Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, one of Sri Lanka's three venues being developed for next year's World Cup, is the ground organisers are most confident about, in terms of how the pitch will behave and completing the construction sufficiently in time. "We have no fears," Suraj Dandeniya, director of the World Cup secretariat, said, "because we are playing matches, we are playing South Africa, New Zealand, all those matches, so it is 100% sure that the pitch is complete."
Getting to the stadium involves a lovely half-hour drive from the city of Kandy. You get to take in the two-century old man-made Kandy Lake, which is the centerpiece of the city, before moving along to some twisty Hill Country streets. Next up on the ride is the bridge across the majestic Mahaweli river, the largest in the country, followed by a canopied stretch past the Sri Lankan International Buddhist Academy before turning into the plush-looking Kandy Industrial Park a few kilometers ahead where the ground is located.
There's still no sign of the stadium, and after a short walk up a dusty path (the security guard assures you the ground is at the end of it), the first thing you notice is the cling-clang of construction work before seeing metal scaffolding, the barebones of a three-storey structure and plenty of men in hard hats. Get closer to the construction, and there's a massive arc of mud to the left, suitable perhaps for a dirt-bike race. This place is going to host World Cup matches, you wonder.
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