Missing a golden opportunity

FOR 15 days commencing February 5, the focus of attention in world cricket quite apart from the usual international calendar of Tests and One-day Internationals, will be on Sri Lanka, venue of the sixth ICC Under 19 World Cup.

When a country is given the opportunity to host a cricket tournament of this magnitude, the prime objective should be to take maximum advantage and use it to promote its image.

In that aspect the Sri Lanka Cricket interim committee which currently administers cricket in this country has fallen far short of making use of this wonderful chance to promote the game around the country.

By agreeing to play all 44 matches (including 16 practice matches) of the tournament in Colombo they have deprived the districts and provinces spread throughout the length and breadth of the country the opportunity of witnessing any international cricket.

The under 19 World Cup was the best chance for the SLC to promote the game in areas which are starved of any international cricket.

But by confining all the matches to Colombo they have missed out on a wonderful opportunity to not only promote the game island wide but also give the lesser known cricket playing nations of the ICC the occasion to tour the country and get an eye witness view of what it can offer by way of tourism.

Apart from the nine Test-playing nations barring Sri Lanka, how often do you get countries like Namibia, Nepal, Uganda, Scotland, Ireland or USA touring this country?

Chock-a-block

Colombo is already chock-full of cricket and groaning under a heavyweight of matches, what with the domestic school and club season currently in full swing.

The World Cup would have provided the ideal platform to play some of the matches outside the metropolis and ease the congestion in Colombo.

But shortsightedness on the part of the interim committee who has failed to see beyond their nose and whose members are all drawn from Colombo, has resulted in the tournament being confined to just one city when there is an infrastructure in place to stage matches in Galle, Matara, Kurunegala, Kandy, Radella, Kadirana (Gampaha) and Katunayake.

All these venues along with those in Colombo were used when Sri Lanka first hosted the under 19 World Cup in 2000 where a total of 84 matches were played (including the practice matches).

Although it was logistically a nightmare, nevertheless it was organised in such a way that the interim committee at that time earned the plaudits of the ICC who referred the successful completion of the tournament spread far and wide throughout the length and breadth of the country, as a benchmark for all other countries to emulate.

The manner in which Sri Lanka conducted that tournament showed that we are capable of successfully hosting similar competitions here.

That probably led to the ICC granting Sri Lanka the opportunity to host two further major tournaments of theirs, the ICC Champions trophy in 2002 and now the ICC under 19 World Cup.

ICC president Ehsan Mahni stated at the launch of the tournament in Colombo last month that "no other nation can match this feat. It is something that reflects the confidence the ICC has in Sri Lanka to host these important events. It also reflects Sri Lanka's continuing passion for the game of cricket and the importance of the game in the fabric of the country."

Easy way out

By confining all matches to Colombo in the upcoming 2006 under 19 World Cup, the current administration of SLC has found the easy way out.

Interim committee secretary Adel Hashim said that Sri Lanka had to confine the tournament to Colombo to meet the budget costs which the ICC had set aside for the tournament.

"Had we presented a figure beyond the ICC's requirements we would have lost the chance to host the tournament to Malaysia who were also strongly bidding for it," said Hashim.

That seems a superfluous argument. If at all the SLC were really keen on promoting the game throughout the country they could have even undertaken the task to pump some money of their own which would have been for a good cause.

After all one of the prime objectives of a sports association is to promote the sport. In that aspect the SLC interim committee has been found wanting in their commitments.

If the interim committee of six years ago could have had the farsightedness to think far towards promoting the game in the country the decision taken by the present committee just goes to show how shortsighted they are when it comes to dealing with promotion and development of the sport.

For the current season they have already done away with the provincial tournament which in the past two seasons was gaining momentum and now comes this decision to deprive the outstations the opportunity of any international cricket.

There was a time when players for the national team were largely picked from Colombo. But today it is no longer the case.

They come from a wide cross section of the country. The districts and the provinces are from where the Muralitharans, the Sangakkaras, the Jayasuriyas, the Malingas and the Tharangas sprout out from.

That much the interim committee members should have known before taking a decision which is not in the best interest of Sri Lanka cricket.