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Pick up the pieces
Pick up the pieces, put your best hat on, the wagon has to move on. The waves of destruction rose from beneath and left behind the despicable. Besides the others, all but gone was also the Galle International Cricket Stadium.

With so many memories to linger the cricket loving public now awaits the next move-reconstruction. A cricketer who the Sri Lankans love to hate is the Australian leg spinner Shane Warne. Even this hard-boiled cricketer was left agape in the aftermath of the disaster. Soon after the tsunami Aid match played in Melbourne Warne said, " Galle Stadium is a ground where I have many pleasant memories. It is the ground where I took my 500th test wicket. I would like to join Murali and work with my Shane Warne Foundation and be in Sri Lanka for a while to see the reconstruction of that magnificent ground."

Then to capture what is happening on ground the "Sunday Musings" turned on to Sri Lanka Cricket in turn put us on to the Sri Lanka Cricket Aid Chairman Thilanga Sumathipala. The busy businessman lost no time…he said "At present we are still at the basics where the auditors are assesing the damage, which surely are enormous. Then we will have to see the present structures which were razed are still good enough to hold a crowd".

Sumathipala continued "Then we will have to remove the top soil of the ground and put it into a certain playing level and thereafter see where we can go. Luckily the ground structures were insured, however the problem is that the ground belongs to the Galle Municipality".

Besides the Shane Warne Foundation, the Melbourne City Council in Australia too has come forward and offered us help towards the reconstruction of the ground. Still it is too early to comment as to exactly what we are going to do but in another fortnight’s time once the real audit report is at hand and are aware of the full damage, then we will know" quipped the Chairman Sri Lanka Cricket Aid.

Then the hitch lies here. The vultures wait for a calamity to feast on. The history of the revamping of the Galle Stadium from Municipal Ground to International Cricket Stadium has its own story. People in the know-how are not ignorant of the fact that some ended up with thick gold chains around their necks and big bucks in their booty at the end of it. If the authorities are not vigilant the same vultures will set in for the feed.

This time unlike the previous occasion the whole cricketing world will be keeping an eagle eye on the proceedings. One bad egg in the basket will not only bring discredit to an individual, but to the whole cricketing nation as this will be an endeavour taken up by the entire cricket playing world to put back a piece of their heritage devastated by the killer tsunami. We the cricket loving public earnestly hope that transparency will prevail.

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