Rationally thinking about cricket as a sport
View(s):From Ananda College Colombo, certainly I am not one of those academics or intellectuals that the premier Buddhist institution has handed over to the world. I was one of the average students who hit the streets. But prior to that there were some things that were inculcated and deeply rooted in us besides the studies. Those were values — religious, aesthetic and other vice, along with tolerance – a set of rules that I still carry as a rule that guide my inner conscious and my day-to-day life.
In my class at Ananda College there were students and among them I distinctly remember my colleagues by the name of Dennis Croner, Dinesh Ambani and Imtiaz Bakeer Markar. Out of them, Bakeer as we used to call him was one of the best Sinhala orators that I have ever heard.
After leaving school we may have driven on in different directions, but what happened there as a set of brothers still lives inside me. So much so Dennis was a good left arm spinner, always in the class team, but never went on to play hard-ball cricket.There on that patch of land which was called as the Carsons Ground if my memory serves me right (This is long time before the present Ananda College Grounds replaced the Carsons part of it and the adjacent Mackwoods Mills) we used to play mainly cricket and anyone who wanted to engage in it had the freedom to do so – provided the captain of the day, chooses you in to his team. There was no colour, creed or nationality – only ability.
Once walking out of the Ananda College gates for the last time and joined the rest of the Lankan brethren I carried on – but using the same yardstick that was initially inculcated in me at my alma mater.
Then once I traded my favourite bat to a ballpoint pen and then elevated into a Typewriter and became a person who gradually converted his liking to the game of cricket into a reporting other cricketer’s skills and analaysing them for the perusal of the reading public. The values still remained the same.
Now the times have changed – not internally, but skill-wise and I indulge in the game’s pros and cons along with what’s effecting it and affecting it.
Yet, travelling back to 1982, Sri Lanka played its first Test match against England at the Oval – the home ground of the Tamil Union, yet it was a day that the whole nation rejoiced, and after four good days of cricket which went shoulder to shoulder the Lankans lost as result of a one session’s madness, but no one came out and criticised and queried as to why Sri Lanka played its first Test at the Tamil Union ground. It was a national event sports wise and every Sri Lankan accepted it to be.
Yet, it was a small beginning. The Lankans had not yet tasted goodies of success. There games came far between. I remember in 1984 at the Tyronne Fernando Stadium, Moratuwa Sri Lanka were reeling against New Zealand with the total reading a bleak 69 for 5. Allrounder Uvaisul Karnain making his debut joined his skipper Arjuna Ranatunga and batted stoutly being a major contributor of a 41 run stand with a personal contribution of 28 runs thus guiding the Lankans to a final score of 157 for 8 in 50 overs and then bagged 5 for 26 with his medium pace bowling to limit the Kiwis to a total of 116 and Sri Lanka won the match. The next day Karnain was the hero of every cricket loving citizen of Sri Lanka – and that counts to about 99% of the population.
Then the 1996 World Cup win changed the fortunes of cricket in Sri Lanka and thus they had the opportunity of joining the elite group of cricketers in the world and then gradually the lot converted themselves into fully fledged professionals.
Six seasons ago the Indian IPL hijacked an idea which was also born India called the Indian Cricket League and the majority of the cricketers in the globe became a part of it. Personally, I am not a fan of the T-20 version of the game and as a result of the I have a inborn apathy against the IPL. I never believed that the IPL was clean, though I did not have the wherewithal to prove it.
This column has been preaching against the doctrine of the IPL right through. But, at the beginning of this IPL season, some two bit politician in the Southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu said that the Lankan cricketers are not welcome in their state and some glory seeking group at this end then began to cast their voice preaching against the Lankans playing in India altogether, politicising the issue. Just because an Indian national wears the political nightgown to fight for his/her political survival, at this end do we have to politicise it? They even threatened to throw rotten eggs upon the return of the cricketers back to their home soil.
Does everybody know that production part of an event in the magnitude of the ICC World Championship is given over to an event management company? It is the event management company who made that initial mistake of playing the wrong song at the wrong moment at the opening of the spectacle. Duly the Lankan cricket management took up the issue with the relevant authorities and an apology was officially tendered by the ICC – not the event management company – to Sri Lanka Cricket.
It is a matter that should be handled at that level and was conducted in its due manner officially. However I was horrified to watch
From time to time misguided elements do demonstrate against cricket.
some misguided elements parading in front of the Cricket Board protesting against the incident that occurred in England, and mind you the demo took place even after the apology was sent.
I wonder what were they expecting to gain by such a spectacle. Cricket is the only game that Sri Lanka has gained world status and are recognised as one of the major partners of it. Demonstrations of that nature will only bring a low profile of the Lankans and the game of cricket in this country.
If it was a major incident and it called for a huge national protest even we would have been supportive of it. If the entire nation had risen to a good cause even we would have been a part of it. But, a few people trying get attention through the sport we all love will only take the opinion down about game and the country as a whole.
These persons must learn to be rational. Live to be tolerant, mature and think a low profile about our nation will not do any good to it.
It may serve their purpose and a short time goal of getting attention. But, they also must think the harm it does.
This column is limited to sport. Please be kind enough to keep politics out of sports. For some of us it is the only redeeming factor in the present context.
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