President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the ball

President Mahinda Rajapaksa is on the ball. If this is not so how can one explain the sending of his Media Ombudsman A.H.M. Azwer to get first hand information of the Press Box at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium which came in for a lot of stick by local and foreign pressmen covering the Second Test between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

From what we can gather the conditions in which the mediamen had to work was, to say the least appalling.

President Rajapaksa who has the added advantage of being a sportsman which no other President in the world can boast of, earned the applause of the media for playing a master stroke and sending Azwer to observe and report to him the conditions in the Press Box.

The President no doubt would have told the Tamil Union to whom the stadium belongs what he thought of their unacceptable and irresponsible act. Incidentally Azwer too, is a keen cricket fan.

By acting this way the authorities at the Tamil Union have not only brought a black mark on themselves, but above all sullied the good name of the game and the country.

Sad when one thinks of the P. Sarawanamuttu Stadium and its chequered history. Named after one of its famous sons, it was the first and only cricket ground the country used to boast about.

World famous cricketers of the calibre of Sri Donald Bradman, the terrible Ws - Sir Frank Worrell, Sir Clyde Walcott and Sir Everton Weekes and many others have strode this field like giants and delighted the spectators who used to flock and fill the Oval to see their heroes in action.

The Tamil Union have always acted the cry baby, saying that they have not been afforded the right to conduct Test cricket matches. Given the opportunity and they go and muck it up.

The conditions were so absurd that it prompted the famed Sports Editor of AFP Kuldip Lal to email the International Cricket Council and bring to their notice the appalling conditions in which they were asked to work.

What did ICC do to that complaint, generally they prefer to stay with their 'toothless tiger' image, and at the time of writing, the ICC response to the complaint has not yet been known.

While tarring the Tamil Union, we would also like to use the same brush on the Interim Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket for not visiting the venue and checking that everything was tickety boo.

Editor of the 'Sunday Observer' and Sports Editor of the Daily News, Dinesh Weerawansa in his column "Sports Watch" wielded the big stick on the Tamil Union and the Interim Committee and it is not our intention to flog a dead horse.

It is time that the authorities at the Tamil Union come down from their Ivory Towers and remember that it was a Test match that was being played and that journalists have headlines and deadlines to keep.

New Interim Committee

We say a big welcome to the new members of the Interim Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket - Premasara Epasinghe, Sidat Wettimuny and Dion Gomes. Wettimuny's illustrious achievements in the game and the success he achieved when he once served on this panel, like good wine needs no bush.

Epasinghe, a former wicket keeper and opening batsman who sported Nalanda colours in the mid fifties and then continued in the University, probably pioneered Sinhala cricket commentaries in the country and with this background should contribute immensely to the game.

Gomes has given a lumber punch to the sport of boxing from the time he headed the national body. He has a proven ring record.

Critics would do well not to ask who's Gomes or who's Epasinghe. This is only an administrative body. They are there to guide the destinies of the game, while there is a special committee to see to the technicalities and progress of the game.

Cricket Australia

Cricket Australia, the governing body for the game there must be tickling and poking fun at themselves and their spectators, by saying that cricket fans who jeer Muttiah Muralitheran when he tours there later this year, would be debarred from venues.

Now we have been there several times and can vouch for the fact that the spectators are only enjoying themselves having a little fun at the expense of the off spinner. Muralitheran's action is such that it will always be questioned.

Every time the off spinner runs up to bowl the spectators shout 'Nooo or chucker' with no malice, but enjoying the fun and having a hearty laugh considering that they have guzzled barrels of thirst quenching beer.

Twenty to thirty thousand fans flock the venues in Australia and Cricket Australia must be joking if they are going to bar all of them. Instead CA would do well if they play the Sri Lanka - Australia Tests inside closed stadiums or provide muzzles to every spectator.

Muralitheran whom the Aussie crowds love to tease, after each tour has been vowing that he would not tour there again. But that too we believe has been said in fun.

The Aussies spectators have not flung racist remarks at the bowler. They are only having fun and let Cricket Australia help it to remain that way and not act the bully boys or spoil sports.