There was no permanent pavilion until 1892, when a 'grand stand' was built according to a suggestion of P. A. Templer, the then Secretary of the Galle Municipal Council.

A turf wicket was introduced to the stadium in 1945 under the guidance of Dhanapala Lorensu Hewa, who was then Secretary of the Galle Cricket Ground.

On 26 December 2004, the ground was devastated by the tsunami resulting from the Indian Ocean earthquake, with flood waters up to 30 metres deep.

After the re-opening of the stadium, the first Test match was held between Sri Lanka and England on the same day, which resulted in a draw.

Rangana Herath became the most successful left-arm spinner in test cricket history by surpassing 362 wickets by Daniel Vettori after he dismissed Bangladeshi Litton Das.

This idea is supported by the fact that Sri Lanka has won 12 of the 23 Test matches that have been held at the stadium.

The ground covers an area of 4.216 hectares, the distance from the wicket to the boundary being 75 yards and blue grass is used on the turf.

It is named after the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa who gave the clearance for the reconstruction to begin at a stage when the future of the stadium had been uncertain.

500,000,000. International support was obtained for this, with considerable assistance provided by Surrey County Cricket Club in England.

Additionally, former cricketers Shane Warne (Australia) and Ian Botham (England) also made notable financial contributions.

[13][14] The Qatari network Al Jazeera, a documentary claimed that the groundsmen deliberately altered the nature of the pitch in order to produce results that favoured the home team especially during Sri Lanka's test match against Australia in Galle.

The news reports claimed that two of the four-pitch fixing offences occurred in Galle, with the groundsmen at Chennai being accused of pitch-fixing charges after hosting the final Test Match of the series between India and England in 2016.

The games were held on 27 and 28 July 2013,[16] however there were considerable concerns about potential damage to the central cricket pitches.