient and modern. It’s for listeners who love culture, travel, architecture, and thoughtful conversation.

Speaker:

Welcome back to series three of Sri Lanka, modern Perspectives from an ancient melting pot, the podcast that shares a dynamic modern day. Sri Lanka. you'll hear about all the things you never read about in the travel pages. through these conversations with people from art, design, culture, hospitality, philanthropy, and more, you'll hear about a global stage setting and a multifaceted land. This is an old world island with a long indigenous past that predates centuries of colonization, followed by independence, civil war, and now on our radars as a holiday destination. Sri Lanka is so much more than that. I'll show the truth of the Sri Lanka narrative straight from the amazing people who call this island their home. In series three, I'll be looking at groundbreaking projects across all disciplines that showcase a world class regenerative approach to preservation and harmony.

Speaker 3:

Today I'm talking to Nicholas Brook, author, author, podcaster, and passionate cricket lover on all things Sri Lanka. Nick wrote the book, an Islands 11 lauded by critics as a seminal work, and he uses his skill to tell the story of Sri Lanka Cricket, amidst a backdrop of ever changing politics and economic shifts. Landing in Sri Lanka as an eager 26-year-old, Nick worked in a school and lived amongst the communities. He taught and researched as the Suddha or white man integrating s language and customs, and befriending people the lengths and breadth of the country. So how has Cricket, which was brought to Sri Lanka by the British, moved from being an elite sport to one played on every corner up and down the nation, and to become the unofficial national sport transcending religion and ethnicity during a bloody civil war. The national team was pulled together and went on to win the 1996 World Cup against all odds. This is an underdog story, but through the conversation I discovered that Sri Lankan Cricket has become something bigger. A, a metaphor for building spirit and a sense of community across divisions and healing past grievances. Today, cricket in Sri Lanka still provides a constant source of joy in daily life. The England fans affectionately called the balmy army, arrives in hors and tea, cricket, and maybe the odd beer play their part in the international camaraderie. We also touch on gender politics and ta. Sri Lankan Women's Cricket is doing so much for advancement of gender equity. We talk about Jamaican cricket food from cades, which are the street side food stores, and why Nick thinks everyone who travels to Sri Lanka should throw themselves in headlong. Nick is a charming guest and speaks eloquently and passionately with a gorgeous turn of phrase. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I do.

dee:

Nicholas Brooks, I am very excited to have you here with me today. Thank you for coming onto my podcast.

nick:

you so much for having me dear. It's so, so lovely.

dee:

I was so excited to, uh, have met you recently because all the work that you've done around writing about cricket, in a very different and interesting way, which we're gonna come onto to shortly. you've spent a lot of time living out there and teaching as well. where are you sitting

nick:

I am in South London in Brockley, uh, in my bedroom come podcasting studio because my cat, who is no longer, but he previously had the run of the house. And so I was relegated into the bedroom whenever I wanted to record because otherwise he would start scratching and meowing and causing a ruckus. So yeah, this has become my little podcasting space, but it's very cozy.

dee:

We're gonna share about your podcast, because we've got a lot of cricket lovers out there. tell me about you and your journey to Sri Lanka. How did, an English boy, end up in Sri Lanka and become a Sri Lanka phile and get to know so much about the island's history of

nick:

Uh, it's an incredibly circuitous story. I studied English at university and then I think I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to write, but I didn't know exactly how to channel that energy. And so it took loads of different forms. I was trying to write, uh, films and TV scripts, which was lots of fun, but it's a really difficult world to break into. And I was taking on sort of jobs to support me doing that. So I sold insurance over the phone. I renovated, managed a cafe. I was doing stuff that I didn't want to be doing to try and support myself. And after a couple of years, I think I got a little bit disheartened or frustrated and said, you know, why? I've got this skill, why am I getting paid for it? And so I then started, you know, uh, doing a bit of copy for brands, kind of what they call advertorial. Uh, I worked for Travel Magazine, so I was doing bits of hotel reviews and things like that, but also, uh, kind of copy for luxury travel brands. Uh, it was nice to be paid for my writing, but then I had this kind of existential crisis of why have I stumbled into being a kind of salesman with my pen? And I don't think it was really what I'd imagined when I thought of being a writer. So I kind of had a chat with myself and said, what do I love? I love cricket. And I happened to meet a cricket writer at a wedding. Uh, and I'd always kind of had the impression that sports journalism was one of these kind of walled off industries. It's very heavily dominated by ex Pros. And, you know, I'd never kind of really. Considered that writing and cricket could kind of come together and become a thing. So I just started writing some cricket. I got an internship at a sports magazine, and someone gave me the email address of a, a prominent cricket writer guy called Peter Oborne, who's written lots about cricket and lots about politics. Uh, so he's had this kind of diverse career that I really respected and would the sort of thing that I wanted to emulate. And so I sent him an email with something I'd written and essentially said, am I wasting my time? Should I carry on doing this? And I thought it would just die at the bottom of his inbox. But, uh, incredibly, he got back and said, why don't you come in for a meeting? I must have been 25, 26, and I, I, I was just over the moon that he didn't think I was totally shit basically. And, He became something of a mentor to me. And actually the first time I met him, I told him that I wanted to write books. Uh, that, you know, I really always saw writing as something that I wanted to kind of stretch and sprawl over big projects rather than shorter journalistic style pieces. And he had written a book about cricket in Pakistan and, I guess the first incredible moment of serendipity, he said, you know, I've always wanted to do the same for Sri Lanka. No one has written about it, but I'm too old. I can't really be bothered to take it on. Why don't you think about doing it? And so, uh, it was just kind of, it fell into my lap incredibly fortuitously. And that was the start of what's been a really amazing journey.

dee:

Oh, I love that story so much. you knew your self worth back then. I think it's just, it's

nick:

