All three games will now be played at another Colombo venue, the Sinhalese Sports Club.
On one side, the parties of the Sinhalese majority have been bitterly divided, regularly swapping power.
ECONOMIST: Elections are unlikely to bring a stable government
The Sinhalese, some 80% of the population, are Buddhists, who pride themselves on tolerance and calm.
Mr Rajapaksa's military campaign is hugely popular among the Sinhalese Buddhist who make up the majority population.
The danger to Mr Rajapaksa does not stem from Sinhalese voters' sympathy for foreign criticism of him.
In fact statistics show that both the Sinhalese and Muslim population percentages have grown slightly over three decades.
The authorities are tough on perceived insults to Buddhism - the religion of the island's majority ethnic Sinhalese.
Far from the war wreckage in the north, some Sinhalese, albeit a minority, are enjoying a peace dividend.
Right-wing nationalist parties, which regarded the devolution plan as an affront to the Sinhalese majority, were trounced in the election.
Mined in Sri Lanka, this stone has an unusual pinkish orange hue, dubbed Padparadscha, which means lotus blossom, in Sinhalese.
Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority, to which both candidates belong, mostly voted for the president, whom they credit with ending the war.
Her government nationalised the country's main industries, and placed Sinhalese in charge.
The island state has witnessed a violent insurgency for 25 years by the Tamil Tigers, a largely Hindu minority amid a mostly Buddhist Sinhalese majority.
Muslims make up less than 10% of the population and have generally good relations with the Sinhalese Buddhist majority, says the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo.
The Sinhalese Sports Club pitch eased during the second session and Malik gave Pakistan a flying start, hitting nine boundaries before driving a catch to cover.
Now much of the ruling party's core Sinhalese base seems to be lining up behind Mr Wickremanayake, and he has the backing of the country's powerful Buddhist monks.
Most of Sri Lanka's majority ethnic Sinhalese are Theravada Buddhist.
The president also harked back to ancient Sinhalese martial heroes.
Communal tensions there have worsened in the past few weeks, following a spate of landmine blasts against Sri Lankan soldiers and revenge attacks by Sinhalese mobs on Tamil villagers.
For those in the south, who are mainly Sinhalese (as, presumably, are most of the hardworking women in MAS's factory), the war is too distant to cause much pain.
Earlier in the week, Sri Lanka's upcoming one-day internationals against West Indies were moved to another Colombo venue, the Sinhalese Sports Club, on ICC advice, to allow work to be carried out.
The eventual deployment of Indian troops inside Sri Lanka, as part of an accord reached between Delhi and Colombo, produced so much hostility among the majority Sinhalese population they had to be withdrawn.
Correspondents said it was possible Mrs Kumaratunga had benefited from a sympathy vote following her narrow escape - but that the attack may equally have turned Sinhalese voters away from the opposition's plan to open talks with the rebels.
War there has been waged between the Sri Lankan government, tending to represent the interests of Sri Lanka's majority, and predominately Buddhist, Sinhalese ethnic group, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who claim to represent the mostly Hindu Tamil minority.
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