History of cricket in Sri Lanka the All-Ceylon and native Ceylonese teams they played against, but they easily defeated a European team, thus proving that the standard of the Ceylonese players exceeded that of the Europeans. For many years first-class cricket was restricted to games by Ceylon against visiting touring teams, notably the English and Australian teams who used the island as a stopover on the long voyage to each other's country. Douglas Jardine's "bodyline" team was there in 1932–33. The first visit by a New Zealand team was in October 1937 to play a one-day match in Colombo. In the aftermath of World War II,
English cricket team in the West Indies in 1953–54 a player-manager on a controversial tour, Wisden said, was also "not to be commended". English cricket team in the West Indies in 1953–54 The English cricket team in the West Indies in 1953–54 played five Test matches, five other first-class matches and seven other games, three of them on a two-week stop-over in Bermuda that included Christmas. Ultimately the tour could be considered a success for England in cricketing terms, as they came back from 2–0 down to draw the series 2–2 against strong opposition. However the tour had its problems, both on and off the field. The West Indians