When the wind of change blows some build walls, others build windmills. This is an old Chinese proverb that fits into the scenario that local cricket is engulfed in. There are persons who have built windmills profiteering in all cricketing ills, while some others are striving to build walls or put some order into the [...]

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The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

Are schools, clubs and SLC playing pandu?

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When the wind of change blows some build walls, others build windmills. This is an old Chinese proverb that fits into the scenario that local cricket is engulfed in.

There are persons who have built windmills profiteering in all cricketing ills, while some others are striving to build walls or put some order into the prevailing madness.

I am sorry if I have turned the proverb inside out, with the Chinese wisdom it still makes great sense.

Last week the whole gangland was in turmoil after some of the clubs had sought the Sports Minister’s intervention to seek redress to some of the issues they thought would hamper their wellbeing in cricket.

Yet, it is sad to note that none of the so-called purists had thought of the wellbeing of the game and its future. That is the prevailing canker. They are more worried about the SLC’s Cricket Committee not consulting the clubs before recommending changes, and the NCC not being demoted rather than the thought of designing a structure that would take Lankan cricket to a different plain.

Ironically, I was not born again. I clearly remember one of the most vociferous at that meeting also had faced relegation at one juncture, but, they escaped the happening through some ingenious moves which we cannot describe as quite ethical.

Once again we stand on the line that the Cricket Committee is appointed to make the right recommendations towards the sustenance and the betterment of the game. They have been perched in that pedestal by the administration because the administration is a delegation of persons who are voted in by the very clubs which are up in arms now. Why did the administration appoint a Cricket Committee to take the decisions? It did so because it felt that those who man the Cricket Committee possess a deeper understanding of the game and have indulged in the sport at the highest level. With that in mind the SLC administrations — the present and past — have put their faith in the Cricket Committees to formulate the paths rather than trying to cook the meals themselves.

This time when the challenge for restructure was handed over to the Cricket Committee by the administrators, the CC initially formulated a four-prong strategy. Then in its pursuit to perfection it sifted the four modules and gave their stamp of approval to the one which they thought would suit the Sri Lankan culture the most.

To its credit the CC also did not take the accent off club cricket, but remodeled the existing structure with an eye to the future. This was to be a new beginning and the Lankan cricket vehicle was given a new engine to change gear and drive off. Ironically there are cricket pundits who think that they know more than a forum of cricketers of repute. What they do is when the winds of change arrive they pelt stones at it in a bid to break speed.

They sought solace in the Sports Minister’s wisdom. With all due respects to him, he is just a mundane man where cricket is concerned. Leave the political interference aside, the Minister is not competent enough to get involved in technical aspects of the game and redo a paper prepared by a panel of experts on the subject. He did redirect the order. The administration and the club squad met in forum and the outcome was another meeting for the clubs, the CC and the administration to sift through all four modules and arrive at a compromise.

We ask the question. Why do the individual clubs need an administrative body to look after the affairs of cricket? How do they elect it? They get to a forum and cast their votes to make the administrative body. Whom do they administrate? They administrate the cricketers who are involved in the game. Club Officials are Club Officials. Administrators are administrators. But, it is cricketers who get involved in the game. Then in return the administrators get the assistance of a group of respected cricketers to formulate policy. Now once the policy is formulated, it goes through the entire round once again because the club officials think their interests are at stake. But ultimately who pays the ferryman. It is the game that suffers. The buck does not stop there. Even the school authorities have begun to think bigger than the main administrative body of cricket though they are a bunch of mere teachers who get involved in the game as masters-in-charge.

The directives recommended by the authorities to infuse order and have a better structure of school cricket seem to have reached deaf ears. Because of the recent rains some of the scheduled school matches were not played. Alas! To our surprise we learned that the rained-off matches have been rescheduled for the first term in complete contravention to the SLC-SLSCA agreement of not rescheduling any rained-off games.

To reach the giddy heights in this madness the voted-in SLC authorities have begun to pay scant respect to the purest form of the game – Test cricket. Next year as we learn Sri Lanka will be involved in only two Test matches. They say that they have been postponed, but why?

Even all pundits preach on the greatness of being a Test cricketer — the Boxing Day Test and playing a Test match at Lord’s. But, when it comes to the real act the action is quite in contrary to what they preach.

At this end I am confused. I do not know whom to blame. At one end the club fraternity is only interested in their pound of flesh. At the bottom, the MICs are flaunting all cricket ethics. At the top the voted-in administrators are killing Test cricket in pursuit of a few dollars more.
Could some-one tell me as to where we are going to take our cricketing woes to?




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