Don't let it go for a six!

First it was the former Board President who was given marching orders by the former Minister of Sports, who interestingly crossed over and joined the same political camp with which the Board president was identified with. Then, it was the turn of the Interim Committee which was sent packing by the new and 'youthful' -an euphemism for inexperienced- Minister of Sports. 

And now, it is the national selectors who are playing up: the side they chose for the second Test against Zimbabwe was not played and they want to call it quits saying that their self respect was at stake. Maybe, in one week's time, the cricket team will resign-that's the only catastrophe left to occur! We do not want to argue with the merits and demerits of each case. But all that we can say is that all is not well with the Cricket Board though this is one of the richest institutions in the country with assets more than most government corporations. More than that the Board administers the only sport where the country has gained and sustained world standards. 

Other than the northern war, cricket is the only event in this country which can command international headlines. And even then, the war gets only an honourable mention while Muttiah Muralitharan takes up a good half-page in the foreign press. 

Cricket in Sri Lanka, therefore is more than just a sport; it is a national pastime that has brought smiles to the faces of Sri Lankans and restored their pride and self-esteem at a time when all else was lost. Then, it must be treated as such and not bandied about as the plaything of either the new rich or the newly powerful. 

For years, cricket in this country was the domain of the elite with the old school tie-just as much as golf still is. Then, it was "nationalized" so to speak but soon afterwards, money became the pathway to the portals of cricket administration. Money is of course a necessary evil but now the evil seems to be overshadowing the necessity. It is time then to enforce the follow on: clean up cricket as quickly as possible. We know that the new government has many objectives on its agenda and a protracted war and a crumbling economy must necessarily take precedence over everything else. But even in a short list of priorities, reforming the cricket administration must be included, if not because of anything else, for political reasons: an unhappy state in the affairs of cricket can quickly snowball into a political crisis-just ask the Peoples' Alliance about that! After all, what the Englishman brought to this country, let no moneyed mercenary or political patron put asunder. 

New year begins on heated tit for tat

By Dilrukshi Handunnetti, Our Lobby Correspondent

If all opposition parties end up feeling that they must necessarily tread the 'trodden ground of opposition politics' the PA, made a natural choice in opting to take the new government to task by asking for a debate on post election violence. 

Violence has become such a feature of Sri Lankan politics it certainly merits prolonged debate, but more preventive work is required to arrest the escalating violence than the lengthy speeches inside the House. 

Opposition leader Ratnasiri Wickremanayake's contention was that the government should not do anything to upset the peace process. And this meant, not pushing the proposed local government election laws that might create friction between government and opposition political camps. Pledging support to the renewed Norwegian initiative, he urged peace be given top priority.

He caused some ripples among government members however, as he claimed there was widespread post election violence and intimidation of PA supporters. " The targets often are PA supporters and innocent people. The level of violence this year could be only compared with the post 77 violence, and we begin to fear that each time the UNP comes into power that it gets identified with excessive violence" he said. 

When the former Premier lamented that PA supporters suffered injustice when police stations refused to record their complaints, errant Mahinda Ratnathileke wished to know whether the UNP ruled the country when the election was conducted. 

Stressing that supporting a political party of one's choice was an inherent right of an individual, Mr. Wickremanayake said that the government should respect that right and stop victimizing people who expressed their support to the PA. 

Next to express his view on election violence was minister Rauff Hakeem. Visibly angry he demanded from the opposition where the infamous General and his sons were. 

"I would not be human if I don't speak in this tone after the brutal massacre of eleven SLMC supporters in Pallethalawinna. We spoke with magnanimity in victory, of consensual politics despite the spate of violence we suffered at the PA's hands. This journey was an extremely difficult one, and one that claimed many lives," he thundered.

Demanding justice for the innocent victims of violence, Minister Hakeem urged that the perpetrators be brought to book immediately stressing that "those who deserve to live behind bars, should be dealt with without delay".

Scoffing at the newly elected government's previous commitment to the word 'democracy', JVP group leader Wimal Weerawansa charged that the UNP was certainly living up to its reputation of being oppressive. 

" Democracy was the UNP's divine manthra during its opposition days. But so it is with all oppositions. When in government, all attempts are made to subvert democracy and to govern dictatorially. And this is what the UNP leader pledged in his victory speech," he said

Mr.Weerawansa, using his oratorical skill to give a novel twist to the Prime Minister's address to the nation, in which he called for an end to confrontational politics, said that the Premier pledged to remove confrontational politics. 

