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The idea of staging a few World Cup matches in Sri Lanka in the year 1996 along with India and / or Pakistan had been revolving in my mind ever since I took over Office as honorary secretary of the Cricket Board in June, 1991. However, the unknown financial commitment required for this event and the low income that would accrue to our Cricket Board from the gates and television rights compared to the Indian and Pakistan Cricket Boards dampened the enthusiasm I had regarding this matter.

Then, with the news that the ICC was taking up this matter in June, 1992, I summoned enough courage to review this idea. The Board of Control for Cricket at that time was finding it most difficult to even finance the many tours from test playing countries we had arranged in spite of the tremendous effort made by Mr. Tyronne Fenando and Mr. Lal Wickrematunge, President and Treasurer of the Cricket Board to obtain sponsorship for these matches from local sponsors. Mr. Tyronne Fernando, no doubt used his political clout to good purpose to obtain the necessary funds for several International matches after a drought in this regard and thereby giving our cricketers the necessary exposure against Test playing Nations before the advent of the World Cup.

In this financial background, the staging of any World Cup Games in Sri Lanka appeared to be a daunting task. However, undaunted with what appeared to be a bleak prospect, I requested Mr. Tyronne Fernando to obtain the concurrence of President Premadasa to bid for the World Cup along with India and Pakistan, and also to inform him that financial backing may be needed from the Government in the event of any financial shortfall. A few days later I received a most encouraging reply from Mr. Tyronne Fernando that President Premadasa had given his blessings and was fully supportive of our proposal.

I immediately wrote to the Secretaries of the Indian and Pakistan Cricket Boards, suggesting that we jointly bid for the World Cup 1996. The Indian Board responded favourably, but the Pakistan Board was rather evasive. However, I continued to press on with my proposal and suggested separately to the two Cricket Boards that in the event any one of them bidding for staging the World Cup, we would like to join hands.

On the eventful day of the ICC Meeting at Lords in June, 1992, with the concurrence of Mr. Tyronne Fernando, I approached the delegations of India and Pakistan and once again suggested that we make a joint bid. However, General Khan, President of the Pakistan Cricket Board was adamant that Pakistan would bid separately. We informed General Khan that the prospect of Pakistan winning against the other 2 contestants, namely, England and South Africa, appeared to be bleak.

Disregarding our advice, Pakistan went ahead with its application to host the World Cup and finished a poor last in the contest. But the contest itself ended in a stalemate with England and South Africa, obtaining equal number of votes from the Test playing countries. The ICC rules require that two third of the Test Playing Countries should vote in favour of the winner for a decision in a contest of this nature. The meeting had to be temporarily adjourned to permit the delegates to carry out any consultations to resolve the problem. This gave Sri Lanka an opportunity to cash in and I approached General Khan of Pakistan again with the proposal for a joint bid with India and Pakistan. With a great deal of persuasion, I was able to convince Pakistan to agree to our proposal.

When the meeting started after the adjournment, there were two bids of which one was by England and the other the joint bid by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. When the vote was taken, we received 05 votes and England 04 votes from the Test playing countries. The majority of the non Test playing countries also voted in our favour. A deadlock again! At this stage the, Chairman of the ICC, Sir Collin Coowdrey nominated Sir Clyde Walcott to work out a solution to resolve the crisis. After several hours of backroom discussion among the key delegates, a compromise formula was arrived at with England opting to back out of the contest provided it could host the World Cup in 1999. South Africa not to be outdone indicated that it would agree to the suggestion provided it could host the World Cup in year 2002/2003.

After obtaining an informal agreement among the Test playing countries to the compromise formula, the ICC finally agreed that India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka would host the World Cup in 1996 and the two subsequent World Cup matches will be hosted by England and South Africa respectively. The above narrative will provide the information leading to the staging of World Cup matches in Sri Lanka which the followers of cricket in this country were not aware of up to the present time. The achievement of being able to host the World Cup in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, no doubt set the stage for the grand finale in winning of the World Cup by Sri Lanka.

Bringing India and Pakistan together in a joint bid for the World Cup along with Sri Lanka with encouragement from Mr. Tyrone Fernando was, perhaps the greatest achievement I have had in my long association with the Sri Lanka Cricket Board, spanning nearly 30 years. The present Chairman of the ICC, Mr. J. Dalmiya had this to say of my contribution in this regard,

''Dear Neil,

I would like to thank you for all the hard work that you did in the last few months to make the joint bid of Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka successful. In fact, without your crucial role in the ICC meeting in London on February 2, 1993, the 'cake' would perhaps have not come to this subcontinent.

In the meeting we observed how you intervened on time and placed your opinion forcefully, even in the face of strong opposition from the other side. And the success of the joint bid owes a lot to your hard work and efficiency.

Now that we have succeeded in bringing the 1995 tournament to this subcontinent, we will have to work hard, hand in hand, as we did in the last few months, to make it the greatest show on earth, in terms of grandeur, efficiency and finesses. And I am sure, we will do it. I would like to thank you once again for your valuable support and cooperation. With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

J. Dalmiya.''