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Playing a godly game of tolerance
By Carlton Samarajiwa
There are good sportsmen who are also good Christians. For Romesh Kaluwitharana, ("Little Kalu", for Tony Greig, but a great Christian with a big heart) "the most important thing in my life is God." This he fearlessly proclaimed in an interview. "Straight from the Heart" was Marisa de Silva's headline to her report on Kaluwitharana's donation of some of his valued cricketing gear to the Heart Beat 2004 Project. The gear will be auctioned and the funds used for the project.

And now this grandson of a Christian minister has bid adieu to the game he loved and played for his country for twelve years since he made his Test debut in 1992 with an explosive century against Australia.

He has no bitterness at all against the selectors who recently dropped him from the side off and on, but said in an interview which followed his announcement to hang up his gloves that it was time to declare his innings closed and pave the way for younger players to take their place in the field. He publicly thanked his God for all the good things he had been blessed with both in cricket and in life. "I am employed at Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation and I want to concentrate on my professional career," he told sports writer Rex Clementine.

Kaluwitharana also played his last club match recently when he captained Colts against BRC in the Premier League final. He spoke these magnanimous words: "I can play for another two years given my physical fitness but I do not want to play for the sake of playing. I have decided not to be an impediment to any emerging players by continuing to play club cricket." These are charitable words coming from "the depth of truth", rarely heard in these days of moral decline. He said there was "no sadness of farewell" to the cricket scene, which he had graced for 17 years but that it was the right time for him to move on making way for others to take over.

For young Michael Chang "working with the Lord is my priority. It gives me a sense of being taken care of and makes me work hard." This is part of the testimony of the tennis player, who stunned the world in 1989 by becoming the youngest Grand Slam men's singles champion at the French Open. He was only 17. He believed he was "guided" to win the French Open so Chinese would have something to take their minds off their troubles for a while. "I feel that the French Open was in many ways a fairy tale. It's a tournament that I feel in my heart the Lord Jesus wanted me to win. Because of the situation in Tainenmen, and the crackdown there, it was a down time for Chinese people around the world. I still ask myself, how did I win that. It's just one of those things that you feel is so unique and so special that only the hand of God can do something like that.

Generosity is part of Chang's ethos. He endowed the University of California with a tennis scholarship and started a Tennis Stars of the Future Programme in Hong Kong.

"I have been blessed with this talent to play tennis, so I'm definitely going to take advantage of it and, to be quite honest, go out and spread the Gospel. To go out and glorify the Lord. I feel that is a calling that is very close to my heart and tennis-wise, is primarily the reason why I'm playing," said Chang in a Newsweek interview after winning the French Open. During visits to Asia, he not only persuades young Chinese to pursue tennis but also hands out tracts on Christianity.

When we watch our own Chaminda Vaas, who opens the attack after making the sign of the cross before he starts his attack, we know there is something more than skill to do with his capturing wickets. Vaas wanted to be a priest and went to the seminary.

That was before he became a cricketer. "I think God created me as a cricketer so I'm happy that that's my calling," he told Wisden in an interview. "There are a lot of Christians playing in the side now. Dinusha Fernando and Dilhara Fernando are Catholics, and sometimes we go to church together," said Vaas.

Teenager Maria Sharapova of Russia covered her face when she defeated Serena Williams of the US in the Wimbledon final in July 2004, and later even apologized to Serena for defeating her. Today it is common to see winners raising their fists in anger, not covering their faces in humbleness. West Indian bowlers too are seen covering doing the same when they take wickets.

Justin Gatin who won the gold in the 100 metres at the Athens Olympics 2004 with a speed of 9.85 seconds knelt on the track and held his palms together in worship. He later draped himself in the Stars and Stripes as he acknowledged the cheers of the 75,000 strong crowd. (We have seen Susanthika Jayasinghe and Damayanthi Darsha doing the same with the Sri Lankan flag after their winning performances.)

Romesh Kaluwitharana and other contemporary sportsmen like him belong to a tradition of God-fearing sportsmen. In England there were Christian pastor Revd. David Shepherd, who played in the English test team in the 1960's, and Kriss Akabusi, MBE, athlete who won the gold medal in the 1990 European Championships in the 400 metres.

There was golfer Bernard Langer, who won the US Masters, the Heritage Classic in Hilton Head, the Australian Masters, the Casio World Open, and the Sun City Million Dollar event, who declared, "The only way to have eternal life is through Jesus Christ."

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