A group of men play cricket surrounded by families, balloon vendors, playing children, walkers and kite flyers on the grass field, Galle Face Green, in central Colombo. The field is located next to the country’s financial and commercial center and the Indian Ocean.

Cricket came to Sri Lanka as part of the British colonization of the country in the 19th century. In the middle of the century, the British governor had a promenade created, where the large green areas were initially used for golf and horse racing, and a bit later, in 1879, it is told that the first cricket game in Sri Lanka was played here.

The city serves as a backdrop to the field, expressing the country’s political and colonial past through the various buildings. Among them are the former British Parliament building and the Ministry of Finance, the World Trade Center, the Bank of Ceylon, as well as several five-star hotels such as the Hilton and the Galadari Meridian. Behind these is the port of Colombo, which is a central node for international merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean. In 2022, Galle Face Greenwas also the scene of widespread and transformative popular political uprisings and protests that had their origins in the country’s political rule and deep economic crisis. In the center of the video image along the edge of the field stands a row of palmyra palms. The video was recorded in 2010. In 2014, these palms were dug up and replaced with coconut palms. This too becomes politically charged as palmyra palms are primarily associated with the northern parts of the country and the Tamil minority.

The video is part of and connects to my works on cricket as an expression of social and political issues. The video also connects to my works that I have done on the Free Trade Zones, the Kotmale dam project and the restructuring policies initiated by World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the late 70ties in Sri Lanka.