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,
History of English cricket from 1919 to 1939 in the "Bodyline" series of 1932–33. England played three home series against South Africa and four in South Africa including their last overseas tour before the Second World War. In 1919, the International Cricket Conference had only its three original full members (Australia, England and South Africa). The membership and, hence, the number of countries able to play Test cricket doubled on 31 May 1926 with the promotions of India, New Zealand and the West Indies to full member status. England played each of these teams for the first time in the next few seasons. To 1939, there were three