School cricket stuck in Chittagong chaos
Here, in Chittagong life seems to be simple. It is so simple that even a traffic cop hardly has any work. The motorists do as they please and the officer watches how they are going to untangle the mess they created for themselves. May be the cop, waving his red-led-bulbed magic wand, is letting the law of nature take care of these little earthly happenings.
Yet, unwittingly it leads chaos. So chaotic that to find an unscathed tin covered traffic victim is harder than finding an un-panicking pedestrian.
This analogy flashed across my mind when I was browsing through the decisions taken by Sri Lanka Cricket’s executive committee a few days ago.
"Now schools have cash awards to vie for".
The decision-making body meets often to ponder on the welfare of the game and bring in fresh thoughts and recommendations so that it could nurture and sustain the game for Sri Lanka’s future cricketing generations.
Not that it sees the light at the end of every tunnel, but it keeps borrowing tunnels at every possible soft spot on earth, so much so that recently they came up with a formula that was supposed to cure the cricketers’ coin affliction. The poor patients refused to swallow syrup, and the ailment remains.
So, the Lankan cricket mandarins turned their attention on a subject that needs immediate recuperation. If they do not act, it may lead to chaos like the Chittagong traffic. They on their way have taken up the subject of school cricket.
Yes, it is high time that people of authority turned back to look at the post they have passed. I am sure all; or a majority of those gentlemen, whose decisions make the difference of the game of cricket in this country today, once donned pads and walked to the crease on behalf of their alma-mater. That makes their actions more a responsibility than a job task. It’s their duty to see how school cricket system worked in that era to produce players who were second to none in the entire cricketing world, unlike the ones who even lose to Afghanistan when winning matters.
Now the cricket legislators have put their thoughts together and brought out two new concoctions which they may hope would bring an end to school cricket’s ills in this country.
For the readers’ benefit, I reproduce here the SLC executive committee’s decisions.
“The Ex-Co approved the following grants with the view that SLC recognise schools that win championships during a cricket season. Considering the amount of work the school coaches and authorities put into a cricket season and grooming the young talent. Also due consideration will be given to certain schools that win championships with less facilities and grounds.”It is further stated that this scheme or the reward mechanism will continue to be in place in the coming years. These schools are identified as:
1. Schools Under 19 Division 1 Category – Winners of the Schools League Championship Rs. 1 million and Runner-up Rs.750,000.
2. Schools Under 19 Division 1 Category – Winners of the Schools Limited Over Championship Rs.500,000 and Runner-up Rs. 250,000.
3. Schools Under 19 Division 2 Category – Winners of the Schools Championship Rs. 750,000 and Runner-up Rs. 350,000.
4. Schools Under 19 Division 3 Category – Winners of the Schools Championship Rs. 500,000 and Runner-up Rs. 300,000.
5. Schools Under 17 Division 1 Category – Winners of the Schools Championship Rs. 500,000 and Runner-up Rs. 350,000.
6. Schools Under 17 Division 2 Category – Winners of the Schools Championship Rs. 300,000 and Runner-up Rs. 200,000.
7. Schools Under 17 Division 3 Category – Winners of the Schools Championship Rs. 200,000 and Runner-up Rs. 100,000.
8. Schools Under 15 Division 1 Category – Winners of the Schools Championship Rs. 500,000 and Runner-up Rs. 350,000.
9. Schools Under 15 Division 2 Category – Winners of the Schools Championship Rs. 300,000.00 and Runner-up Rs. 200,000.
10. Schools Under 15 Division 3 Category – Winners of the Schools Championship Rs. 200,000 and Runner-up Rs. 100,000.
Then the next item that the SLC executive committee took into consideration was ‘Training of School Cricket Coaches and MICs.’
The programme had been designed on adult training techniques where participants are made to learn through team activities and mind teasers.
It is envisaged that School Cricket Coaches and MICs (Masters in charge) could effectively use psychology and evolving teaching methods in coaching in the end and this will augur well for school cricket development as a whole. SLC Ex-Co approved the above training programme and 117 school cricket coaches from Division 1, 2 & 3 will undergo this training.”
Let’s browse through the first item in the agenda. Good; it covers the age groups of under 19 to under 15. They are giving the winners of respective tournaments a cash impetus so that they would be recognized for their achievements of the season and so the schools could sustain itself for a period with the cash at hand.
But, is this the medication that is needed. Hasn’t school cricket grown too huge and fat and now it is finding that leading a healthy life is a difficult task. There are too many schools that indulge in the game, and the authority does not have way of channeling that inflow of talent producing asset in a meaningful manner. Isn’t there a disparity of class among the teams who are taking part even in the premier division of school cricket?
Hasn’t some schools pulled away from the Sri Lanka School’s Cricket Association run tournaments as a result of differences of opinion with the authorities. They still do play their traditional friendlies. However one must remember it is the next generation of national cricketers who play even for these schools, but their schools are not-in-line to win any cash impetus. It is a well known fact that each school plays more than the stipulated 16 matches for the season. Yet no one cares, the practice goes unhindered.
Couldn’t the school cricket be played in manageable clusters so that they would be lean and mean? In short the remedy for school cricket ills is not cash donations. Knowing that Sri Lanka does not have an alternate nurturing system of cricket till the age of nineteen, the authorities must structure the system in a meaningful manner so that it would yield better result in the future rather than buckle under its own weight.
The second – the training for the MIC’s and school coaches. May be some of them are qualified. Yet, there are some others who either over-do their politics in school cricket or indulge in practices that does no good for children or the game. Win at any cost – I mean any cost is worth probing into. Some MICs’ who are also officials in the SLSCA misuse their positions to promote their schools discreetly. When that happens it is the poor child who suffers. The school is hardly prepared to take on the established oppositions who have played the game for ions at that level and the school also is not financially stable to sustain the game at that level.SLC should have a joint programme with the sports Ministry and the Education Department to get qualified people into these positions. Then they themselves would volunteer and think of better ways of taking the game forward.