 Through the 19th century, cricket was essentially the preserve of European settlers and visitors but it gradually attracted the native Ceylonese who were, at first, often needed to make up the numbers.In October 1882, Ivo Bligh's England team played an odds (18 against 11) game in Colombo "versus" a team of Europeans.Bligh's team was "en route" to Australia, where their mission was to "recover those Ashes".