Yeah, I, I think so. I think I've, there's always been that sort of, um, binary or juxtaposition between sort of thinking you're good, but also fearing that you are rubbish. But I think I always felt like I had to do it. I think like, you know how it is deal with creative people that you feel that there's something that you have to get out of you. And often it's, um, not an entirely painless process, but it feels, necessary and vital. And if you are not doing it, you feel somewhat frustrated.

dee:

So it sounds like that was the moment for you, you know, you had the calling with cricket and writing and, and love of people and travel, and it all came

nick:

Yeah, absolutely.

dee:

through this

nick:

no, it was a little light bulb moment, and I've always liked the idea of kind of being, uh, somewhat directed by life rather than, uh, everything being purely decision based. I think, you know, as humans, we want to believe that we have an incredible amount of agency, but so much is, is down to destiny, right? And fate. And I like the idea that the book wasn't my idea that it came to me and that I kind of followed the path that life had given me and it turned in something incredibly personal and really beautiful.

dee:

The idea of destiny and serendipity is, is all, is, is all about

nick:

it really? is, and it's such a cliche, but like everyone who's spent time in Sri Lanka speaks about it. And I, I really do think there's something in it.

dee:

there's something that draws you to the island. so you've been charged. By your mentor to write a book about Sri Lankan cricket. So how did you find yourself, um, getting over there? And is this something that you decided to do under your own steam or were you commissioned? What was

nick:

I wasn't commissioned at all. I, um, was blessed with the hubris of youth and I just, uh, I just thought I'll just go and do this and, uh, everything will fall into place. I'll figure out the rest of it later. Uh, I guess maybe the sort of preface to the story is that my mom is half Jamaican, so I'd spent a lot of time in Jamaica growing up and, uh, everyone had always told me how kind of. Similar geographically, Sri Lanka was to Jamaica, and so it was somewhere that I'd always wanted to visit. I grew up, I guess, uh, my cricketing memory kind of came into life in the late nineties and early noughties. So I'd loved Sri Lanka Cricket from the time that I was a kid. And I decided, I think it must have been September, 2017 that I was gonna go on a little two week research trip. Uh, so knew no one had never been to Sri Lanka before in my life. And I, uh, touched down and just, you know, when you instantly connect with a place when you sort of

dee:

Mm-hmm.

nick:

I instantly loved it. I remember landing at Bandaranaika airport and it was pouring with rain and my taxi driver came to get me and was sort of grabbing me under his umbrella and we were running through torrential rain to his car. And I just really clearly remember that first drive to Colombo and there just being something. Incredibly enchanting that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Uh, and at the same time, it was, uh, amazingly hospitable. I didn't know anyone and I tried to set up what, what few interviews I could. Being a total outsider and as sports journalists, the world over will know, interviewing cricketers or people who are associated with sport often isn't the easiest thing. I think, uh, they're often not particularly obliging and they can be media trained and give you a very kind of sanitized picture or an interaction that feels to lack much sort of personal connection. And in Sri Lanka was totally different. Everyone who I met was so hospitable, so willing to talk for hours and hours to give me a real unvarnished truth and then to put me in touch with other people. So it turned out that in my first kind of two week trip, I probably did. 15 interviews, and I really felt this kind of snowball happening before my eyes where stories were just kind of unfurling themselves. Uh, so that was really, really lovely. Uh, and I instantly loved Srilanka. I loved the food, I loved the vibrancy. I just, I, I was, yeah, at home really, I think from that very first trip. And I hadn't planned to move there at all. I thought that I could kind of take research trips and then come back and do the bulk of the writing in London while I was still working. But I very quickly realized that if I did it that way, I'd always be rushing from interview to interview. And I'd never really be able to, I guess, penetrate Sri Lanka culturally and start to understand what made the island tick, why cricket was important. And I think really that is what this book is about. More so than, you know, Sanga kara scoring a triple century somewhere. so I, I decided that I was gonna move. I didn't know how I was gonna afford it because I had quit my job. So my mentor, Peter Oborne said, why don't you see if you could teach in a school? Uh, I'd never taught a day in my life, but I emailed St. Thomas's, who I'd had some interactions with via cricket, and they just said, pack your bags and come, we can't pay you, but we can give you food and board. And, I thought that sounded like a fair deal. And I was excited and I was, uh, I guess you have that, um, that lack of fear right when you are young. And so I just jumped at it and did it. And I probably 6, 7, 8 months after that first trip, I touched down with two big suitcases and was a Sri Lankan resident, albeit one on a sneaky tourist visa.

dee:

Yeah, we won't talk about that, but, What a story. And just for context, for people who dunno, St. Thomas is one of the elite schools in Sri Lanka is now, I think it's probably up there with the equivalent of Eaton in the uk. it's the school that, you know, the top

nick:

Um, people always talk about Royal and St. Thomas's as the kind of Eton and Harrow, and I guess that analogy is especially fitting because they've got an annual cricket match and, which has been running unbroken since 1879, I believe. so these schools were really kind of the seminaries of Sri Lankan cricket as it started to pass from colonists to colonized, I suppose. so they right at the heart of the sort of early history of Sri Lankan Cricket.

dee:

I'd love to come back to that in a second. because I'm interested in talking to you about what cricket means to Sri Lanka beyond the sport and what you've discovered about the people. But if we can just quickly touch on the time you spent at the school, because you sort of had this, I guess, a barter arrangement of sorts where you were teaching English, in return for meals and boarding. Um, but what was it like working with the boys and, did you find that to be a culturally immersive experience? living there? I mean, when we met before, you were talking about learning to eat your hands with the locals and some of the, the words that you weren't learned. Some of the sinhala words. Did the boys

nick:

