5th Column

My Dear Captain Cool,
I thought I must write to you not because the West Indies team and your old friend Sir Gary Sobers are touring the country and our cricket team has somehow found a way to start winning again but because you are also in the news once more, although I am not sure it is for the right reasons.

Now don’t get me wrong, Captain Cool, most people had enormous respect for you not merely as the captain who won the World Cup almost twenty years ago and put Sri Lanka’s cricketers on the map. They also admired you as a cricketer and a man who stood up for the underdog against great odds.

You were also a great tactician because you were able to get under the skin of your opponents due to your cheeky ways. You used to often ‘walk’ your runs and not being accused of being too thin, you used a runner at the slightest hint of an injury, irritating your opponents, especially the Australians.

Mostly though, we remember how you reacted when Murali was called for chucking by Australian umpires and how you handled that, wagging your finger at them and calling the team off the field. If not for your courage, Murali’s career would have ended and the history of cricket would be different.

After we won the World Cup and cricketers began earning big money, you did not appear in a single advertisement when you could have easily cashed in on your World Cup glory, unlike cricketers of today who endorse everything from shirts to sausages and supermarkets. We admire you for that, too.

When the IPL began spreading its tentacles, you called it for what it was, a money making enterprise that made mercenaries out of cricketers. You even had the courage to chastise our ‘star’ cricketers who, though being hailed as gentlemen, often put playing for IPL before playing for their country.

With all that history behind you, when you took to politics, you were a breath of fresh air. You began with your Papa Reggie’s Blue party but you were not afraid to call a spade a spade and left it to join the General who is now a Field Marshall when Mahinda maama began to become a law unto himself.

So, it was not surprising at all when we heard that you had joined forces with Maithri to campaign against Mahinda maama. You even agreed to contest the last elections under the symbol of the party that destroyed your home after the 1977 elections which showed that you had matured as a politician.

You did so while the rest of your family stood firmly behind Mahinda maama and while your brother Prasanna was clinging firmly on to the saatakaya and trying to promote Mahinda maama over Maithri. Despite such obstacles, you won the election which meant people were still grateful to you.

Now, Captain Cool, this is where we have to ask, are you playing ‘pandu’ with the port? You have appointed your brother as the boss of the port because you are the minister in charge. Are you merely following Maithri’s footsteps because he too appointed his brother as boss of telecommunications?

A few months ago, you were campaigning against Mahinda maama, preaching ‘yahapaalanaya’ to us and accusing him of promoting his brothers into various positions. Pardon me, Captain Cool, but can you explain how what you have done is any different from what Mahinda maama did?

Come to think of it, Captain Cool, your actions seem to be similar to Mahinda maama’s. If you are puzzled by that, let me explain. Mahinda maama brought fame to our country by defeating terrorism and you brought fame to our country by defeating all other nations and winning the World Cup.

Mahinda maama then used the glory of his victory to run for the top job again and again and though successful at first, it has now ended in disaster. You too held on to the captaincy after your World Cup win and your next World Cup campaign was a disaster, as we didn’t even reach the quarter finals.

Now, you seem to be following Mahinda maama’s footsteps again, appointing your brothers to top jobs. So, it is no wonder that people are saying that there is no difference between MR and AR and that more things change the more they remain the same. What would you say to that, Captain Cool?

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS: Recent history tells us that MR lost not because he himself was unpopular but because he tried to include an ‘R’ family member into every possible important position. Now, we are beginning to wonder whether we have got rid of one ‘R’ family, only to be replaced by another ‘R’ family.