The effect of cricket politics

INTERNATIONAL cricket's newest venue Bogra provided a glimpse of what the future holds for our cricket within a couple of years time once the four 'big guns' Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu, Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas, the last survivors of our World Cup winning side of 1996 decide to call it a day, when they were humbled by Test cricket's minnows Bangladesh by four wickets in the second one-day international of a series of three.

These are early signs that the Lankan team is gradually on the decline and it maybe too late to arrest it because much has been spoken about improving the standards but so little has been done.

What we are witnessing today are the faults of the past and of the present where cricket politics has ruined the proper streamlining of our administration at professional level.

Whereas countries like Bangladesh who have come very much later are running their cricket professionally sad to say much valuable time has been wasted by political bickering over the years which has seen Sri Lanka cricket become stagnant with no proper system to streamline a process which would be beneficial to the upliftment and progress of the game in this country.

No one has seriously thought why there is a dearth of quality cricketers coming out of the schools.

There was a system in place and as long as the national team was winning no one bothered to review it and find out whether it was proving beneficial to our cricket until one fine day they suddenly woke up to see that the quality of school cricket was not what it should have been.

Changes have now been made by raising the age limit to 20 years for the first eleven teams which it was some time ago until the education department decided to change it. But such changes are not going to bear results overnight.

Then take our domestic cricket structure. We believe that it is only in Sri Lanka that there are no fixed tournament rules for domestic cricket. Each time a new body takes over the administration of our cricket the tournament structure is altered.

Over the years much has been said about reducing the number of clubs taking part in the division I Premier league, but till today no headway has been made towards implementing it. It has only been talk, talk and more talk, but no action.

As a result, what we find today is a diluted version of first-class cricket being played in the country which is not benefiting the cause of the national team at all.

The quality and standards of the cricket has dropped so drastically that there is a dearth of quality players from which to pick even a second string national team to supplement the senior side.

What is available is what you see performing in Bangladesh with a few more on the sidelines unlucky to be picked because of selection blunders.

Then take the coaches. A lot of money is being spent on them at regional level but due to a lack of follow up there has been no returns to the national side.

Take the case of Sri Lanka fast bowler Dilhara Fernando. It has come to a point that the question that needs to be asked is when is, he NOT going to bowl a no-ball in international cricket.

Either coach Tom Moody and his assistance Trevor Penney are not addressing this issue seriously or if they are, then Fernando should be left out of the side until he rectifies this mistake which is costing his team dearly. Fingers will start pointing in all directions to find scapegoats when the national team starts losing.

Although this is a common trait with most cricket playing nations in Sri Lanka's case the root cause of the downfall of our cricket is not due to anything but political interference, which has seen the appointment of four interim bodies within the last seven years.

The swift changes that has taken place between elected bodies and interim administrations without allowing any one of them to carry on for a period of time to make long term decisions, which in the long run would have been beneficial to our cricket, has resulted in the present decline of cricket standards. From the top it has filtered down to the performance of our national side.

Jimmy Adams, the former West Indies captain who was in Sri Lanka recently as manager of the West Indies under 19 World Cup side said the performance of the national side will reflect basically the standard of cricket that exists in that country.

There is certainly a ring of truth in what Adams says.

"Our first class cricket is not what it was and it is not what it should be. I am hoping for a return to higher standards than at the present. It will take time, it will take all the resources and most importantly it will take the willingness from those in charge of our cricket to appreciate how our standards have fallen," said Adams.

There is little doubt where Sri Lanka cricket is heading. One hopes it is not the West Indies way.