They did? Yeah. I was a terrible teacher. D I'll say that, but I think the boys liked me because, you know, I was going to write a book about cricket. Shouting at kids wasn't part of my agenda or something that, um, comes particularly naturally to me. And I quickly learned that Sri Lankan teachers can rule with quite an iron fist. And so, uh, the boys really ran rings around me, but they did adopt me and it was incredible like. And a real cultural education. I think if I'd gone and I'd lived in an apartment in Colombo, I would've had a much narrower experience, a much more limited understanding. And I think, you know, just going to staff meeting gives you an insight into sort of how Sri Lankan institutions work. Anyone who's spent any time on the island will know that Sri Lankan organization can be a little bit idiosyncratic. And so, uh, seeing that up close was really interesting. you know, things like, everyone talks about Sri Lankan time, but I'd arrived for a nine o'clock lesson at nine o'clock and people would say, you know, what are you doing here? No one's gonna be here for sort of 10 minutes. So, the scene was being totally integrated, I suppose, and seeing the, every day, uh, kind of the way that things work. Was I, yeah, hugely, insightful and I had to learn. To eat with my hands just because I went and sat in the canteen and everyone stared at me sort of there with my knife and fork. So very quickly I had to learn to, um, shovel without getting everything all over my clothes. And, um, and I still, when I'm in Sri Lanka, love to eat with my hands 'cause everyone tells you that curry tastes differently. And there's certainly kind of like that sensory experiences, I think more satisfying than a metal fork.

dee:

And there is a skill isn't there to, to eating with your hands. I mean, we're used to using our hands to eat a burger or eat ribs or chips and that kind of thing. And I, but there is something different about, um, sort of scooping up different parts of a curry and sort of putting them into your, into your hands in the right quantities and then feeding yourself. It's, it is a very sort of sensory experience and you watch people licking sauce off their fingers and that kind of thing. And how did you find, getting on with the language, um.

nick:

Uh, I loved learning little phrases of sinhala that I could, I think I told you my best phrase was, um, which means don't break my yolks, which everyone thinks is some kind of idiom, but it's because I love egg hoppers. And you'd go to a ca and they'd always, you know, break the yolk and it would go all over. So I, I wanted that bursty yoke, and I'd always say that and, uh, you know, see the look in people on people's faces. They were very shocked by, uh, Suddha as I was regularly called. Uh, and I think that element of surprise was really enjoyable. It's nice singing because there's. That habit of like borrowing English nouns. So if you can kind of, if you've got a bit of a framework but you don't know a word, you can always substitute for the English word and people normally know what you're talking about. So that was great. I found it really satisfying, uh, learning what little bits I could very badly. Uh, and um, it helps with getting around, I think. And it helped me to feel more like I was part of that culture or yeah, that I was immersing myself less like a sort of tourist on an extended break.

dee:

yes. You're part of the fabric of society and uh, I think that's a really wonderful way to. Travel really isn't it? Rather than being, like you say a tourist, which is on the other side of some kind of glass wall or just kind of looking at things, you are actually part of what you are, what you are, um,

nick:

Totally, and I think it's something that we as like British people are especially bad at this sort of arrogance that you can go anywhere in the world and speak English. So I always like to try and it often ends in failure,

dee:

Well, it's interesting you say that because um, there are so many people who travel to Sri Lanka and I, and I have actually found that the British travelers to Sri Lanka, certainly in my experience anyway, have been the ones that are really these days really interested in cultural immersion. And, um, so I think, I think times are changing and I think it's lovely that people now really want to. Be part of what they're seeing as opposed to kind of just, uh, you know, watching from the sidelines. But I think also people like you, and I hope me and others like us who share the stories of Sri Lanka really help to give this sense of comfort and security to people to just say, you're so welcome. People wanna talk to you. Just please have these conversations and, you know, exchange. And I think it's, it's part of building that narrative, of being a part of a, a global citizenship

nick:

Uh, totally, and it's, I mean, as you say, it's such a warm, friendly place and it's so culturally vibrant that I think you have to be, uh, incredibly close-minded to go there and not feel curious.

dee:

Yes, So you'll, you've spent time at the school, you've kind of gathered your courage and your skills, and you've already interviewed, 15 cricketers in two weeks. I, I guess that's testament to people recommending that, oh, you've gotta go and speak to so-and-so and so and so, and just, you know, like you said before, this snowball effect of introductions. How did you then take that initial body of work to start building on your research?

nick:

I mean, I don't really know Dee. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. No one tells you how to write a book. I don't think there's any guide. You just gotta sort of, uh, jump in and everything that I was telling my kids as a teacher, you know, writing English essays, you've gotta plan, you've gotta do this. I completely ignored and I just thought. I just sort of wrote and, eventually a vague kind of roadmap emerged. Uh, but only very vaguely I should say that my first draft, which I finished about five weeks before I had to submit the book, was I think 340,000 words, which would be over a thousand pages in a book and completely unpublishable. So I spent the last month before the book was due, uh, in this room actually just pressing delete on my laptop, just deleting suede and suede of texts that I lovingly crafted. Uh, they were hours in the making and seconds to go into the bin, but

dee:

As part of the creative process, isn't it? But that just shows you had a lot to write about. So I guess that's that sort of nub of my question, I suppose. What was it that you were writing as you were going through this editing process, which I can imagine must just be brutal because I hate going over work that I've done in the past that I've been really happy with. And Jen just thought, I've just got to kind of snip it down. But as you were reading through your first draft, did you find a pattern of things that you've been writing about that had really drawn you in?

nick:

