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The other side of the cliff
Depoliticisation of sports is the need of the hour |
Sport is a part of an essential activity that comes in the routine of many given humans in various disciplines. Though it does not come within the realms of balancing your family life, it is still a part of an essential ingredient to your physical and mental wellbeing.
Many a war activity of the past comes in to the modern sports curricula in the form of archery and fencing, martial arts and wrestling.
In a bigger perspective sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome of winning or losing.
However, coming closer to home, ironically during the past few years sports have broken all these subjective norms and entered a new arena called politicization. Not only has it enveloped the crooked political animals that live to survive on any scrap that is available, but, also the stooges that march behind these politicos to keep pecking on.
The origin of all this evil was when at one juncture sports which had a free run began to get infiltrated by unscrupulous persons who sought their own wellbeing through dodgy means to make money. This resulted in the introduction of the sports law which was initially introduced with all good intentions, but, now has grown to be the mother of all evils.
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| Not cricket! Not while wearing the good ‘ol blazer… old chappie!!! |
So the easiest solution to the present predicament is the abolition of this draconian law and let the sports be back with its real owners, maybe with a clause or two about who is really eligible and who is not.
The other day I was chatting with a cricket stalwart who was once in the core of administration, but now has gracefully given up due to the present mess. I spoke strictly on cricket and asked him how to get the wagon back on the road and run it smoothly to the required destination. In a flash came the answer. He retorted, “I just cannot see cricket getting back to the proper track with the present set-up. Once the politicians get the taste of power and then see sports as another pocket that they could peck on for their own advantage and as long as sportsmen see that dabbling with sports could take them into the next level of sports administration, nothing will come right to sports in this country.”
He added, “Politicians keep using cricket as a big-time tool. Just see Sanath Jayasuriya. Sure he is one of the greatest cricketers that Sri Lanka has ever produced but, he once used a political push for his own survival, and now he has to pay it back in style. Yes, a host of Indian cricketers have taken up to politics and are doing well at various levels. Yet, they took that new vocation only after giving up their national careers officially and they did not dabble with politics to enhance the life span of their national cricket careers.
“That is one side of the coin. Then there are sports administrators who have taken up to politics so that they could survive with their ambitions in sports. For instance, Thilanga Sumathipala, being able to muster so much support from certain individuals within the club cricket set up in the country, was almost invincible on the top cricketing chair. But, was he able to rule? No. every time he came to power, there was some spanner thrown into the works and out came this fantastic thing called the ‘Interim Committee”. May be at the initial stages even the interim committees had quality administrators, then see how the quality of people went down gradually.”
Then the other day two cricketers-turned-politicians who also had played national cricket by the names of Arjuna Ranatunga and Hashan Tillekeratne came out and berated the present political setup and what they saw as the politicization of sports, especially cricket.
“This is ridiculous. They don’t know the meaning of the word “Interim”. Interim Committees appointed by politicians have been running cricket for the past five years. There have been several committees who are not answerable to the clubs. The clubs can question officials only if they are appointed through an election where the clubs have the voting rights. So, these political stooges have been squandering SLC money without shame. There should be an end to this crime,” a member of their group had lamented.
Yet we all know even Arjuna Ranatunga was air dropped as one of the Interim Committee heads of Sri Lanka Cricket in one of the biggest political manoeuvres in the country’s parliamentary history. We also know that he is one of the biggest critics of the Southern International Stadium where the construction work is in progress for the 2011 World Cup in Sri Lanka. The cricketing minds of this country are well aware that the monies spent for this stadium, could have been better utilized on another development project. But, when he was head of the SLC for that interim period of ten months or so till he was removed from that position he went along with the Hambantota proposal.
The need of the hour is the true depoliticisation of Sport and especially cricket. I make special mention about cricket because it is the only game that Sri Lanka indulges in a global scale and is one of the biggest members of the game’s governing body. Because the game is extremely strong in this country it is surviving. But, that is short term. With this present political bungling like politically driven crooked television deals and short term tuck-tick-tuk where a politician is given a piece of meat for a political vote, how long can the game survive?
Today what we need is someone who has the backbone to repeal the outdated Sports Law and set up a new proposal where the Sports Minister is only the policy holder and not the person who implements the policy. Each sport should run on its own merit with a list of people specifically named as eligible and ineligible. The Sports Council should be a very strong vehicle that runs the policy, but, it strictly should be void of politics.
If not, Sports is doomed in this country. |
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