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,
Third Test, 1932–33 Ashes series causing controversy and ill-feeling among the Australian players and crowds. The primary target of Bodyline was Donald Bradman who had overwhelmed the English bowling in the 1930 Ashes series. Generally regarded as the greatest batsman of all time, Bradman had scored a world record 974 Test runs during that series, a feat which remains unsurpassed. English cricket commentators feared that Bradman would be unstoppable on good Australian batting wickets in 1932–33 and looked for weaknesses. On the journey to Australia, Jardine discussed tactics with Larwood and other bowlers, and he may have met senior batsmen Wally Hammond and Herbert Sutcliffe.