Yeah, there were, and it was hard because, you know, it's a huge canvas and very unprepared. Paint such a big painting and uh, you know, I think you should start with a sort of little six by four. And I started with something that can, you know, hang in the tape basically. And I think bringing those strands together was probably the hardest thing because, uh, you know, from one aspect you're trying to tell the sort of sociological story what cricket means, srilanka, how, uh, it's. An expression of broader Sri Lankan life, how the politics or the history is refracted through cricket. So that was one angle that I was especially interested in. I think then you are also trying to tell these human stories, uh, the characters who have kind of, you know. Brighten the game and who have elevated it beyond a load of blokes chasing a ball around a field, which is essentially what it is. Right. Uh, so the, there're those two things, and then you are trying to tell the story, I guess, of this quest for recognition. Right. Sri Lanka existed outside of the International Cricket Council for a long time, which means you're essentially relying on other country's charity. Uh, they say, we'll come and play against you, but you've got no guarantees that you're gonna be part of the furniture. So trying to kind of trace that quest, how it came together, how Sri Lanka basically came to be part of the furniture. And then I think the fourth angle was this, I guess this slightly meta kind of, aspect, which was. Me a bumbling 27-year-old dropped headfirst into this culture, which I had no idea about. And I guess trying to understand it and feeling a bit like the more you know, the less you know, uh,

dee:

Yes. Yeah.

nick:

uh. But so, uh, no, there were lots of strands to bring together and it went through various kind of forms. And there were nights where I'd bang my head against the wall thinking, wa I ruined my life doing this ridiculous book that no one's gonna read. and then, you know, nights where I woke up at four o'clock and started pounding away on my laptop. so it was, it was a process and it was a huge project. I think, inadvisable big for a first time author, but somehow we got to the end of it.

dee:

Well, I have to say, just to let our listeners know that your book called An Islands 11 has been described as a tour de force of scholarship and storytelling And there have been plenty of good books on Sri Lankan cricket, but few as comprehensive or as entertaining as An Island's 11. So despite that kind of washing machine of creativity and process that you went through, your book has absolutely been lauded as one of the best things to be written about cricket for a very, very long time. Right. Let's start talking a little bit about cricket and what it means to Sri Lanka. so Cricket came to Sri Lanka with the British, during their occupation how did it go from being a very elite sport to being something that we see on every street corner now? I mean, if you travel around, you'll see kids in the narrow streets possible playing cricket. They are everywhere. And so how did that sort of come to be?

nick:

It's a really good question, Dee, and something that I was very surprised by, because it was an incredibly protracted process as you touch on. It started with the English and then it filtered through these kind of anglicized schools. But for much of Sri Lanka's cricketing history, it remained a very kind of, um, limited group of people playing the game who were generally Colombo based. Uh, had generally gone to these sort of anglicized Christian schools and were really members of the kind of upper middle class. I think the spread started slowly happening. During the 1980s, Sri Lanka got test status in the early eighties. and so were elevated onto the international stage at a time in Sri Lanka's, broader history that was, very difficult. Obviously the Civil War had started and life at home for people wasn't great in many cases. Uh, I think especially, you know, as cricket really started to surge in the late eighties, you had the, the, the civil war between the LTT and the government, but you also had the JVP uprising in the South. You had the IPKF coming into SKA in the north. And so, you know, it was a pretty hellish situation and I think for ordinary people cricket provided a kind of unique form of escapism, right? To be able to turn on your radio or your TV laterally for a few hours and to see Srilanka doing something on the world internationally. Initially they were losing a lot of the time, but I still think there was a chance to, to feel proud or to feel angry, but in a kind of novel way that removed you from what was going on around you. and then I think the catalyst to it becoming, truly the national game, this kind of fourth religion or fifth religion as people sometimes refer to it now, was the 96 World Cup, which was just the most incredible underdog story. And Arjuna Ranatunga and his team won against all odds. Uh, and I think that was a huge moment of pride and celebration for all of Sri Lanka And, yeah. Set this course a light where I'd heard that, you know, in the seventies and eighties there was a lot of volleyball played in the villages. There's also another game which doesn't really exist so much anymore, called Ella, which was like a somewhere between baseball and rounders. and so I spoke to the prominent Sri Lankan journalist, Andrew Fidel Fernando, who writes cricket for ESPN. And he remembers as a kid playing almost as much Ella as there was cricket. And so I think really it was only in the second half of the nineties when Sri Lanka sort of best stro the top of the world, that cricket spread to every town in every village. And it's fantastic. I used to stay with some friends in a village not far from Thalpe, and you know, at sort of five o'clock this feel of the whole village getting together to play cricket. And it wasn't just boys and young men, you'd get aunties standing at first slip. And uh, there was something really, really lovely about that.

dee:

I think it's wonderful how sport brings everyone together, isn't it? and Sri Lanka has got a couple of beautiful, cricket stadiums. The Galle Fort Stadium is won, uh, Colombo Kandy. I'm curious though, so the World Cup win in 1996, and, and the war is still very much going on as a backdrop here, there must have been a, a sort of seminal moment in terms of bringing cricket more. A national scale around the islands, but how would it have been that that team could have been brought together when there's all this turbulence going on in the background, how on earth could they have been pulled together as a team? When would they have trained, how would all of that have come about?

nick:

It's a really good question. It's a like incredibly complicated question. Dee I think it's important to stress that up until, I mean, at nine in 96, it was still a totally amateur kind of setup, right? everyone still had jobs. Uh, there was absolutely zero money in Sri Lankan cricket. So much so that actually players who lived outside of Colombo who were struggling to get into training every day, they moved into Arjuna Ranatunga's parents' house. And so there was this sort of dorm situation, with four or five of them. Living in one room and being served Pu and Rice by Arjuna's parents. Uh, they got a coach Dav Whatmore about a year before they won the World Cup, who was a Sri Lankan Australian and brought a kind of professionalism in s Sri Lankan Cricket for the first time. I think he banned rice and curry or limited it, at least. He introduced really stringent fitness and fielding drills and, uh, yeah, started to kind of bind this team together and turn them from a group of talented, but disorganized players into a really powerful unit. I think Arjuna as a captain who almost became a kind of spiritual leader, was really important in that. I guess the other thing to say, Dee, in terms of how did they kind of represent the nation more broadly? Uh, a lot of these players were from Colombo or Western Province. Uh, and a, a lot of them were sese, uh, from Buddhist or Christian backgrounds. But then you have morally this kind of emerging star in 1996, who is of course a Tamil from, uh.

