The white wooden Club House stilted on wheels at the Campbell Park is one of the early remembrances of cricket for me. That was the time that Ananda College’s under 16 cricketers used to practice at this facility. Even at that time Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club already had its history behind it after it was inaugurated way back in 1893.

The first location of Bloomfield was the place called the Chalmers Granary in Pettah, with Francis De Crester being the President and Alden Van Geyzel being elected secretary. The club’s first cricket captain was Walter de Crester.

After a thirty-year stint at the heart of Colombo, the club was blown with the urban expansion to the Campbell Park south of the Wesley College grounds, a smaller location in 1923. As the club was growing in stature Bloomfield moved to its present location under skipper Noel Perera and that was the time that the club assumed its true identity.

Though moved to Colombo 7 adjacent to Royal College, the club attracted more school leavers from Ananda and Nalanda in its new formative years and in 1975 the present location was baptized with a match against an Indian Xl that comprised two former Indian captains in Ajit Wadekar and Venkataraghavan.

Bloomfield was led by former Nalandian Bandula Warnapura, who had been a part of that giant killing under 19 Sri Lankan team that devastated their teenage compatriots from India. The team also comprised off spinner Lalith Kaluperuma and left arm spinner Ajit de Silva, who along with the present Chairman of the Cricket Interim Committee D. Somachandra de Silva (right-arm-leg-spin), who was also a member of the club earlier, formed the Lankan spin trio that played in the country’s inaugural test match against England.

Mind you present cricket selector Shabhir Asgerali was one of the opening batsmen in that Bloomfield Xl. However Bloomfield was special because it became another option for the crazy cricket fans in Sri Lanka. The then two most established clubs – SSC and NCC- who were the biggest feeders of points to the then national grid found another strong contributor and this blend became a very strong and healthy rivalry that helped the rapid growth and formation of the Lankan cricket and ultimately led to the quickening of the country’s march toward Test Status in 1981.

When one goes through the illustrious list of early cricketers the club possessed, there are a list of several impressive names, some of which include—W.A.N. Silva, Bertie Wijesinghe, Charlie Warnakulasuriya, Bonnie Wijesinghe, Mahinda Wijesinghe, Nihal Jayasinghe, Terrance Perera, Shelley Wickremasinghe and Edwin Tillekeratne who later went on to become the Minister of Sports.Then the list of players who donned the national cap; Bandula Warnapura, D.S. de Silva, Lalith Kaluperuma, Jayantha Seneviratne, Ajith de Silva, the late Anura Ranasinghe, Keerthi Ranasinghe, Susantha Karunaratne, the late Sunil Jayasinghe, the late D.L.S. de Silva, Roshan Mahanama, Pubudu Dissanayake, Ruwan Kalpage, Saman Jayantha, Shabir Asgerali, S. Illayagaratnam, Priyankara Wickremasinghe, Saman Jayantha and Kumara Dharmasena to name a few.

Then among the present lot of national cricketers Mahela Jayawardena begun his club career at Bloomfield prior to moving on to the SSC, the list reads as Sanath Jayasuriya, T.M. Dilshan, Suraj Randiv, Chamara Silva, Prasanna Jayawardena, Chinthaka Jayasinghe and Tharanga Lakshitha.
A facility of this nature automatically entails the status of a cricketing treasure house. But, ironically the club’s fortunes at present are at a dip and the signs are too obvious.

You just drive past the Reid Avenue grounds presently and you will see a huge water tank in the middle of Colombo 7 instead of a leading cricket ground. Reason being the ground is about two feet below ground level and the excess water from the adjacent sporting facilities is retained here. Then the Club House too does not look the most inviting entity in Colombo’s social atmosphere. So if the authorities could come up with a helping hand at least to develop the cricketing facilities at hand it would be a great help to the sustenance of the game in the island.

The only redeeming factor is that the cricket standard, thanks to a few ardent club authorities, has been jealously preserved in its pristine form, but for how long could they do this?