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,
W. G. Grace with the English cricket team in Australia in 1891–92 W. G. Grace with the English cricket team in Australia in 1891–92 W. G. Grace visited Australia in 1873–74 as captain of Lord Sheffield's team. Despite his injury problems in 1891, few doubted that Grace should captain England in Australia the following winter when he led Lord Sheffield's team to Australia in 1891–92. Australia, led by Jack Blackham, won the three-match series 2–1. Grace played in 8 first-class matches on the tour and scored 448 runs at 44.80 with one century which was his highest score of 159 not out. He scored two half-centuries. In the field, he took 17