The nation owes you
Team Sri-Lanka’s memorable victory at ICC T-20 final has made the nation proud and happy over its cricket heroes. Cricket is a great unifier and we saw the nation coming together regardless of class creed and religion after this victory.
The same feelings were emanated each and every time our boys do exceptionally well. Memories go back to the famous world cup
Naveen Dissanayake
victory in 1996 when under the captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga Sri Lanka became the World Champions. I would strongly argue that that this particular grouping of cricketers have been the most successful in the history of Sri-Lankan cricket having entered the finals of the 2007 and 2011 World Cups and 2009 and 2012 T-20 World Cups. What an achievement! The fact that we were not able to win them does not do justice to the enormous talent and class of our cricketers.
Things were not always like this. I remember the early days after Sri Lanka achieved Test status. My late father Hon. Gamini Dissanayake was instrumental in our country obtaining test status and he had a herculean task in getting the cricket administration and the infrastructure going. The current cricket board headquarters at Maitland Place was built very quickly. Stadiums such as Asgiriya and CCC were upgraded to test venues. Sri Lankas first overseas coaching consultant was the legendary Sir Garfield Sobers who did a short stint with the Lankan cricketers and predicted great things from them. We proved our talent and ability in our very first test series in Pakistan. Sidath got his very first test century in Faisalabad stroking a brilliant 157.
Imran Khan who was the captain of Pakistan World Cup winning team once told my father “Hon Minister, Your Cricketers are very talented but they haven’t got a professional approach, the day they develop this approach they will be world beaters” — I was right next to my father as small schoolboy when Imran said this. Of course there were other golden moments — when we almost beat England in 1984 at Lord’s and our first Test victory against the Indians in 1985. In the early days things were extremely tough. The cricket board did not have any money (it is ironic as if we have come a full circle) and my father had to depend on the private sector to raise money for tournaments. Things changed for the better after 1996 when Arjuna won the World Cup for us in that ever-flowing moment of glory.
A word on Arjuna: Ever since he entered our cricket team as a young 18 year old in our first test match he displayed a great potential for leadership. In fact there was some pressure on my father to leave out Arjuna from the cricket team as he came from a SLFP background. My father did the complete opposite. He encouraged him further and signaled him for leadership of the Sri-Lankan team.
The Lankan team on thier way to the historic win
It was Arjuna, Ana Punchihewa, Thilanga Sumathipala and Davnell Whatmore that strategized and gave impetus to our famous win in 1996.
Arjuna was magnanimous to bring the world cup to our house in 1996 as a mark of respect for my late father.
We have produced brilliant cricketers like Anura Tennakoon, Sunil Wettimuny in the pre-test era. Duleep Mendis, Roy Dias, Sidath Wettimuny, Aravinda de Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga, Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara — have all done us proud and their names will reverberate as long as the game itself.
So we have arrived. We have created a niche for ourselves as a cricketing power in the shorter version of the game. This does not mean we have issues to be sorted out.
Here are some issues that we have to give thought to:
- The lack of a professional cricket tournament structure is very worrying. Even after nearly 34 years of obtaining test status the fact that we haven’t done this shows our innate talent of taking things for granted. Let me be very clear we have come this far because of the extraordinary cricketing talent that this country seems to have in abundance.
- The lack of a professional cricket administrative structure. Interim boards run the cricket administration. This seems to be a modern phenomenon but let me clear and I say this without any disrespect to any person in particular the cricket board in this country is not the personal property of anybody or any grouping but belongs to the cricket clubs and associations who elect the administrators. Unfortunately some individuals have distorted this system by corrupting it through money and other inducements. Give way to fresh blood, let new thinking come in and let’s have a modern sports law that allows regular elections that elect honest and able administrators to come through. Also cricket administrators should not have egos to try and dominate the players. Modern players are professionals and should be treated as such. SLC should be generous on this occasion and come to a reasonable compromise with the players on the percentage issue from ICC events. It is the cricketers who bring home the glory not the administrators. We should never forget this.
- Lets develop a state of the art Cricket Academy. This idea is often talked about but never fully implemented. I am the trustee of the Sri Lanka Cricket Foundation and we have systematically build our reserves to a commendable level and if the SLC partners we can do this. It should be modeled on the Australian Cricket Academy, which looks into all aspects of a young cricketers’ game — the technical, mental psychological nutrition fitness regime and the strategy of the game.
What is the strategy we are going to adopt to the changes that will happen after the takeover of the big three? We should surely have an aggressive strategy of having alliances with like-minded boards and being vocal and pushy in for our cause. Is this happening?
It is my sincere wish that one day we be the number one test team in the world and my happiest day will be when we can win a test series in Australia.
The writer is the Minister of Public Management Reforms and the son of the late Gamini Dissanayake, former Cabinet Minister and President of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka