POLITICAL SKETCHBOOK

POLITICAL SKETCHBOOK by Rajpal Abeynayaka

SARS and sharks, and who says it is not cricket?
For a man who demolishes old ones and forms new governments in their place, taking over a cricket board has to be a game of pandu. But, for a man who was aggressive but kept his cool, all this was a big exaggerated joke -- - dictionary would define it as hyperbole.

He was determined to prick the Sumathipala balloon one way or the other, but the Ranatunge Sumathipala feud has blown into the ultimate riot between the scions of Sri Lanka's Buddhist institutions of learning.

One had a racy past, and you could take any meaning of that word that you would like to take, according to how you have heard it. The other had a cricketing past, but has also a past that involves boys who send balls flying over his parapet.

But guess who was really waiting for the catch. The most interested in the toss up between Ranatunge and Sumathipala -- were a)the umpires b) Aravinda de Silva c) Sri Lankan cricketers, d) cricket lovers. If you were in an intelligence or general knowledge quiz you would say the answer to that is not there because you have got to create an e) there. The answer is e) none of the above.

Who will win the elections for the President of the BCCSL asked a lawyer last week, and obviously if he didn't know he didn't care, except for the fact that with the cricket board, there are a lot of lawyers who are interested in it who say 'win or lose we fleece.'' So e) lawyers will have to be inserted for that test.

Apparently there was a SARS scare in Hulftsdorp recently, or so the story goes, as there were some men near the High Court precincts who were showing signs of influenza and difficulties in breathing interpreted as SARS. As it is in Sri Lanka word was sent around "SARS SARS.'' Not a cat nearby was bothered, and everyone went about their business.

But then a bunch of lawyers appeared. They wanted to knock some sense into the people and get them to move out of the vicinity of the supposed SARS carriers. But when the lawyers said ‘SARS SARS’, none seemed to be bothered. Then , somebody in the crowd got an idea. He looked at the lawyers and shirked “sharks sharks'' and everybody took one look at the black coats and took to their heels, and the whole of Huslftsdorp was bare before you could say “Interim Cricket Board….’’

That's apocryphal story maybe, but soon as word of that story got around and even before it could be officially deconstructed, Arjuna Ranatunge had in fact landed in court courtesy you know who, Thilanga Sumathipala. This is as anti climactic for the BCCSL story as Australia winning the 2003 World Cup.

The only man who seemed to have no fighting to do in the Cricket Board stakes was Aravinda de Silva, who appeared in a new role as in a magazine as his son's father and his wife's husband. Next episode: How to use curry leaves for curry.

One newspaper headlined that in spite of all prognostications made about the outcome of the elections, Arjuna Ranatunge has said that rumours of his defeat are greatly exaggerated. They went onto say that he has dropped the gauntlet, but Wisden was highly tickled and reported that Ranatunge has been asked to join Sumathipala. But those whom the gods destroy, Sumpathipala may well have said, they first sue.

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