There is no 'cricket' in the UNP

T M Dilshan stepped down from the captaincy of Sri Lanka cricket citing 'inability to live up to expectations' as the reason. By this act Dilshan, no doubt, lost the recognition he commanded as the captain of the national cricket team together with the perks that go with that title.

That decision however, in the face of things, is taken in the best interest of the game of cricket in Sri Lanka; the only game for which Sri Lanka has reached international recognition. The message simply is, 'Since the performance of the team under my leadership is below par, here I make way for someone more suitable'. Dilshans may come and Dilshans may go but the important thing from the national perspective is that the game of cricket has to go on.

At the press conference held to explain his decision Dilshan was asked whether there was 'political interference' during his tenure to which the former captain responded with a wide grin implying 'No'. The unfortunate thing, however, was none of the journalists present thought it fit to ask Dilshan whether he has learnt anything from the country's politicians. Because had Dilshan taken a leaf out of the country's political leadership (UNP) he could have remained as captain for sometime citing the 'absence of a suitable person' to take over the captaincy.

That way he could have survived but at the cost of the game; just as the present UNP leader is surviving at the cost of the party.

National image

Cricket however is only a game that brings prestige and enhances the national image whereas politics has everything to do with country's governance. Thus when the politicians fall below the cricketers in character and principles such fallouts would naturally get reflected in the people's forum, giving the UNP only 27 percent of the national vote in recent polls as against the 48 percent it traditionally enjoyed.

Some lackeys of the present UNP leader however would still try to justify their support by stating that "Our party has a history of rebounding from eight seats in 1956 and 17 seats in 1970 and therefore just keep your fingers crossed and we will be back in business soon". Such blindly optimistic reasoning ignores the realities of those political resuscitations in that there were changes of leadership after those defeats in both those instances. In 1956, the UNP leadership changed from Sir John Kotelawala to Dudley Senanayake and in 1970 JR Jayewardene took over the leadership upon Dudley's demise.

Similarly if Dilshan too was blindly optimistic like Ranil, he too could have just waited for a 'change in luck' without precipitating the change that was necessary.

Leadership change

The other point to note about the UNP's political sustenance is that though the party lost badly in 1956 and 1970, its national vote percentage always hovered around a healthy 48 percent and it was because of the past the post election system that they could not get the seats in 1956 and 1970. The situation today however is different and the UNP is down to 27 percent in its national vote and there are 45 seats in Parliament purely due to the proportional representation introduced in 1988. Therefore the UNP today is truly in an abyss but yet there is still no captain like Dilshan in the UNP to usher in the changes.

The government would not be interested in a leadership change in the UNP because it is common knowledge that the government interest would be best served by a UNP under Ranil Wickremesinghe. The issue however is that the government could go in to bouts of complacency with an Opposition leader like Ranil and that would jeopardize the country's future as well as the democratic system. It is in that regard that we would urge the UNP to not abdicate its national role as the alternative government in waiting, paving the way to a one party state.

Retirement from politics

Joachim Chissano was the President of Mozambique for two terms and despite his popularity at the end of his second term he announced his retirement from politics. People of Mozambique were dismayed and at a press conference one journalist asked President Chissano as to why he was quitting when the whole country wished him to continue in politics. President Chissano replied him thus, "Even in a packet of milk there is a date of expiry. After that it emits a foul smell. I think that this theory is common to politics as well. Therefore I should bid farewell to politics before I become stale."

Well, in Mozambique politicians are quitting due to the fear of being rendered stale but in Sri Lanka the politicians are not quitting even after they have been proved to be stale. Are we as a nation behind Mozambique in our politics?