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,
Ballarat Cricket Association H. Stephenson of Surrey played a XXII from Ballarat. The most notable match played in Ballarat was during the 1932-33 England tour of Australia known as the Bodyline series on 22 January 1933. There was speculation in the Australian press leading up to the match that the Ballarat team may employ Bodyline tactics in response to the controversial tactic being employed by England in the Test matches. H. Brereton, the Secretary of the Victorian Cricket Association (VCA) wrote to the Ballarat Cricket Association stating that any organised body attack employed by the Ballarat team would be viewed with great disfavour