To Sir....with
love
If you can give back some of the things
that you have taken while you were on your way up the
ladder, that is always considered a noble act indeed.
Ironically, in this mechanical age where men think like
machines and they build machines to think like men sometimes,
these noble deeds have very little value or go unseen.
Nevertheless let me take your time for a while to talk
about a bunch of cricketers who are bent on giving back
some of their life’s experiences so that they
could make the lives of the coming generation of cricketers
that much more hassle free and more meaningful.
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The story began in the last millennium.
It was a while after Sri Lanka had completed its greatest
achievement in the field of sport by taking the Cricket
World Cup beating Australia in the final at Lahore.
The Present President of the Sri Lankan Cricketer’s
Association Pramodya Wickremasinghe was a member of
that champion outfit. Explaining to Sunday Musings about
how this Cricketer’s Association came into being
the former Sri Lanka fast medium bowler began: “There
was a time in my mid-career when I pointed out some
of the mistakes made while drawing up our contracts
by the then administrators of Sri Lanka Cricket. They
tried to silence me and then saw to it that my life
in the cricketing arena was phased out from that point
onwards.
“In the aftermath of this, I
kept wondering if it would be a good idea if we could
form a kind of voice of the cricketers so that the administrators
just cannot take them for granted. The move to form
an association of this nature was in the air from the
time of Ravi Ratnayake and Co. but due to various reasons
and circumstances it never materialized. At that juncture
I, with the support of cricketers like Muttiah Muralitharan,
Roshan Mahanama, Don Anurasiri, Graeme Labrooy and a
lawyer by the name of Shiral Laktilleke launched the
Association at the turn of the century in the year 2000.
Even President Mahinda Rajapaksa who was the then minister
of Fisheries was one our advisors at that time.
“The criteria for membership
in the association was drawn up thus: To get membership
either you have to be a Test/ODI cricketer or else a
player who has played more than twenty first class (division
one) cricket. The Modus Operandi of the Association
was to look into the welfare and rights of the incumbent
and past cricketers at National and Club level and up
to now they have a membership of over 400 past and present
cricketers”. Pramodya added “Originally
our constitution said that the incumbent captain of
the national side automatically becomes the President
of the Association too. However after two of the National
captains were made to disassociate themselves from us
by the authorities, we changed the pattern to the effect
that any member could become elected as President.”
Federation of International Cricketers
Association.
“As mentioned before our objective
was to look into the welfare and rights of the cricketers.
At the same time we also have affiliated ourselves with
our world body – the Federation of International
Cricketers Association. However in Asia we are the only
ones who have sought the membership of this World Body.
As a matter of fact out of the Asian countries we have
the most vibrant association. In the recent past we
have mediated with the board and have seen to it that
the cricketers’ contracts have been drawn up accordingly
and besides that we have other things that would bring
more benefits to cricketers – present and past.
At the same time I must mention that the present Interim
Committee is working quite cohesively with us.”
Speaking on what the Association has drawn up and launched
over the six years of its existence Pramodaya said “So
far we have launched a scheme to purchase cricketing
gear for the needy players and also mooted a scheme
where we get a certain percentage off the annual contract
fee of the national cricketers and distribute the sum
among the first fifteen players named by the clubs in
the premier league. Then we also were the first to financially
help all cricketers who were affected by the tsunami
disaster. Besides this we have helped past cricketers
who are hospitalized and also cricketers who need treatment
after accidents and injury.”
The SLCA is still on to more projects
and at the same time they are becoming more demanding
and challenging. “First of it is the Pension scheme
that they have launched. The former Sri Lanka opening
bowler described ‘Our latest project is that we
have launched a pension scheme for past first class
cricketers who are over fifty-five years. At present
we have identified ten such cricketers and very soon
we will put this into action. With this scheme all these
cricketers who are beneficiaries will receive approximately
Rs.120, 000/- per annum for the rest of their lives.
However the biggest project that we are hoping to put
on stage is to select the Cricketer of the Year awards
scheme. This will somewhat be in line with Australia’s
Allan Border Awards scheme. Besides the Cricketer of
the Year award there will be other awards like the Best
Batsman, Best Bowler, Most Promising Cricketer, etc.
Without stopping at this we are also going to recognize
the Best Umpire of the Year and several other awards
on the same lines. We will put this programme into action
with the next Premier League Tournament and the awards
ceremony will be held every December on a very grand
scale”.
The SLCA president finally added “We
are not an organization that is in competition with
the cricket administration in the country. We are an
organization that is looking to upgrade the standards
of the cricketers and their lives on a voluntary basis.
One of the main efforts is to take a big burden off
the shoulders of the cricket authorities which would
make their mechanism that much more easy”.
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Pic by Berty Mendis |
‘Our latest project is
that we have launched a pension scheme for past
first class cricketers who are over fifty-five
years. At present we have identified ten such
cricketers and very soon we will put this into
action. With this scheme all these cricketers
who are beneficiaries will receive approximately
Rs.120, 000/- per annum for the rest of their
lives. However the biggest project that we are
hoping to put on stage is to select the Cricketer
of the Year awards scheme. This will somewhat
be in line with Australia’s Allan Border
Awards scheme. Besides the Cricketer of the Year
award there will be other awards like the Best
Batsman, Best Bowler, Most Promising Cricketer,
etc. Without stopping at this we are also going
to recognize the Best Umpire of the Year and several
other awards on the same lines.
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“So far we have launched a scheme to
purchase cricketing gear for the needy players
and also mooted a scheme where we get a certain
percentage off the annual contract fee of the
national cricketers and distribute the sum among
the first fifteen players named by the clubs in
the premier league. Then we also were the first
to financially help all cricketers who were affected
by the tsunami disaster. Besides this we have
helped past cricketers who are hospitalized and
also cricketers who need treatment after accidents
and injury.”
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