A café for cricket

Nowhere is Sri Lanka's fanatical love for cricket better highlighted than in Colombo's Cricket Club Café. Set in a charming old colonial bungalow in a salubrious part of town, it is packed with an astounding array of cricketing memorabilia.

Owned and managed by an Australian couple, the café is actually an expansive space with two smoking bars, two non-smoking restaurant sections as well as an inviting verandah. Cricket from around the world is constantly on the television.

"Colombo basically had nothing in terms of evening entertainment," recalls Gaby Whight of the time 14 years ago when she and her partner set up CCC. "James had been surfing here for years and I wanted a change. The idea was to create a bistro-like atmosphere, with a fast turnover of quality western food in a pubby, relaxed environment."

Today CCC is a haven of noise and bonhomie as Australians and Englishmen nervously watch the Ashes while sharing a beer, a burger and a heated word. Next door, in the restaurant, a ten-year-old has her birthday party. In the garden, two local businessmen put the finishing touches on a big business deal. It is that sort of place.

The memorabilia at the café has little competition in the subcontinent. Gaby's family were great friends with the Ray Lindwalls and that's where it all began.

"Ray gave us his Invincibles jumper and that set the ball rolling," she says. "This was in the early 90s, before sports memorabilia became an industry. Our biggest prize is the bat with which Garry Sobers hit six sixes in an over: That sits upstairs, but everything else is down here for public viewing."

And so they are: press cuttings from the 1920s, mementos from Australia's 1948 Invincibles tour of England, Wasim Akram's shirt, a whole wall dedicated to Don Bradman, an iconic photograph of Richard Hadlee appealing, Shane Warne celebrating the 1997 Ashes win, and acres of space devoted to Sri Lanka's greatest cricketing moment, the1996 World Cup victory.

Cricket fans will obviously spend hours drooling over the display, but even the disinterested are known to get enamoured of the sport after spending meal-times at CCC. Among the café's legendary converts are a Swedish scientist and an Indonesian nanny, both of whom spend their downtime at the CCC.

During cricket tours, CCC is the place to find the players. After they have been watered and fed in a private dining room, they are let loose to play. Darren Gough is perhaps the café's all-time favourite: on his two tours of the island, the English fast bowler could be found leading singing contests with the Barmy Army, hosting quizzes, giving impromptu cricketing masterclasses in the back garden, and chatting with one and all. So fond was he of the place that he donated the England shirt he wore on the clinching day of the 2001 series, one of the highlights of his career. It now proudly hangs in the bar next to a signed Dennis Lillee bat.

Not all the focus is on the game. The food is generally good and arrives quickly. All the dishes are named after cricketers and associated stars, and the general good humour of the place saves the ploy from tackiness. You quickly get used to ordering a Dickie Bird burger or a Ganguly mixed grill.

To wash them down, try the local and international beers. By the standards of Colombo - a bit of a wine desert - the wine list is passable. The cocktails are occasionally a little too ambitious, but the smoothies are great. And the waiters are an institution: they never seem to leave, which means you could find a familiar face when you return a couple of years down the line.

Most importantly the CCC is a step back in time, to an age when players, media and fans celebrated together. It is a place where you walk in with a smile and leave with a bigger one. During a major tournament, the chances of not only meeting a cricketing hero, but having an experience with them, are significantly high.