The beggar’s wound
View(s):Have you heard of the proverbial Hingannage Thuwale? It is a Sinhala saying about a beggar’s wound. The saying explains about an ever festering wound of a beggar which never heals.
For the past three weeks or so, we have been discussing this, but the mandarins at Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) seem to be thriving in their past time — being at each other’s’ throat.
Beyond the boundary line, the gutty veterans in their cricketing garb – sometimes in white and sometimes in Blue and yellow or gold (whatever it is) — have proved that they are not second to anyone and brought in accolades in all forms of the game and may be now are on cloud nine. So, as far as the game is concerned, cricket, at the moment, looks solid in Sri Lanka. But wait, are we discussing the Lankan cricket team – then even the coaching team is part and parcel of it.
Besides the shameful fight between the two parachuted political cronies, Jayantha Dharmadasa and Nishantha Ranatunga, there is another crisis that is in centre stage. The crisis is over who is going to take Lankan cricket towards the World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand.
In the left corner stands Marvan Atapattu in blue and in the right corner stands Mark Ramprakash – England’s batting coach — in white. Yet, the fight is not between the two contestants. Rather, it is between the cronies of the two SLC factions.
In reality, as head coach of a major cricketing nation, Atapattu has shown results. He even led the Lankan team to a series win against England in England. Being the batting coach, his batsmen scored even a run more than the English batsmen and that is why Sri Lanka won the series.
His competitor, Mark Ramprakash is England’s batting coach. Well, in recent times the England batsmen failed against the Lankan attack and then in the ODI series against the Indian bowling attack. Right at the moment this young man, I am sure, is in a crisis. The two contestants in 
this race belong to the two factions. Atapattu is a relative of Nishantha Ranatunga while Ramprakash’s name was proposed by a Dharmadasa confidant. So, now this not a matter of skills, but who comes from where.
Yet, there is also an undeniable truth. In this Indian sub-continent, we brown sahibs have a tendency of bowing down to our old colonial masters still. Whatever happens, a man with a foreign name and a pale skin looks more attractive than the most yielding local guy.
The tug-of-war goes on with mud-slinging. Some even have gone to the extent of dragging old bones out of the cupboard.
Coming back to the fight proper, the second episode of the crap was dropped last Friday, when SLC vice president Mohan de Silva joined the melee by sending a letter to SLC President Jayantha Dharmadasa claiming that his actions have contravened the existing SLC constitution. A news item on the subject appeared last week in the Sunday Times. However the Dharmadasa retaliation to the de Silva letter came in the fashion of a direct berate against his adversary Nishantha Ranatunga. Dharmadasa in his letter claim that Ranatunga not only contravened the SLC constitution, but, also used his position to institute inquiries against cricketers Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena — which he in his capacity as the President of the SLC intervened and sorted out.
This is the point that the Musing has to take cudgels against Jayantha Dharmadasa. He may have his differences with his secretary and that is something that they could even come to blows behind closed doors. But, why bring out the performing cricketers on to the battle field and put them in camps? Even at the beginning of this narration we mentioned that Sri Lanka cricket is right now doing well – and our cricketers’ performance is better than their counterparts in the Test-playing nations. But, dragging in players direct into their fight is not acceptable. A noble act like what he did by dousing such a volcanic situation should have stayed in the President’s room and died there. Then the legend would have picked it up in later years.
Then we have a question for the 22-member SLC executive committee. In his letter Dharmadasa claims that Ranatunga deliberately violated the constitution and arrogated all powers wrongfully to himself. This country’s cricketing community which includes the executive committee was aware of the developments that were taking place at Maitland Place.
Now it is nearly one and a half years since the two individuals were air dropped into the positions of President and Secretary. Since then they have co-existed in the same committee despite the allegations that Ranatunga was usurping the powers of the cricket administration. There are twenty one other individuals in the executive committee. Weren’t the rest of the gentry aware that one individual was flouting the provisions of the constitution? If so what did they do about it? Wouldn’t have it been better if Ranatunga was charged upon like now at the very beginning and asked to operate within the boundaries that are spelled out by the constitution. This shows that the entire executive committee had been in deep slumber for over a year and is now realising that someone has gone to the moon while they were asleep. Now they are trying to pull him down.
At the same time all this hullaballoo began when the next election appeared on the horizon. Till then the cavalcade kept running like a pack of camels in the Sahara desert — besides an odd rumbling coming from the pack, the salt was intact. But, now the peace is broken. The two factions have crossed the Rubicon.
Then someone bandied about a prophecy claiming that there would be an interim committee replacing the two warring factions. What could an interim committee do at this point, with the cricket World Cup only five months away? Once again it would be a pack of political cronies with agendas who would come in as replacements. Would people in the calibre of Hemaka Amerasuriya, Sidath Wettimuny, Ana Punchihewa or Rienzie Wijeratne or any other gentleman with integrity ever want to be a part of such a malady? Would the political regime allow another election, free and fair, where all aspirants are given the opportunity to contest, if they possess the necessary qualifications?
However there is one suggestion that we would like to make. The minister of Sports in terms of the powers vested in him under the Sports Law could appoint a competent authority to run the administration but not cricket – a competent authority that will allow the CEO to take cricketing decisions and the employees of the institution to perform their duties. After all, all the top employees of the SLC have been recruited by the executive committees that have run the SLC affairs for so long. Then a proper system could be at work. Cricket running cricket!
Or else this Hingannage Thuwale – or the beggar’s wound – can turn into a canker and blight our cricket forever.