“When I assumed office all what I was told by the President was to concentrate on developing cricket at school level. I am a firm believer of that. However, with the huge debts involved in SLC, I am struggling to meet the huge demand for cricket development at the school level and the lack of finances has hampered our endeavour so far”. So said the head of the Interim Committee of Sri Lanka cricket Arjuna Ranatunge when he declared open the re-laid ground of his alma mater Ananda Collage.

The present SLC Interim Committee head has made no bones about his biggest concern being the development of the game at grass-root level and the ways and means of nurturing it. At the same time, he has lamented about the monetary constraints that had hampered its launch. He said, “When I took over the reins SLC had a bank overdraft of six million dollars and we were in debt to the ICC to the tune of three million dollars.”

He further explained -- “I firmly believe that nurturing the school structure as the basis to develop cricket at national level. For that purpose, we have initiated a programme to collect funds from well-wishers from overseas. That will help us provide cricket gear to needy schools who have requested our assistance. We are planning to do that by the end of this year”.

At this end of the barge pole, we whole-heartedly endorse the SLC Interim Committee chairman’s concerns and agree. This end of the game needs a lot of looking at -- bring in avenues of taking it a few steps higher so that it can produce teams that count one-to-one with the other countries on stage at the under 19 level.

Something that Sri Lanka Cricket has been experiencing for the past decade or so is that it has not moved at the same pace that the others in the same age group have moved on. In that given period the Lankan schools arena did open out like a wild flower spews its seeds around, but, seemingly it has resulted in more quantity than quality, or is it really so?

There was one stage that Sri Lankan boasted one of the best developed junior cricket that any country could offer while our national cricket were only aspiring to be one of the biggies on the top deck. However, once the Lankan Cricket got into its stride and moved on to stamp their signature in every nook and cranny in the record books, junior cricket itself on to the reverse gear and began to drive on at break neck speed till it came to a point where Sri Lanka found it even hard to compete with Bangladesh. In short, Sri Lanka became another set of ‘also ran’ at junior level.

At the same juncture, another development took place in Lankan junior cricket. For over half a century, it was only a handful of elite schools from the metropolice that formed the nucleus for the feeder point to the national grid. From the twenty or so schools that was on stage, any cricketer who rose above the rest was identified, backed and more often than not they went on to wear the cap with the national crest on it. Gradually by the late 1980’s the trend began to shift. There were cricketers in the calibre of Sanath Jayasuriya, Champaka Ramanayake, Athula Samarasekera, Dulip Liyanage to name a few began to filter in from unconventional sources. This meant that broad basing of the structure had begun to yield its positives. However the broader the structure got more the authorities began to lose their grip on the ground reality.

At the same time, also there were rumblings of mismanagement, favouritism that resulted in accusations of improper selections creeping into this sphere of activity. In the midst of this, the vote of the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association also became a very important ingredient to the survival of those who aspired to become elected administrators of local cricket.

It is also no secret that there were individuals who took maximum advantage of this technical anomaly. The individuals survive in their elected seats. The fortunes of junior cricket are taking a nosedive. At the same time, cricketers who had played school cricket in the calibre of Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis and Seekuge Prasanna but had missed the eye of those so-called trained individuals staffing the SLSCA structure have started to filter on to the highest level proving that there is a glaring disparity in talent scouting at junior level.

There is no argument that urgent repairs are needed to our junior cricket structure if not it would have somewhat the same catastrophic repercussions what the holes in the ozone layer have brought upon good old mother earth. If the ozone problem is not attended to there would be global warming. If the Lankan Junior catastrophe is not attended to on an urgent basis, the whole national grid is bound to cave in like a thin layer of ice on the North Pole.

The remedial solution that the incumbent chairman of the Interim Committee Arjuna Ranatunge sees is that one should take a begging bowl and make a globe trot to get a few cents from those living abroad. We sure do not think it is a plausible long-term solution for a national impediment of this magnitude.
The other day there came another very interesting development. Here, we have a SLC cricket head who is even ready go on a begging trip abroad to collect funds for the junior cricket rejuvenation. At the same time the SLSCA seems to have struck a deal with Masscom a company owned by Thilanga Sumathipala a former President of the SLC and a person who is well known for his exploits in the administrative exploits in local cricket.

Masscom is aiming to pump 35 million rupees into the administrative aspects of the SLSCA for the next five years while claiming all rights of external affairs commercially and otherwise. At the same time if ever there is another election for the SLC hot seat, the gentry of the SLSCA would know where their allegiance would be.

Is this the answer to all ailments of junior cricket of this land? Your guess is as good as mine.
The need of the hour is to have a complete change of focus in the junior cricket structure. The schools cricket structure has grown too heavy for its own well-being and it has lost its focus. May, be a provincial based structure where the focus would be narrowed down so that each individual will be churned through the machine in a very professional frame work would be the answer. Let the school cricket go on with its traditional friendlies and other related fun aspects, but, the wellbeing of the junior cricket structure should get a serious scrutiny.