dee:

And for context morally was the player who famously had this sort of awkwardness to his arm, um, which meant that it was very difficult for the batsman to kind of see this ball coming at them

nick:

Yeah, and he had a, a sort of double jointed, a, a freakish arm that was sort of born to bowl cricket. And he could spin the ball much more than any other bowler of his style. But it also drew lots of skepticism. And just before the World Cup, he was basically accused of cheating by an umpire, and lots of people wanted him, intra Lanka didn't want him to be in the World Cup squad because they thought it might happen again, and then the team would be left a man short. But Arjuna Ranatunga said, I don't care what anyone says, I'm taking Marilee. He's my star bowler. I want him in the team. And when I spoke to Marilee about it, he. Sort of struck on what a powerful thing it was. You know, he said, this was the height of the Civil War, and I'm a tunnel and he's a ese Buddhist, and it would've been so easy for him to sideline me. But he said, we are Sri Lankans and we're standing together. And I think throughout the Civil War, I mean, it's an incredibly complex situation. This is sort of somewhat reductive statement, but I think that Marilee's presence as Sri Lanka's greatest star, Sri Lanka's kind of national hero, sent a message, however subtly to people that like, look what we can do if we manage to embrace unity, and if we work together, uh, how much could we achieve? And so I think that that's a really beautiful thing, that while Sri Lanka was going through this unimaginable turbulence, there was this tamal cricketer at the heart of a team that was largely sese in character. yes. Standing is this sort of, um. I guess symbol for reconciliation, for want of a better word.

dee:

Yes, absolutely. I'm definitely a big believer in you can't be what you can't see. the cricketing team made up of a, a different group of players and a coach who held 'em all together and said, I don't care what anyone else thinks. this is my team. And they go on to win the World Cup that would've been a wonderful metaphor for anyone outside of the sport to understand how important it is to just bring people together, and how they can work as a team. and all of these guys are, SangakaRa Murali, Jay awardene, vas, they were all national heroes, even to this day, aren't they? have they had a big impact on the game moving forward over the last 20, 25

nick:

Yeah, I mean, they're incredibly respected national heroes. I think Sanger, if you wanted to be president, it could happen in a flash

dee:

Yes.

nick:

they have helped the game moving forward. I think ironically, through no fault of their own, they prevented Sri Lankan cricket from developing because they were so good for so long. If you look, especially at Sanger and Murley, they went well into their late thirties. Being fantastic for Sri Lankan cricket. And so their presence kind of papered over a few cracks. And when you saw all these players retire in fairly quick succession, you know, Mahala, Sanger, VA Dhan, Murley, there was suddenly a bit of a drop off. Uh, but they have, they have done, um, wonderful things. Mahalo Ja yawardene has been very involved in, uh, Sri Lankan Cricket. He's been on advisory boards and he's a brilliant, brilliant cricketing mind. So he's done lots to help, uh, murali has done lots to kind of help Sri Lanka, um, more than Sri Lankan cricket, you know, the foundation of goodness that he helps Kush sacral with has done just such amazing work in the grassroots cricketing sphere and beyond. And there are some wonderful stories from around the time, post tsunami, when. Sri Lanka, so desperately needed aid, but no one was willing to take it north into LTTE, territory of Murali, kind of traveling with convoys up to jaffna and making sure there that people had food. Uh, so I think lots of these cricketers have used their platform, uh, as cricketers as a kind of vehicle to do good beyond cricket, which is really, really inspiring.

dee:

Absolutely. It shows leadership through sportsmanship and an attitude and an approach to, a nation, I'm curious as well. Recently there's been, um, a rise in. The more mainstream of women's cricket globally, but also in Sri Lanka. Um, and actually, I think recently the World Cup has been taking place in Sri Lanka. Sadly, we didn't do too well, but it was wonderful to be represented there. Uh, how do you see the sport developing, with women? And I don't mean that from a should women play cricket perspective? I just mean in terms of the fabric of society and how Sri Lanka is developing now post-war, post troubles, we hope in 2025 going into 2026, it's internationally on the platform as a place to go to visit. And bringing in travelers for so many different reasons. The food, the people, our wildlife and sports. How does women's cricket in Sri Lanka sit in that? And have you noticed how it filters down into the systemic way of thinking? Um, within the country?

nick:

Yeah, I think there's been a massive shift over the last. Five years deep and certainly attitudes since I was living in Sri Lanka from 2018 to 2020 and now have progressed quite dramatically. And I think the Asia Cup last year where Sri Lanka won against all odds, they beat India in the final, was a huge moment. And it was incredibly inspiring and really, really great to see just the whole country get behind the women's team. And we've spoken in the past that Sri Lanka has work to do in terms of gender politics, and I think in some circles there has still been an attitude that cricket, playing cricket is unladylike that it's a sport for men, which is just totally wrong. And I think that those attitudes are really starting to change and that Sri Lanka is embracing women's cricket. The team has come on really, really fast. I remember seeing them playing England in 2019, in Colombo. And there was just. It was night and day, the, the gulf between the two sides. And now Sri Lanka have, improved really drastically in a short space of time. They're getting more support from the public and from SLC, and there's a huge amount of talent emerging. So it's a really exciting time for Sri Lanka women's cricket. It's, there's still a way to go. It needs more support, both from administrators and from the public, but I think the signs are really promising. Uh, the attitudes have Yeah, changed dramatically, almost overnight.