" His government is actually, physically doing just that. Confrontations of the mind only enrich our ideas and give us a situation where consensus has to be founded upon a plethora of divergent views. But this government pledged to remove this very quality of diverse opinions and it is happening today," he noted, while government members sat in silent fury. Zealously countering the charges of UNP perpetrated violence was Samurdhi minister R.A.D. Sirisena.

" We survived a brutal period of seven years when the PA member from Rambukkana killed our supporters, destroyed their homes. Until this politician began his 'work' thereby converting the district of Kegalle into ' an operational area', it was peaceful. Not only the UNP but the PA candidates themselves suffered from his brutality," he charged.

Young Sajith Premadasa, the deputy minister of health was certainly being cheeky when he invited PA Hambantota district leader Mahinda Rajapakse to learn the rudiments of politics from him. 

" The previous election was relatively peaceful, but all hell broke lose this year as the PA district leader went on the rampage. I could not step out of the house. And the minister has dubbed my wife as 'super woman' because she escaped unhurt after her vehicle was shot at," he noted.

Up jumped PA's Mahinda Rajapakshe who shot back furiously: " Ofcourse she is. Otherwise she would have been injured". Mr. Premadasa continued that the personnel at the Weerawila camp would bear testimony to the attempt made on his wife, adding that she was a super woman when serving the constituents and opposition benches sarcastically chimed: " hear hear!!"

With the government and the opposition still engaged in discussion over amendments to the local election laws, Wednesday's sessions drew to a premature close soon after UNP's Gayantha Karunathilake moved a bill to incorporate the Sri Lanka Nippon Education and Cultural Centre. 

Hope withers along India's mined border 

By Luke Harding 

"There was an enormous explosion. There was a huge thunder. We were afraid that the war had actually started," Sukhwinder Singh, a local farmer, recalled. 

The huge explosion near the Punjab border village of Muhawa killed 29 people - 25 soldiers and four luckless labourers who had been repairing the road nearby. Twenty others were injured. "The tyre went over a mine and all the mines blew up," Mr Singh explained. 

The dead were merely the latest victims of India's unrepentant decision to defy international opinion on the use of landmines. Over the past three weeks India has laid thousands of anti-personnel mines across its western front with Pakistan, as relations with its nuclear rival have teetered on the brink of war. 

But planting so many mines cannot be carried out without mishap. Since December 25 at least 10 more Indian soldiers have been killed in two other devastating landmine accidents in the neighbouring state of Rajasthan. 

These days the newly sequestered fields around the village of Muhawa are eerily silent. The buffalo have gone, as have most of the villagers. From the mud embankment where the Indian army was hiding yesterday under camouflage nets, the lights of Pak istan could be seen twinkling in the gloom. 

Muhawa's misfortune is that it lies only half a mile away from the India-Pakistan border. In normal times this did not matter. The conflict between the two countries took place far away - not in the Punjab, India's rolling fertile heartland, but in mountainous Kashmir. 

But since five suicide-bombers attacked India's parliament building last month, plunging relations between the subcontinent's two rivals into meltdown, life in Muhawa has been transformed. 

The first the villagers knew of it was when a detachment of soldiers turned up. They sealed off their fields with barbed wire and hung up neat red triangles. Over the next three days the soldiers were busy: planting thousands of landmines in the rich soil. Such was the importance of their work they even carried on at night, scraping at the earth with one hand while holding a torch in the other. "No agriculture is going on here any more. The soldiers didn't say anything to us," farmer Kabal Singh said yesterday. 

"Half of the 4,000 villagers have left here, including most of the women and children. The government has given us no compensation. We would like to have a war with Pakistan and then we might at least get our fields back." 

Other farmers were forced to abandon their homes; they now stand ghostly and deserted. Along India and Pakistan's vast 1,800-mile border it is the same dismal story. Attempts by Washington and London to urge restraint appear, here at least, to have been a waste of time. 

The road to the Wagah border, a short bike ride from the village, winds past anti-aircraft guns and new, brown tanks hidden behind old sloping fortifications. Soldiers crouch between thickets of trees, talking into field radios. The Lahore-Delhi bus link - a short-lived emblem of goodwill between the two countries - used to travel this route. But it vanished last week when the Indians severed all transport links with Pakistan. 

India and Pakistan (together with the US, Russia and China) have refused to sign the Ottawa convention against anti-personnel landmines, claiming it compromises their own legitimate defence requirements. At the same time New Delhi has been exporting prosthetic feet to its new ally, mine-infested Afghanistan. 

The gravity of this crisis, then, can be measured by the fact that both sides have mobilised thousands of troops along the international border, as well as across their disputed Himalayan boundary to the north. India claims Pakistani-backed militants have repeatedly intruded across this line. 

- The Guardian, London