Animals magic in Dambulla where England- Sri Lanka Matches are being held

Animals magic in Dambulla - BBC.UK

There is a bit of an animal theme developing on the Dambulla leg of this Sri Lanka tour: bats flitting around the hotel corridors, monkeys stealing fruit from the players rooms, cobras lurking in the undergrowth and dogs invading the outfield.

The dogs probably feel quite at home though, knowing the England team is captained by a Colly!

It is a fascinating location for an international cricket stadium. The backdrop is a lush, dense jungle, with Dambulla lake flanking the ground on one side and Dambulla rock rising majestically in the distance on the other.

Cows graze on the wiry grass on the lake shore, able to wander right up to the practise nets if they please and when darkness suddenly falls and the floodlights are switched on, there is no glow from orange street lights to pollute the stark blackness of the night sky.

The 60 acre site itself is owned by the Rangiri Dambulla Temple, and while the stadium was built in only 167 days to enable cricket to be played all year round in Sri Lanka while monsoon rains batter other parts of the country, there was a dispute over tenancy, and following the inaugural match in 2000, it was starved of any international fixtures for three years.

The temple in question - the Golden Rock Temple - is home to Dambulla’s famous Cave Temples complex, which is one of seven UNESCO World Heritage sites in Sri Lanka. To reach the caves you pick your way past the monkeys up steep steps cut out of the rock face.

It is a little disillusioning to learn that the imposing 30-metre high golden Buddha overlooking the main road was built just seven years ago, but some of the caves, their wall paintings and 14-matre statues are thought to date back to around the first century BC when King Valagamba took refuge, having been driven out of Anuradhapura. Buddhist monks still visit the temples three times a day.

Walking back down from the caves it is impossible to miss the inevitable sellers making the most of the visiting tourists. We happened across a snake charmer, who hastily began piping a haunting tune which brought forth two swaying cobras with intricate diamond patterns on the back of their heads.

I was happy enough to watch from a distance but was less enthused when the chap shut the cobras back into their wicker basket and approached me with a python in his hands, which he seemed eager for me to touch, hold, hug, kiss, you name it.

Pythons aren’t poisonous, but knowing they prefer to kill their prey by constriction, I was far from keen to let this chap drape one around my neck.

There is only one more game for England in Dambulla, before heading back to Colombo and Paul Collingwood isn’t getting carried away with the significance of Thursday's first ODI victory in Sri Lanka for 25 years. He told me after the match that he will only rate the win if they can go on to take the series, something that has never been done before.

The toss is certainly playing a big role in these Dambulla matches, although both captains are keen to play that down. Were it not for Owais Shah, England could easily have been 2-0 down already.

At 1-1 though, the third and last game in the jungle could prove crucial to the outcome of the series. The rains have already arrived in Colombo, and the forecast doesn’t look too promising for the two games there.