Sri Lankans of every kind, overwhelmingly the poorest, have been bombed by one side or the other for decades.

When I was growing up, I don't think I knew any other child who had been out of Sri Lanka.

The most appealing side-effect of Sri Lankan cricket from where I stand, shuffling words, has been linguistic.

My writing has been shaped by the three countries - Sri Lanka, the Philippines and England - I have lived in.

Cricket fans all over the world probably have more in common with each other than with their fellow citizens.

Sri Lanka is an island that everyone loves at some level inside themselves. A very special island that travellers, from Sinbad to Marco Polo, dreamed about. A place where the contours of the land itself forms a kind of sinewy poetry.