Cricket's crying in shame

The game of cricket in Sri Lanka , if it had the opportunity to project human expression, must be crying out at the shame and scandal that is being slapped on it by the contestants who are seeking election to run its affairs.

From the moment elections were announced, the contesting teams have been bouncing at each with no helmets or padding that is worn by cricketers to protect themselves from injury to life and limb.

It has been a free for all! We have contestants punching and counter punching, trading insults and allegations, washing dirty linen that would have put to shame the worst criminals in billingsgate.

All this shows the keenness and anxiety to hold office in the money spinning and most glamorous sport in the country. To some contestants it is not the lure of money that is making them bite each other, but the status it brings in getting elected to office.

Mix of amusement and sadness

While all this in-fighting goes on, it is the good name of the country and the game that is being sullied. The cricket world including the Asian Cricket Council the International Cricket Council and other Cricket Boards must be watching this play out with a mix of amusement and sadness .

After former President Gamini Dissanayake batted with the elegance of a Don Bradman to win Test status for Sri Lanka and with the winning of the World Cup in1995/'96, the rush to hold office in the Cricket Board has been frightening.

In the good old days Presidents of Cricket such as P. Saravanamuttu, Junius Jayewardene, Robert Senenayake, Dr. N.M. Perera, Lakshman Jayakoddy, P.I. Pieris, Tyronne Fernando, T.B. Werapitiya and Gamini Dissanayake held that exalted office, how smoothly and hassle free did they administer the game.

Then there was no in-fighting or washing of dirty linen. Once elections were called for, names were submitted for all posts and at times the contestants were uncontested and returned unanimously.

The game was the thing

Even if there was a contest, once the election was over there was the shaking of hands by the victor and the vanquished with no ill feelings harboured, because for them the game was the thing and they believed that sport was the great leveler

Sri Lanka cricket enjoyed its best years under the dynamic leadership of Gamini Dissanayake. Dissanayake had with him three champions in Dham Wimalasena, R. Rajamahendren and Abu Fuard who were gluttons for work.

To them position and status did not matter. They realized that they were in those positions to bat for the game, for the player and for the country.

And they did wonders for the game; and their honesty and integrity were spotless.

One remembers that when R. Rajamahendren was Vice President under Dissanayake he was handed over the Sri Lanka team that toured England in 1984.

Did wonders with the team

Rajamahendren did wonders with that team. He saw to the requirements of each and every player.

He had them psyched, showing them films such as 'those who dare win' spending his own finances and when they took wing to Old Blightey, they were warriors ready for a cricket war.

And what that team did in the five days at the holy land of cricket - Lord's Cricket Ground is not only history now, above all it made the lords at lord's and the cricketers stand up and respect and fear our cricket from then on.

Why don't the likes of Dissanayake, Fuard, Rajamahendren and Wimalasena and Reinzie Wijetilleke, Hemaka Amarasuriya, Ana Puchihewa and Vijaya Malalaskera who served with respectability and honour do not seek office in Sri Lanka Cricket? The reasons are obvious.

Anyway for the sake of the game, the player and the administration, it is hoped that the dust will finally settle and that a set of office bearers with the flair and efficiency to work and not seeking status and perks will finally emerge for the good of the game. Cricket is too good a game to be scourged.

Thank you Arasu Saravanamuttu

In the hurry to make headlines and keep deadlines, I had inadvertently mentioned in my last week's column titled 'Go by merit...being a politician's son should not rule Ramith out' that Ramith Rambukwella was a right had bat and that he plays for CCC.

Former STCML big hitting all rounder who played under the captaincy of Ravi Sathasivam for the school by the sea, Arasu Saravanamuttu in an email from Melbourne informs me that Ramith is a left hand batsman and that he plays for NCC.

Thanks Arasu for the email that showed the class that you come from and not forgetting your people like P. S and M Saravanamuttu who were in a class of their own and whose deeds for cricket and other fields are illustrious.

In fact the first tournaments that was played in Sri Lanka was for the P Sara and S. Sara trophies and it was P.Sara who gave to Sri Lanka cricket the magnificent Colombo Oval which was later named the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium and its awesome scoreboard.

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