dee:

I've seen it myself from 2018 to 2025, there's been a huge shift and I think part of that might be a generation growing up with social media and, access to what's going on in the rest of the world, it's just been sort of becoming more acceptable and it's starting to creep out at quite a pace, um, beyond the big cities where it's much more accepted into the outer reaches into. The countryside and villages and there are various other sports like surfing for example. Sea Sisters is a wonderful initiative. I don't know if you know of them, but they're bringing surfing to women who live around the coastal regions. so that village women can literally take out their B boards and surf. And until relatively recently, that would've been something that would've been frowned upon. But it's becoming more accepted. And I think sport, the more we can do to uphold sport, across the board in Sri Lanka, again, that visual of, there is someone doing it right now and it just really brings this, this sense of acceptance, doesn't it? And, and independence and

nick:

Yeah, absolutely. No, you put it so eloquently, Dee, and I mean, I think it's a great kind of irony that Sri Lanka, the country, which had the first female prime minister in the world, has, uh, been so slow to advance in terms of gender politics. And yeah, I think that is really changing now, which is fantastic for Sri Lanka. Not just from a sort of equality perspective, but because women are so much better at organizing things than men. We're completely useless. And uh, you know, the mother figure has been so central to Srila, the Sri Lankan home. The mother is always the boss. And so I think if we can get more women into really prominent public roles, it can only be a good thing.

dee:

Yes. I am seeing, I'm seeing more of that parity coming through and It's so interesting your insights into all of this as a Brit who's kind of got under the skin of Sri Lanka and become an insider. And that's just such a gift to all of us because you bring a different lens to, what life is like. So I really am grateful for you to be here. Sharing, sharing

nick:

Oh, thank you, dude. That's very kind of you to say.

dee:

No, not at all. Not at all. So let's talk about the other sport that we touched upon earlier, which predates, cricket, or at least was around at the same time. And, and you and I were talking just before we came on about how, Sports fans will very much know that Sri Lanka is a cricketing nation, but actually the national sport is,

nick:

Volleyball, which is bizarre. I've never seen a game of volleyball played in Sri Lanka, but apparently it used to be everywhere.

dee:

Yeah, it's really interesting so do you know anything about that sport, a tool and why it has been dwarfed by cricket? Why would that not have taken off, for example? 'cause that doesn't really need much either, does it? It just needs a net and a group of people. In fact, it's probably less complicated to organize than a game

nick:

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's one aspect of cricket that, slowed its development. I think on the one hand there was perhaps this sense that was very closely tied to the colonial establishment, which put people off, but also the barriers, uh, to entry are really high to play cricket in the way that we see it. On tv, you need bats and pads and balls and gloves. There's a lot of kit that comes with it, which is why sort of 95% of cricket that's played in Srilanka is softball, which is, you know, a tennis ball, an old bat that may be homemade and takes a lot of those barriers to entry away. But yeah, so volleyball's very easy, right? You just need a net and a ball and you don't. It's easy to understand. There aren't a lot of rules. I imagine that Cricket started to dwarf it because really it was one of the first things where Sri Lanka excelled on the global stage. Right? And I remember people talking to me about the sort of eighties and nineties and saying, you know, if people knew about Sri Lanka, they maybe knew Tea and Tamil Tigers. Those were the things that they, that sort of a westerner might be able to tell you about Sri Lanka. And then suddenly as cricket burst through Sri Lanka was elevated onto the global stage for something else, something positive, where it was competing with much bigger nations with more resources and better infrastructure. And so I think it was that, as you say, you know, that seeing and doing kind of thing, Dee uh, which really inspired people and saw cricket kind of take over, in an incredible way. I don't think I've ever been to another country, even India, which has the same love for cricket that Srilanka does.

dee:

mm And also you had mentioned earlier you are half Jamaican, out of interest you've said that Sri Lanka and Jamaica are quite similar, but what about the cricketing side of things? Are there similarities or are there differences? Have you got any insights on that?

nick:

Yeah, massive differences. Jamaican cricket has really floundered in recent years as Caribbean cricket has more broadly. And, uh, just actually that juxtapositions really sad. You know, in Srilanka you see people playing cricket everywhere in Jamaica. Now you very rarely see people playing cricket at all, or I have, um, and I think. Its proximity to America has sort of seen cricket sidelined by other sports and you know, the Premier League, which is modern Britain's greatest export, has reached every corner of the world. And uh, football is now sort of the thing. Whereas I think cricket remains pretty unchallenged in Sri Lanka and I think will do for the foreseeable future.

dee:

it is a very gentle game, isn't it? it's just, there's something very calming about the ripple of applause. You know, you go to Colombo Stadium and you'll see the guys with their faces painted, and they're dancing to music and waving flags, and it just, it feels passionate, but without aggression. Um, and, it just lingers over a long time. I mean, I have to say, I do wonder sometimes why a game of cricket can last five days, because that completely foxes me.

nick:

Well, back in the good old days, v they used to have timeless tests, which would sort of stretch on for weeks and weeks, uh, and until sort of, you know, a ship had had to leave or a train was leaving the station. Uh, so it's, it's been condensed, but it's, you know, it's like a, I dunno, a James Joyce novel. You can't, it can't be played out in a hundred pages.

dee:

Yes, actually you've reminded me, of course, um, tea is very much part of a Sri Lanka's kind of offering to the world as well, and that marriage of cricket and tea and lawns and, that loveliness I can see how that would've just really knitted together in this fabric of something that's so strong that we see

nick:

Absolutely. And cricket teas are a huge part of the game. You know, it's the only sport that breaks for lunch and tea. And from my experience, Sri Lanka does a fantastic cricket tea. You know, in England you get rubbish cucumber sandwiches and they're beautiful samos and rotis and malu pan and all, all sorts of

dee:

