When cricket was driving peacefully along the street, Ed Hawkins suddenly jumps out from a crossroad and makes a dent. The dent is quite visible, but, the wagon rolls on. Yes, in his book – Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy — he really has dealt with the reality in the game today. Yet whether Hawkins’ doctrine [...]

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Hawkins bouncer and the catches we have grassed

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The Sri Lanka cricket team is in a state of controversy off the field.

When cricket was driving peacefully along the street, Ed Hawkins suddenly jumps out from a crossroad and makes a dent. The dent is quite visible, but, the wagon rolls on. Yes, in his book – Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy — he really has dealt with the reality in the game today. Yet whether Hawkins’ doctrine can bring about a change in the game, and make a difference in how people react to these revelations is yet to be seen.

When we first learned about the initial cricket match-fixing allegations and the subsequent admissions, people in the calibre of Hansie Cronje and Mohammed Azharuddin fell from grace. Then the aftermath shook the very walls of the cricketing world.

But what happened thereafter?

The respected Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer faced a horrendous death. Did he deserve to be murdered like that? What was the crime that he committed? Had he really learned whodunit in the dark side of the business? Well! Ironically the world will never know. That still remains a gruesome dark alley in the cricket mire.

Then last Wednesday the local dailies screamed over the questions Hawkins had raised about the infamous Cardiff Test of 2011.

I call it infamous because Sri Lanka being a Test-playing nation showed the rest of the cricketing world how to get all out in just 117 minutes – three minutes short of a session. This batting line-up had batsmen in the calibre of T.M. Dilshan, who skippered that match, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena and Thilan Samaraweera. They are batsmen with high batting averages in the Test arena and if one counts the double centuries they have collectively scored it would reach a giddy score. The Lankans were all out for 82 runs in their second innings after having scored in excess of 400 runs in the first innings.

My contention is that this sort of slide can occur to any team. That is why even cricket has that word called collapse. However, some still can argue that somebody within that playing eleven knowingly would have been instrumental in igniting that phenomenal slide.

The way the Lankans arrived for that tour, in about three separate contingents, is still talked about in certain circles. How some of the senior Lankan cricketers chose to keep their IPL dates intact is still discussed.

Once before in England there was an accusation about a player who visited a bookmaker while the team was touring — once again — England. He even got a young rookie to accompany him on that dubious visit.

Then there was this allegation about a certain player nearly being taken into police custody for a misdemeanor that would have given him a gaol cell for sometime.

Then there was this allegation about a certain Indian actress, who had certain connections, being involved with a Lankan player while he was playing in India. The Indian newspapers took it up very seriously.

Then there was an infamous tape of a telephone call that surfaced during the SLPL that went into the huge box where those types of letters generally put.

Then we ask what actions have the Lankan administrators taken about these allegations? That age old cliché — there is no smoke without fire – has some substance. There may not been very many players who have been involved in these actions. At least did the Lankan authorities call them up and give them a dressing down?

The Lankan cricket authorities have been strangely lenient on these matters. They keep huge carpets to sweep all allegations under.

When a side loses its credentials it begins to emanate from the entire team. Reading through the Hawkins twitter account one of his tweets read, “Dilshan will be clean bowled; Jayawardene will either run himself out or play a soft shot to be dismissed; three scalps for Raza Hassan.”

“Pakistan will win by 4 wickets! Captain winning the toss will bat first. Sangakkara will be holed out on the leg side.”

All these allegations are freely available on Hawkins twitter feed. If these allegations are not true the aggrieved parties must sue him for everything that he owns and not.

Still when the general atmosphere in cricket is not healthy and people have built apathy even towards the administration, they begin to ask questions.
Once one of the most commonly asked questions by the public was, “What happened at the 2011 World Cup and its final? Sri Lanka did come into the final. They scored in excess of 270 runs. Then they had the scalps of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag in the bag and then they slid to a loss.”

Their doubt does not end there; they further asked, “In the aftermath, in spite of entering the final of the Cricket World Cup for the second time running, the captain resigns and his actions are followed by the panel of selectors.”

I still remember during the 2011 World Cup the now disgraced Indian liquor and airline baron, Vijaya Mallaya, who also has his fingers in the IPL and cricket in general, made a visit to Sri Lanka and was in high company. Did that visit have any impact?

There is also an allegation about a batsman who gets out in the very first over when Sri Lanka gets into a crucial T-20 final. People ask why? Then there is this bowler who tends to slide while playing for his authentic crest.

All this is a question of integrity. In Sri Lanka even the most respected players keep fighting for a few dollars more. There are certain players in the international circuit who retire from the Limited Overs versions to concentrate on their Test careers. They respect it so much. Ten years after a player’s career people will still talk about how many runs a batsman scored and how many wickets a bowler took while appearing in Test cricket for his country. Spin Great Muttiah Muralitharan would have been a forgotten history if not for his 800 Test wickets.

In Sri Lanka the money-greedy authorities bowed down to T-20 pressures and postponed the West Indies and South African Test matches. Now when they are played, most of the present seniors may not be there in the playing XI. Was there a protest or a whimper (Well we’ve heard one just yesterday) by those very seniors on these happenings? Well……I did not hear one. Yet we heard and backed them when Arjuna Ranatunga as the head of the SLC composed a Test tour to England over their IPL obligations. We backed them for their rights as cricketers.

Yet, they must think back. They are our heroes. Then the decisions that they make have an impact on all of us. Then what they must do is turn inwards and ask questions from themselves. Because I can guarantee that the authorities do not have the guts to crucify any of these players even if they are caught red-handed.




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