Captain cool loses cool

What happened in Parliament the other day where Gamini Lokuge, Minister of Sports and Arjuna Ranatunga MP and Chairman Interim Committee, Sri Lanka Cricket traded verbal punches, to say the least was unbecoming and should not have been.

In-house matters should be solved in-house and not taken to the public. When it becomes public, tongues begin to wag and the wound becomes a cancer and the bottom line is that a lot of irreparable harm is done to the two parties and the game and administration tends to suffer.

Before beginning a verbal punch up Ranatunga who was tagged 'captain cool' lost his cool and let fly without consideration and before doing that he should have asked himself the question - Am I living in a glass house?

The answer obviously would be 'yes'.

First things first and Ranatunga need not be told that Minister Lokuge has to be obeyed and his orders and instructions followed. Lokuge is lord when it comes to sport matters and that cannot be questioned or disputed.

Ranatunga must serve under him and if he is not willing to then we need not tell him what his next step should be. Ranatunga would do well to rethink his strategy before committing again.

When Ranatunga was appointed to that prestigious post, he was given a vote to clean the Cricket Board if he finds things wrong especially corruption as he alleges. He started his stint as Chairman with a huge six by immediately setting up an independent audit. We understand that the audit is out and that he has handed it over to Minister Lokuge.

While doing that he should have set in motion the necessary machinery to deal with the culprits, brought them to book and exposed them. He need not wait for the Minister to do it and put the onus on him and then blast him in Parliament.

This is what the Minister exactly told him. The Minister said that he has been appointed to do a job of work and that he should do it and not do the cry baby act and blame the Minister.

ALL IS NOT WELL in THE IC

It is the consensus of the public that from the moment Ranatunga took over as Chairman, the administration and every other thing connected to cricket has gone haywire. In cricket it is said that a batsman must get his eye in before launching. Ranatunga need not be told this. He should have gone about his job quietly and in a cordial atmosphere and wielded the big stick cleverly and intelligently.

It is said that a criminal is not guilty until he is proved guilty beyond doubt. If he finds some individual guilty after a probe then punish him. It is a sacrilege to make allegations and ruin a person's future and character by levelling unfounded allegations.

MEDIA BASHING

'Captain Cool' also blasted the media calling them a mafia. Obviously he took the media to task for exposing his misdeeds. The job of the media is to inform the public whoever or however powerful the individual. And that is what the media has been doing.

Ranatunga must not forget that if not for the media, he would not be what he is. During his playing days and when he won the World Cup for the country, the media went to town and gave his achievement and the team's achievement wide coverage, in the print, radio and TV media for months.

They also stood by him in turbulent times like when he defied the orders of the umpire in that infamous episode in Adelaide in Australia where he finger pointed Rose Emerson the umpire for 'calling' Muralitheran and exchanged a few verbals and threatened to take the team off the field.

It need not be reiterated here how the Australian media launched a crippling campaign to have him banned from the game for good for that incident with one writer even headlining his story - Throw the book at Arjuna. England captain at that time Alec Stewart described his behaviour as 'appalling'.

For days on end the Aussie media were at the International Cricket Council match referee former South African captain Peter Van der Merwe wanting him to act and act so that the game and the umpiring would be kept clean by imposing a punishment on Ranatunga so that it would serve as deterrent to others.

PLACARD WAVING

With the inquiry on and with critics predicting a life ban for Ranatunga, we who were there - Lionel Nawalagodagedera, the cheer leader who was tagged 'Lionel the Legend', Saddhatissa and the writer stood by Ranatunga and rallying round the Lankans domiciled in Adelaide and Perth coined terms such as 'Emerson zero, Arjuna hero' and many other terms that do not come to mind, paraded the Adelaide Oval and the Gabba in Perth showing our solidarity carrying placards.

All agencies covered our show and when Ranatunga got off lightly with a suspended sentence, did we not, rejoice and let ourselves go. And the man who set it all in motion in the defence of Ranatunga was former Chairman Thilanga Sumathipala. Sumathipala in his own inimitable style and in accordance with ICC rules retained the best of legal brains to defend Ranatunga and that Sumathipala succeeded should not have been forgotten by Ranatunga.

Sumathipala and we who did so much to see to the survival of Ranatunga are now only a blur or off his radar completely. Ranatunga has so much to offer the game, the administration and the players. He must not harbour grudges or listen to tales and act blindly and with revenge in his endeavour do things for the game. He must give up the idea and not see critics in every field. He must even at this late stage mend fences with the media. He must remember that one newspaper does not make the media.

Ranatunga must remember to have a good rapport with the media by indulging in consultation, compromise and consensus. Need he be told that sport is the great leveller.