Cricket at crossroads

by Rex Clementine

This week’s court ruling giving thumbs up to changes be made to the constitution of Sri Lanka Cricket has been welcomed in cricket circles. Don’t want to sound like a doomsday prophet but you can bet your bottom dollar that the aggrieved parties will fight tooth and nail to ensure the status quo remains. People have already started fearing reforms like the plague.

One pities former President Chandrika Kumaratunga. The ‘iron lady’ took on the cricket establishment two decades ago making sweeping changes. She spared none and brought in an interim administration headed by reputed banker Rienzie Wijetilleke. Soon the people whom Chandrika had angered brought down her government by effecting mass crossovers in the Parliament. It is rumored that ‘cricket money’ was used to topple her government.

There was again hope for cricket’s governance structure being changed when Naveen Dissanayake as Sports Minister in 2015 received International Cricket Council’s blessings for constitutional changes. Retired Supreme Court judge Prasanna Jayawardene had come up with a new constitution and cricket was facing a complete overhaul with the number of votes being reduced to 65. However, parties with vested interests again put a spoke in the wheel. Then President Maithripala Sirisena was told to take over the cabinet portfolio of sports to the SLFP from the UNP. That Sirisena did and then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe instead of fighting to retain the sports ministry, simply gave in without a fight. It is for the political columnists to decide whether Ranil is a strong leader or a weak leader. But when he has overseen acts like the above even sports writers with little knowledge on politics can form their opinions.

Now President Wickremesinghe has another opportunity to ensure that history doesn’t repeat. A cabinet reshuffle is on the cards and a lot of pressure has been placed to remove Roshan Ranasinghe and his Secretary Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva. If the President is not a cricket fan let him be reminded in rugby terms that in the judiciary a try has been scored and now it is up to the executive to complete the conversion.

If Roshan Ranasinghe remains the Sports Minister a committee will be soon appointed to draft a new constitution as per the court instructions. It is paramount that people without vested interests become a part of this committee. SLC members and the petitioners can be interviewed when drafting the constitution, but they should not be part of the committee as reforms can not be dictated by aggrieved parties.

Sources said that Supreme Court judge K.T. Chithrasiri is expected to head the committee that will look into the constitutional changes. He is someone who is well respected and has some knowledge in sports.

A lot of people seem to have got carried away with the recommendations of Lodha committee in India that introduced sweeping changes to Indian cricket. However, Lodha committee’s recommendations aren’t infallible. While there are lots of good things in that report it also has flaws.

For example, if you take the northeast parts of India, it’s not got much of a cricket culture. The main sport in that region is football. With Lodha committee suggesting that each state having an equal footing whether it be votes or playing cricket a little heard team like Arunachal Pradesh entered the elite league. As a result, domestic cricket in India has been diluted. For example, Tamil Nadu recently became the first team in the history to score over 500 runs in a 50 over game.

The Lodha committee also banned politicians from having any role in cricket. However, some of India’s best cricket board chiefs have been politicians like S. Wankhede, N.P. Salve and Sharad Pawar.

It’s the same scenario in our backyard with the likes of Gamini Dissanayake, J.R. Jayewardene, Dr. N.M. Perera and T. B. Werapitiya being some of the politicians who have held office as the Presidents of the board.

However, if the committee decides that politicians should be banned from governing cricket, it should not be frowned upon. Let them also get rid of the rule that says that you need the approval of the sports minister after the selectors have picked a team. This rule is archaic.

The Lodha committee also recommended that more cricketers getting involved in governing of the game. Cricketers as administrators is a double-edged sword.

They may have the sharpest brains to work out the strategy to dismiss a batsman or script a run chase but that doesn’t make them brilliant administrators. Gamini Dissanayake had played little cricket but yet he was one of our most successful Board Presidents. So is Rienzie Wijetilleke.

The Lodha committee also had many good things and one of them was recommending having paid selectors. As a result, India’s Chairman of Selectors earns US$ 10,000 monthly now while rest of the selectors get paid US$ 8000 each.

Their hotels and transport are paid for, and they get a daily allowance of US$ 200 for expenses when they go to watch games. This means selectors now can not say that they are unable to get leave from work. Selection itself has become a full-time job. When that happens people who are worth their salt will come forward as selectors. According to the system we have in Sri Lanka, people who played more games than the wickets they took are in selection panels.