The Mahinda Rajapaksa stadium has been built for the 2011 World Cup. The first match is to be between hosts Sri Lanka and Canada. The stadium will have a massive playing area, by far the largest on the island and an imposing 7 storey grandstand that will be provide the bulk of the 35,000 seats available in the ground.

Hambantota is deep in the heart of the rural south, where the pace of life is very slow and the weather very hot and is the first international stadium to be built in the region, which like the rest of Sri Lanka is cricket mad. It also has the advantage of being located in a dry zone, which should hopefully mean that it misses the monsoons.