Beyond fun and games

Pix by Amila Gamage

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Sports in general, and cricket in particular, have been targeted in recent times by external elements looking to convey their individual interests and political messages, with the most recent incident occurring at Sri Lanka’s Champions Trophy semifinal last week. So should sport, with its potential to engage a wide and diverse audience, be used as a vehicle which communicates each of these parties’ grievances?

There is no need to mix politics and sports. Sports must remain pure and should not be mixed with other issues outside of the game. - Achintha de Soysa (Student)	I totally disagree with allowing politics to enter into sports. Sports and politics are two different things. Those guys who jumped into the grounds to protest were probably provoked by some other party and probably did not even fully know what they were protesting. So you shouldn’t use sports for things like these - Avishka Gunawardene (Former national cricketer)
I think if we allow various outsiders to send their organisation’s message through sports then a lot of problems will arise in the future. Sports should be kept clean. You should not involve it with any kind of politics - Gamini Lokuralage (Private sector employee)	Although it is not good for sports, if a group of people believe in something this may be a way for them to get publicity for their views. I don’t like these things happening but we should accept that others have the right to communicate their views. - Hasitha Jayasinghe (Private sector employee)
Outside organisations should not make use of sports because it is something which goes beyond all differences. You shouldn’t pollute this. For instance look at Murali; no-one cared about whether he was Tamil or not. Some kids have posters of foreign football players and they are their idols, they do not care about whether they are from different countries or cultures - L.G de Silva (Entrepreneur)	I don’t think any organization should use sports to spread their message. Sports should be about competition and nothing else. It should not be used to send any personal message - Palitha Rajapaksha (Private sector employee)
They should not try to send their message through sports because it is something normal people enjoy. It is not only a bad influence on the game but also on the children who watch matches - Udesh Weerasuriya (Private sector employee)	I think this is wrong. Sportsmen and women should be allowed to play the game without interference from these people. Especially international games where we are all cheering on the country together regardless of our differences and forget our worries for a while - Upul Gnanathilake (Student)