Sri Lanka Cricket, the governing body of the sport in the island, held talks last week in the Tamil rebel-held town of Kilinochchi on promoting the game, Sumathipala said.

"We want to build up cricket at district level initially and two years down the road we want to look at establishing a full-fledged international stadium," Sumathipala said.

"We don't want to raise hopes to a level we will not be able to deliver, but we want to start by building cricket first at district level, improve coaching and give them more facilities to practice."

Sumathipala said Sri Lanka Cricket was in negotiations to secure land to build a new cricket centre in Kilinochchi and hoped the work could begin with six to eight months.

"We want to have a district level stadium and then move on to the international level stadium within two years."

Sri Lankan Cricket also wants to enroll the embattled districts of Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Mannar as members of the governing body.

Decades of fighting prevented cricket authorities from establishing contacts with the three districts in the north of the island.

Sumathipala said the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was receptive to promoting the game in the war-ravaged areas.