Yeah. Oh. You are making me hungry. But I also love the fact that, um, so I have a place in, in the South, as you know, in well, and we're not very far from Ga fort where we have the, the Ga Fort Cricket stadium, which is set within the old ramparts of the fort. So you've got this incredible opportunity, for people to go and have those teas to eat, to snack, to watch, but you don't even necessarily need to be in the ground. You can be perched up high on the old fort walls. Looking down onto this incredible pitch. I've got some amazing photos of matches that have gone on there. the stadium at one point was, um, being threatened with closure. I think they were talking about moving it. Do you, do you know of anything that's happening around

nick:

there are perpetual talks about moving it. Uh, and I don't think that's going to happen 'cause they've been threatening to for years. And I mean it really is totally unique in the world of cricket. And I'd say more broadly actually, in the world of sport, I think it's one of the. Best places to watch sport in the world go. And I love that you can stay in the fort, you can walk to the ground, and then when the test finishes at five o'clock, you can rush and get a swim in the sea before sunset. And it's, uh, I've, I've had some of my best days watching cricket there and it's, Just incredibly congenial places where you always make friends. The pavilion is always full of people drinking, not necessarily watching the cricket. Uh, but yeah, it's got a wonderful atmosphere. I think there's been some illegal construction at the stadium. As I understand it. One of the buildings which may have a politician's name sort of prominently plastered on it, uh, has obstructed what is supposed to be an unbroken view of Go four. That is part of the stipulation of it being a UNESCO Heritage site. Uh, so yeah, some building regulations I think may have been contravene, but I think ultimately everyone realizes that it's such a beautiful ground that you can't get rid of it, even if it isn't quite up to modern specifications. Like you couldn't put floodlights in there. It's just totally impossible. And, uh,

dee:

Yeah. And actually we don't want flood

nick:

no, it'll be, it'll be awful. Right. Uh. I always kind of laugh about Sri Lankan planning, which is uniquely last minute. And something that I've seen at Bull Cricket Ground, which I will never understand, was, uh, one day a test match was on, I was in the pavilion and there was someone painting the bathroom. And so this is a ground that sort of stands empty for 90% of the year. And then on the day when people descend on it, someone had the bright idea that the bathroom should be painted that.

dee:

I think someone must have been shouted at that day Part of the charm of Sri Lanka. Is it? Oh, maybe it is. I don't know. But, just, coming back to your book, Nick, We're starting to see a lot of literature coming through globally, I think, which isn't narrow laned into a particular segment. It's not just a sports book, it's not just a history book. It's not just a geography or, you know, wildlife book. All of these things have such a big interplay, it's been a really interesting time from one 50 years to the next. In fact, from one five years to the next, or one year to the next in my life, since I've been working there. But going back a few hundred years, you know, uh, it's changed so much. There has been so much, uh. Migration, colonization, independence, economic movement. And because Sri Lanka, is quite sensitive to global geopolitics as well as the internal these things that continue outside of that kind of battering from outside and internal forces, they're re a really good framework to be able to, I feedback about the state of the nation throughout those times.

nick:

And I think, yeah, like Sri Lanka is kind of constantly in a state of flux. I think one of the things that makes it such a unique, interesting place is this sense of it as like a constant cultural melting pot where uh, these totally disparate influences are kind of coming together. And that confluence is really lovely and you see it everywhere, right? In architecture and food and cultural customs like cricket. And it's not just Britain or Holland or Portugal, you know, it was such an important stop on the Silk Road. And so yeah, I think that's, um, a really. aspect of Sri Lanka. I don't think I've ever been anywhere that kind of throws so many influences together and it turns into this kind of beautiful dish.

dee:

I guess that brings me neatly onto a question, in 2025, as we touched on before, Sri Lanka is such a, a popular place to travel to. And, um, I sit in the world of design and travel and one of the constant conversations, not just for Sri Lanka, but globally, is about, Sustainability, traveling, consciously traveling, kindly traveling meaningfully. I mean, there are so many different sort of titles and ultimately what we want is for people to travel and just be nice and leave a place at least as good as you found it, if not better. So as someone who's done all of this research and is very much a Sri Lankan, in my mind, how do you think, and I've thrown this question at you last minute, I know you haven't had a chance to prepare, but how do you think we can manage a situation where we've now got lots of people coming into the country and we want to make sure that Sri Lanka can keep its sense of identity and not bend itself outta shape to please people, and somehow just kind of keep its cultural? identity

nick:

It is a really interesting, question. I'd say conundrum. D uh, I've experienced something quite different in Jamaica where tourism has really ruined the island and, all inclusive hotels dominate the landscape. So people will go and then stay in a compound, which could be anywhere in the world as long as it's got a beach. And, don't engage with the culture at all. Equally, none of the money trickles back down. It all stays in the hands of big corporations and often leaves the island. Uh, I think Sri Lanka's starting from a much more positive place than that. Uh, because I mean, as you know, everyone is kind of involved in a way in tourism, it's much easier, right? If you've got a spare room, people rent it out. If you've got a car, you give taxi rides. And as you know, perfectly brilliant boutique hotels. Uh, so I think really how Sri Lanka keeps that culture intact, I think it's a matter of promoting it and not bending to the wants and needs of tourists. And then I think that you realize very quickly, uh, as you do that, that it's a kind of positive, not a negative, and that. Tourists want to engage with that culture. And I think that people going to Sri Lanka, have a part to play as well and throwing themselves in headfirst and not being totally taken aback when people say hello and are nice to you. Because I know that would never happen in London. but I think, if someone says, would you like to come home to dinner with me? They are probably just being nice.

dee:

