Manilal Fernando holds his head high

The contribution made for the development of football in Sri Lanka by Manilal Vernon Fernando as the President of the Football Federation has been tremendous and unparalled. At this time when the Ethics Committee of FIFA has slapped a ban on Fernando for allegedly breaching FIFA ethics code, which Fernando strongly disputes and would contest, nothing will take away his sterling contribution.

Fernando, who is surprised and puzzled by the ruling, as are the legion of his supporters, can surely continue to hold his head high as he knows better than anyone else that he did no wrong.

How Fernando came into football

For the record, Fernando was brought into football by that man who could spot a gem when he sees one - Joseph Sebastian Nithianandaraja who is sadly no more. I was one who supported Fernando going round the country with his supporters canvassing votes for him. Fernando was the youngest to be elected President of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka beating a former Deputy Inspector General of Police Herbert Weerasinghe by two votes.

Fernando beating Arumugam's candidate was hailed by soccerites and followers of the game at that time. Arumugam was king maker at that time. Fernando who watched the decline and decay of football and its administration at that time, got moving once in the hot seat. He began his crusade to give the game, the administration and the players hitherto unknown places in the sun.

High and respected office

Never in the history of the game in the country has any individual or for that matter a President of the Controlling Body held the high and

respected office in the Asian Football Confederation or the world controlling body FIFA. There are of course critics who are rushing to pile it on Fernando who has the courage of his conviction and strength of his own standards and beliefs to openly talk about his own side of the story.

Being a highly respected legal eagle, Fernando is not going to concede that goal scored by FIFA's Ethics Committee and his dream team of legal eagles will take it up and are confident that the goal scored by the Ethics Committee will be ruled no goal.

Deplorable local critics

While the game will be on and watched by everyone, what is deplorable is that the local critics have already accused, convicted and condemned Fernando. Give the man a fair chance one would need to say to vindicate himself.

It is an inborn trait in some of us to hit a man when he is down, to hit below the belt and another aspect if we can call it a sport to character assassinate a human when he is hitting the big time. A man who changed the face of that game called football, gave it a club house that never was, introduced professionalism, built stadiums and sweated it out for the player and country and game is today Manilal Vernon Fernando who is a much maligned man.

Not thrive on filthy lucre

Knowing Fernando as we do, one can vouch for the fact that Fernando is not one who will want to thrive on filthy lucre. Rather he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and does not need to thrive on other resources.

When all is said and done there will come a time he will have the last laugh. Until then he should have his chin up and hold his head high.

His contribution to soccer in Sri Lanka has been what mattered and will continue to matter.

All soccer fans and soccerites have pledged their support for Fernando and are confident that he will dribble out of the unfortunat situation and come back to continue the good work that he had been doing.

Musfiqur man in a million

The Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim is a man in a million. Unhappy with his form with the bat and having lost the one-day series to Zimbabwe he quit the captaincy. When several other are clinging on to the captaincy or continuing even after their prime, Mushfiqur as set an example that most captains and cricketers would do well to emulate.

He has not spelt out the reasons for quitting. But it is apparent that his form and the losing of the series are not the only reason but probably he has not been receiving 100 per cent cooperation from his team mates.

But the Bangladesh Cricket Board is happy with his leadership and was wanting him to captain till the home series against New Zealand in October. The BCB was surprised with his quitting and when the team return will discuss the matter with Mishfiqur.

When the Bangadeshis toured Sri Lanka and the confident manner in which they performed showed signs of their cricket being on the up and up. As captain, batsman and wicket keeper he was par excellence. It is hoped that BCB will get him to change his stance.

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