It’s just not cricket!
By N Sathiya Moorthy
Guess what is unique about the unanimous parliamentary approval for disbanding the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), the apex body for the sports in the country? Its possibly the first time that Parliament was unanimous on any issue in the post-Aragalaya phase after voting in Ranil Wickremesingehe as President last year.
What is not unique about it is that SLC was not the first to be suspended by the international apex body for cricket, namely, the ICC. In January this year, FIFA, the apex body, suspended the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL). That suspension was withdrawn later, in August.
Both suspensions were over alleged governmental interference in the affairs of the respective sports bodies. After all, the apex bodies expected national federations to function independent of every other influence, starting with the local government, even if it were the mainstay financier for promoting the sports in that country.
President Wickremesinghe was ambiguous at best about FFSL electing former Tamil parliamentarian J Sri Ranga as its head. Possibly learning from this experience or otherwise, he was opposed to any such foul-play in the case of SLC. Reportedly, he went as far as to threaten taking over Sports from Minister Roshan Ranasinghe, who had unilaterally sacked the SLC office-bearers wholesale.
Even the Executive President had no say when Parliament stepped in, or so went the script in this case. What more, it was one of the few initiatives of the SJB Opposition Leader, Sajith Premadasa, as he was the one to move the resolution in this regard. With 142 of 225 MPs present — 83 from the Government ranks and 53 from the Opposition – the chair ruled there was no need for a formal vote.
Not binding, but…
It was later clarified that a parliamentary vote was not binding. It implied that the resolution at best reflected the ‘mood of the nation’ in the matter. The JVP endorsed the decision but its members stayed away. But the party had flagged the red-herring, pointing out that the ICC might intervene if there was visible governmental interference in SLC affairs.
Of course, the parliamentary resolution was possibly not the real culprit. The Sports Minister unilaterally sacking SLC was the culprit. Of course, the courts stayed minister’s gazette notification, which the President too was opposed to.
Yet, when the chips are down, the Cabinet did appoint a sub-committee to draft a new constitution for SLC. The sub-committee is headed by Foreign Ministry Ali Sabry, who is a President’s Counsel (PC) until the day then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa drafted him into his tottering Government but as Justice Minister last year.
This thing can play cricket?
Those familiar with Sri Lanka cricket would have known about an alleged incident when a national selector ticked off an ambitious rural youth of the time, with a cheeky remark, “This thing can play cricket?” He was so steep in his ‘Colombo Seven’ kind of urban uppity attitude that he had come to believe that only the youth from the capital could even think of playing cricket, that too for the national team.
As the story goes, unfortunately for the selector, ‘this thing’ happened to know enough English to understand what was being said. The rest, as they say, is history.
It was thus that under the captaincy of the indomitable Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lanka won the cricket World Cup in 1996, against Australia, in India. They battled against the teams that they fought, and also the unfriendly Indian crowds in stadia like Eden Gardens, Kolkata, then known as Calcutta.
Win some, lose some
So crazy was nation about cricket, the ‘white man’s game’ once upon a time, that even the LTTE leadership did not have a choice but to suspend fighting against the armed forces, for their cadres to watch the crucial matches that the nation played. It is another matter that the LTTE chose the Sri Lanka-Australia World Cup finals in Barbados for an air-raid on Colombo in April 2007. The resultant black-out, it was mused later, ensured that the nation did not have to watch losing the World Cup that night, time-zones away.
It’s one thing for parliamentarians who are also ardent cricket fans to sack the SLC office-bearers, to cleanse the game management in the country, as if it required cleansing. It is yet not explained why they should time it with the current World Cup matches in neighbouring India.
If it owed to the way Sri Lanka kept losing its matches, would they have overlooked poor management at the SLC, if the country had brought back the trophy? Or, even if the team had acquitted itself better, winning some, losing some? If either is the case, why is this parliamentary resolution?
According to news reports, police personnel had to escort the team when they arrived with sunken faces at the Bandaranaike International Airport the other day. The security was possibly to ensure that no angry fan(s) hit any, many or all of them for losing their matches badly. On other occasions, such protection was given to check against over-enthusiastic fans mobbing the team in victory frenzy.
Running from realities
The basic tenet of any game, international, national or at the street-corner is to just PLAY. You win some, lose some. Considering the way the nation has reacted and the way Parliament has intervened, it seems Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans wants to run away from the realities of the continuing fiscal crisis for families and political instability that is looming large still, without a name and date.
During the war years and other times, celebrations of the World Cup victory kind came in handy. That was over and above the annual ‘Battle of the Blues’ cricket tourney among high school kids, to watch and celebrate which, old students would gather from across the world. They all took pride (!) in the fact that this ‘Battle’ did not stop even at the height of the Second World War…
Looking back, the game still was being played as a gentleman’s game. Of course, most teams were represented by students from elite ‘colleges’ and families. Not for those seasons, the likes of ‘this thing here…’.
Today, when cricket too has become a power-play like everything else, the nation too has a short fuse to accept reversals. Or, is it because the nation is unable to stomach the humiliating defeat at the hands of the Indian hosts this time, over and above their team fared in most other matches, too?
Sri Lankans were bundled out for a measly 55 against a grand Indian total of 302 in what has increasingly become a high-scoring tourney. Rather, high-scoring, whether induced by the ICC to keep the crowd enthusiasm up and always, or a natural phenomenon, may come under the international media lens, now or later – whatever the finding.
Independent of what ails the SLC administration, they all should recall the days when an Indian team scored a total of 42 runs in an innings when the ‘lazy’ game had only the four-innings Test match format to compete in…That was of course a very long time ago.
In the same vein, the nation and its cricket fans, politicians or not, should remember that some of the old and lasting names in cricket, like game’s founder, England and West Indies are below form just now. Who among them also thought that you will be talking about Afghanistan and The Netherlands in cricketing terms?
That’s the wonder that is cricket!
(The writer is a policy analyst & political commentator, based in Chennai, India. Email: sathiyam54@nsathiyamoorthy.com)