I think we need to have more voices that really know Sri Lanka today, who understand about the history, about how the culture has developed to have more of those stories, to balance all of that kind of stuff so people travel with much more of an open mindset and an understanding of the people beyond beaches, hotels, that kind of thing.

nick:

if you throw yourself in headfirst, you just, you won't be disappointed. although not headfirst into the sea, as I found out that, you know, it, you, we go a hundred meters out, it's not necessarily as easy to get a hundred meters back in. but, um, and oh, and the other way I got myself into trouble was walking on the train tracks.

dee:

well, with one heading straight towards you.

nick:

situation d with me is the filling,

dee:

my goodness. Did you not see them coming?

nick:

was coming around a bend and, uh, I, yeah, it was, it still gives my mom nightmares.

dee:

Yes. Take your headphones out and keep your eyes open and just stick to the pavement

nick:

stick to the pavement and the shallows.

dee:

Exactly. Listen, we're coming to a close. and, um, you've opened my eyes and I will never look at cricket in the same way again, having, spoken to you and getting to know you. But can I ask you closing remarks? Um, oh, two questions actually. Can you name three things that you love about Sri Lanka? and also what's next for you and where can we find more of your work?

nick:

I can do both those things. Excellent. So what three things I love about Lanka. I won't say cricket. Uh. I think it's hard to look past food. And, uh, another thing that I would really strongly advise anyone traveling to Shanka who hasn't been before is don't be scared of sort of trying local food and eating in local places that I love the Cade culture, and they don't always necessarily look the most lubricious, but they serve fantastic food at, prices that will make your, jaw drop. So

dee:

The ca are the, are the little

nick:

little vendors, on the, on the side of the road, they're sometimes called hotels, but I don't think anyone has ever stayed in them. So I dunno how they end up getting those names. But, they serve stuff, you know, like Katu, hoppers, short eats, rice and Curry and they do a roaring trade and they're also real. Community hubs, I guess, where people come together and chat. but yeah, I loved All Sri Lankan food I can't get enough of it. I guess a second thing that I love about Sri Lanka is this kind of, uh, vibrancy, I think it's the kind of Sri Lankan ness overlaid on this most incredibly beautiful kind of natural environment, but there's a sense of energy wherever you go. And I really clearly remember on my first trip when it was coming to a close and thinking like, God, my eyes are gonna be so bored when I get back to London because everything's so gray. And here there's just so much color in that sense of a place that's. Bursting with life and beauty. Uh, and I think that's come through in both the manmade things and these sort of incredible coconut trees or jackfruit trees that you see sprouting everywhere 'cause it's such a lush landscape. and the third thing I say that I love, which I guess I'd struggle to kind of verbalize, is this sort of charm and eccentricity. Uh, and I don't know how to put that apart from just Sri Lanka's weird in the most wonderful way. And I think if you spend a lot of time there, it makes you laugh a lot. And, there's humor in unexpected places. and yeah, that's really lovely. so it's just, it's somewhere that, Makes my belly feel warm, it makes my eyes happy, and it has me laughing all the time. So I, yeah, I couldn't love it more. and in terms of what's going on with me, DI am hard at work trying to get some books finished. Uh, so I am. I'm working on a biography of the Indian Cricket Jasper Bora, which has been a really, really enjoyable project. Uh, he's an incredible bowler, and so digging a bit into his life has been great, and that led me to spending some time in India, which was really nice. I took a trip in the summer to Ahmedabad where he grew up, which is probably not somewhere that I would've been drawn to where I'm not writing about it. And so I always think that's nice when, your projects take you to places that you wouldn't necessarily expect. so that one is due in, in just under two months. So, at the panic stages of. Ing away. Haven't quite got to the deleting half of what I've written yet, but I'm sure that will come into due course. I am also working on a book, which is really exciting with the chef Rishi Ra, who I'm sure some of your listeners will know, is the first Sri Lankan chef to win Michelin Stars. He's, got a really wonderful story and is the most, incredible culinary mind, I guess. And so we are telling his story through 40 recipes, which mean a lot to him, with a, some little short stories interspersed lots of lovely pictures of food and of Sri Lanka. And, yeah, I think that's gonna, that's a really exciting book because, again, it uses food as this kind of vehicle to explore memory and culture. Uh, and it's just been, you know, writing can be a very solitary. Affair. And so to be doing it with someone, has been really lovely. And Rishi and I didn't know each other when we started the project and we've become really good friends through it. So that's very, very special.

dee:

and you are bringing all those skills together that is gonna be an incredible

nick:

yeah, it's, um, it's been a really, really beautiful project. And then also day to day, or week to week, I should say that I do podcast on Sri Lankan Cricket with, uh, The Murali End. You can find us online, which. Started with four of us. So it's a friend of mine, mark Machado, who's a Sri Lankan based in the uk. his cousin Dom, who is a professor in the US and Estelle sda, who is, a brilliant journalist based in Colombo and she's probably the closest person to the Sri Lankan women's team. So she brings a really unique perspective. but yeah, it's been fantastic. We've been going probably three years now and, actually recently we've really tried to kind of engage with listeners more. So we do something that we call a town hall, which is, allows listeners to come on and give their view live on the podcast, And actually we had one of our listeners, designed a new theme tune for us, which was really, really lovely. And we get people coming on every Monday. Either praising or more often bitching about what's been going on in Sri Lankan cricket. you know, when the men or women's team are playing, we try and do a post match for every game. so lots and lots of content. It's uh, it's lots of fun and it's a bit of a group therapy session when things go wrong.

dee:

Well share those in show notes so people can find your current books, your podcast and everything about you. And, um, I just wanna say a massive thank you for being an absolutely fabulous

nick:

thank you so much for having me on, dear. It's been so, so lovely and I feel like I can't believe we've chatted for an almost an hour and 10 minutes. I feel like we're just scratching the surface and we could be here chin wagging all