Big Match Fever: Fun or Menace?

We were waiting for a bus to go home after finishing school when suddenly the busy after-school scene was invaded by hat-collectors. A large group of young boys on oddly decorated trucks thronged the road waving flags and shouting slogans.

They wore fancy attire, hats, caps and sunglasses, and danced to the tune of papare bands before getting down and marching on to people walking on or standing by the road to ask for a contribution for their Big Match.

Some onlookers responded to their request positively while others were coerced to reluctantly part with their hard earned money simply because they wanted to get rid of the hat collectors who would often entreat and plead with them until their request is met with.

To our great distress, a mob of around dozen boys also swarmed around my friend and me compelling us to put whatever pocket money we had got from our parents as school kids into the hats they were holding.

The careless and mischievous behaviour of the hat collectors irked many of us. Their trucks blocked the already congested and jammed roads of Colombo and their conduct amounted to harassment for most people.

Years after the incident however, I look back on that particular day with a sense of nostalgia, just as an adult would fondly recollect the colourful memories of his or her school days.

And the cycle parades and other events of light-hearted fun of Big Match Fever witnessed these days bring back wonderful recollections of those carefree days of one’s life.

But, are these practices associated with Big Match fever purely harmless fun? Or has it developed to a state of harassment, particularly for young girls? Is hat collection the best way to raise funds for your school team? Who is going to make sure that the money ending up in the young hands are put to good use and not spent on alcohol or drugs?

Whatever your views on Big Match Fever are, have your free say on Daily News Debate. Our topic is Big Match Fever: fun or menace?. Limit your contruibutions to 750-1,000 words and send them to ‘Daily News Debate’, Daily News, Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited, PO Box 1217, Colombo, or via e-mail to [email protected] before March 5, 2007.

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Have fun but maintain discipline

D. H. Sathischandra

REVELRY: Human beings by nature cherish opportunities to celebrate any event. Such celebrations are necessary to add variety to life as a means of escaping from routine. Children, youth, adults and elders have such celebrations in various fields of human activity.

In any such celebrations, there may be both best practices and bad practices in terms of social, legal and other norms. Revelry at big match events is no exception. Sports contribute to physical and mental well-being, character development and socialisation.

Big match revelry can be treated as an expression of competitiveness in the game. Competition is necessary to raise standards and achieve excellence. Big match revelry also provides an opportunity for students to give expression to their adventurous nature and playfulness.

Having said that the value of sports as a means of cultivating discipline and inculcating the importance of accepting both victory and defeat with equanimity, should not be forgotten at any moment by students while celebrating.

Unfortunately, in recent times these positive features tend to be either forgotten or ignored. This is evident from the bad practices which have been identified and discussed every year as the event approaches.

It is true that only a small number of students engage in such bad practices, but the inconvenience created to the public by such behaviour is immense leading to a bad impression among the public about the entire student community.

There are various stakeholders in this big match event behaviour; the principals of schools, school teachers, student counsellors, school prefects, old boys associations, the police, parents and the public. All have a role to play in promoting good practices and discouraging bad ones. This role is found wanting among many stakeholders leaving only the police to tackle the problem.

Leaving the problem to the police alone is undesirable as well as ineffective. The police can only take action when the law of the land is broken. Preventive action is more important.

Ideally preventive action should be undertaken by a partnership between the various stakeholders. Bad behaviour has the potential to lead to conflicts with student groups of other schools as well creating an explosive situation which can also be exploited by opportunists.

Parents of schools concerned in particular have a big role to play. They should be constantly alert and observe what their children are planning to do during the big match period and advise them against bad behaviour. Parents cannot absolve themselves of this responsibility and remain indifferent.

Similarly, stakeholders in the school can take meaningful and effective precautionary actions. Schools should identify and observe students with a pre-disposition towards troublemaking or a history of such behaviour in the past and advise them if there are warning signals of potential bad behaviour.

Most students celebrate the big match event by carrying and waving their schools’ flags when travelling in school buses and in private cars. This practice is harmless and innocent and it need not be discouraged.

Problems of big match revelry are linked to a small number of students who hire or use their own open vehicles to roam about in the city, shouting, singing, collecting money from the public and behaving mischievously in front of girls’ schools at times under the influence of liquor and obstructing traffic.

In the past there have been allegations that apart from students of the school concerned, their friends who are outsiders, too join in this revelry. If the outsiders behave badly it is the name of the school that will be tarnished.

Banning big match revelry of this type is not a solution. We will then be depriving students of the opportunity to celebrate the event and have some fun. We need to explore creative and innovative ways of maximising the usefulness of the event and minimising the undesirable features.

Students themselves should be encouraged to come up with innovative ways of enjoying the event. Other stakeholders can suggest best practices for the students to consider.

The Daily News has quite rightly provided a forum for free and open discussion of the issue.

It is desirable to get both adults and students to participate in the debate.

They are certain to have innovative ideas. Students have a stake in the big match event. It is the interest of the overwhelming majority of students to eliminate the undesirable practices not only to engage in harmless fun but also to protect the reputation of their seat of learning. Students need to be given a hearing. They too need voice and dignity as any other individual. It will be a good thing if they themselves own the solution.