Minister messes up match-fixing probe
View(s):Foot-in-the-mouth is a common ailment afflicting especially the glory-seeking gentry by the Diyawanna Lake. The latest victim of this communicable disease seems to be Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera who, apparently, has carried the ill effects of his ailment to a segment of the national cricketers.
At the turn of the New Year, Minister Jayasekera complained to the FCID that two Sri Lanka Cricket support staff had approached cricketers Kusal Janith Perera and Rangana Herath to fix the Sri Lanka-West Indies test match played at Galle in November last year.
As we reported in our last Sunday’s paper, the two cricketers had contacted the relevant authorities to report the match-fixing offer where Kusal Janith was asked to score less than 18 runs in the first innings in exchange for US$ 100,000. Janith made 23 runs in that innings.
On the heels of that piece of news, Minister Jayasekera ordered a probe into the Lankans’ dismal show during their just concluded tour of New Zealand, slamming the players’ “scandalous behaviour” that included drinking parties and squabbling. He followed it by saying that he was in possession of photos of the national players attending all-night parties just before crucial matches against hosts New Zealand, which recorded a virtual clean sweep in the just-ended tour.
The minister charged that the players had not only attended drinking parties till 3 or 4 in the morning, but there was a lot of tension and friction among members. Adding to the tensions, Sri Lanka slipped to the third place in the ICC T-20 rankings. At that time he said, “When they return, I want to call the team and, along with Thilanga Sumathipala, try to find out what happened.”
Familiarity could lead to contempt at times
“My main concern is the breakdown in discipline. When that is affected, the team naturally performs badly,” he said of reported squabbling between players, including the captain and the coach. Besides that, he also spoke of the appointment of a new national coach and all that jazz.
By then the minister had handed over the investigations to the FCID, and the bubble was just about to burst.
Now the original complaint was made by the two cricketers — Kusal Janith and Herath – about the match-fixing offer. Instead of dealing with that complaint, the whole affair, it looks, has turned against the cricketers.
Nevertheless, remember just before that Kusal Janith had tested positive to the banned substance Nandrolone, a steroid.
Lo and behold, shadowed by all these ifs and butts Kusal Janith and Herath were summoned to the FCID on January 15 and were interrogated for nearly six hours – and the bubble burst.
The roles changed. The next morning the newspapers screamed – “Match Fixing: Herath, Kusal Janith reported to the FCID; Mathews was also summoned.” In reality, it was not only Mathews, but National Cricket team manager Jerry Woutersz also was summoned to the FCID.
It looked as if there was a witch-hunt against the national team and by Saturday evening Minister Jayasekera was on a damage-control exercise. Soon a voice recording was dispatched to media outlets, stating that none of the national cricketers, including those who were interviewed by the FCID, was a suspect in the match-fixing scandal, but, they were only helping in the investigations.
On Monday, SLC fast bowling coach Anusha Samaranayake was suspended from work with salary, while the part time net bowler Gayan Wishvajith was suspended from work and made persona-non-grata. Yes, the suspension of the two coaching staff members did get the media attention, but once again on Tuesday, the entire TV and news attention was on the FCID visit of National cricket captain Mathews who was interviewed for nearly five hours.
Yet, after the interview, Mathews talking to the media, blamed the media for giving publicity to the incident out of context and urged the media to exercise restraint in reporting such sensitive issues. At the same time the Lankan captain also thanked the Sports Minister for exposing this scandal.
This is where we take cudgels against the entire status quo of the incidents that took place. To begin with, it was a case that was first brought to the notice of Sri Lanka Cricket and the matter had been handed over to the SLC’s anti-corruption unit which was handling the case along with the ICC. However, at one point of time the sports minister hijacked the issue and took the unprecedented step of handing it over to the FCID. Clearly it was a case that should have taken its own course of justice through the proper channel.
However, as people who are concerned about political interference in sports, we beg to ask the Lankan Sports Minister the following questions: What is the job profile of Sri Lanka Cricket? What is the job profile of the President of Sri Lanka Cricket? Are Thilanga Sumathipala and other cricket officials incapable of conducting a study on a tour report? If there are any misdeeds, are they powerless to book the culprits?
As far as we know, sixteen years ago in January 1999, Australian umpire Ross Emerson called Lankan off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for chucking. On the ensuing melee the Lankan cricket team led by Arjuna Ranatunga tried to lead the team back to the dressing room. But, Sumathipala as the then President of the Sri Lanka Cricket, handled the situation in such a manner that a lot of bad blood and aftermath incidents were averted. For Sumathipala who handled such an intricate international issue so successfully, a team doing badly on a tour which was expected to go bad may not be a task at all.
As far as we are concerned Minister Jayasekera’s tirade on cricket travels has a little more than the eye could see. At one juncture, it is the net bowler and the fast bowling coach who got too close to players in the Kusal Janith Perera case with regard to the banned substance.
Under whose instruction was this taken to the attention of the minister of sports when it had to be worked within the perimeters of Sri Lanka Cricket? Now the whole gamut of things are gradually sliding into an quagmire of uncertainty where the entire episode would get unwanted worldwide publicity that Sri Lanka could well afford to live without.
Remember, for every single thing there is an accredited expert who is well conversant to handle any task if it is within his given territory. Generally an overseers job is to see that a job is done and not put his foot in the mouth.