 When Jane Austen penned her classy novel Pride and Prejudice, I am sure the names of Hashan Tillekeratne and Arjuna Ranatunga may not have come to her equation at all. Yet, the present quagmire of cricket that has erupted around the two former Lankan cricketers at least has a lot to do with the title of that novel two centuries later.
We do agree that corruption in the game should be eradicated and it should be accomplished in a manner that even no one in the future would even get the slightest notion of getting involved in such nefarious activities. At the same time Ranatunga and Tillekeratne -- both former national captains -- should have taken pride of having worn the crested cap which has been worn by a minute fraction of this tiny island nation.
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| Arjuna Ranatunga had his share of chances to book the culprits |
During the many moons that we have been associated with the game on the other side of the fence as pen men, we too have heard of such misdemeanours. Yet we stopped short of coming out with banner headlines as we did not have the necessary evidence to back such allegations against players whom we respected.Yet there are several questions that we would like to pose to these two champions who are trying to eradicate these despicable acts even on a date too late. Firstly Ranatunga was once the longest serving national captain of Sri Lanka. He would have had the knowledge of what was going around him.
He had the first hand experience of losing three Test matches by an innings on the trot against India at Lucknow (by an innings and 119 runs), Bangalore (by an innings and 95 runs) and Ahmedabad (by an innings and 17 runs) with leg spinner Anil Kumble (18 wickets in two games) and slow left armer Venkatapathy Raju (11 wickets in one game) bamboozling the Lankan batsmen. The debacle happened just two years prior to Sri Lanka winning the Cricket World Cup.
In the aftermath, there was a one-man commission headed by S. Skandakumar. What were the findings of that commission? Was there a spat between the players and the manager? Did a section of the players deliberately under perform? Had they under performed deliberately wasn’t that tantamount to some kind of match fixing -- a punishable offence?
Then there were reports that the Indian bookies had approached former cricketers – Sanath Jayasuriya, Roshan Mahanama and Asanka Gurusinha. They trio reported the matter to the then Cricket Board chief Tyronne Fernando. At this juncture one may also ask, “Were they the only cricketers who were approached by the Indian bookies?” There were better playmakers in the side, then why only a bunch of juniors? Moreover, Sri Lanka also participated at the Sharjah cricket carnival, where things ended up in a sour soup with the venue being black listed for tournaments. Didn’t anything happen there?
Well Ranatunga says that he is ready to reveal everything in the near future.
We also take this opportunity to ask Ranatunga some other pertinent questions. If he is going to reveal some happenings that occurred in the 92-94 era, we must remind him that he was the captain or one of the most senior members of the side during this period. Then if anything underhand was going on he must have been aware of it. Why did he refrain from flooring the culprits at that juncture? He kept playing with these same cricketers and led the Sri Lankan side to win the Cricket World Cup in 1996. By chance if some of these cricketers were really in tow with the Indian bookies does it mean that the most cherished cricketing crown in Sri Lanka –1996 Cricket World Cup -- also had a slant?
As a responsible captain who did not condone malpractice, Ranatunga should have brought these anomalies to the notice of the authorities before the World Cup. Then even if he had lost the tournament his conscience would have been clear.
Then on January 1 2008, Ranatunga was handed over the reins of Sri Lankan Cricket for eleven long months. Then Mr. clean of national cricket, as Ranatunga claims to be, should have and could have brought these culprits to light and cleaned up the Augean Stables. But, he was more engaged in getting rid of the cricket manager who crossed his path in 1994 and some other cricketers who stood on his foot along the way. The treatment mooted to his own captain at one juncture Duleep Mendis during his tenure was bad. Had Duleep jumped the rails as he alleges, he should have brought him to book. Well, he had the reins.
Had he taken those stern steps at that juncture, no one would have been able to touch him as he had done the right thing. Yet the story had a different ending.
Ranatunga was subsequently removed from the position of Chairman of the Interim Committee, by the then sports minister Gamini Lokuge.
Then the former national skipper fell out of grace with his political superiors and left the government in a huff. Now in the opposition, Ranatunga is loosing attention and a gimmick of this nature would bring back the limelight he needs – good or bad. For a man in the wilderness publicity of any kind is always welcome.
The same goes to Tillekeratne whose story goes on the same lines as that of Ranatunga. He too was a member of the Sri Lanka team from 1986 and by 1992 and was a recognised and dependable regular. Still as a responsible member of the Sri Lankan Cricketing community, Tillekeratne too could have revealed the names ten years back. He too had a run with the cricket administration at one juncture. Why wait till now? Why wait till the CID began to grill him? Still -- has he got the real evidence to hang the culprits?
Both Ranatunga and Tillekeratne are cricketers who found solace in political careers once they lost the cricketing clout. Still they well knew the ICC’s methodology. No cricketer -- from Hanse Cronje to Ajay Jadeja -- could get through the ICC’s hawk eye. If they had loved the game and the progress of it as they claim, they could have revealed the names to the authorities with the details of what they knew and the ICC would have done the rest.
What is the use of bellowing out the names to the public, because they cannot do any thing about it? So we now feel the sports minister has taken the right steps. He has handed the case over to the Criminal Investigations Department. Now even ICC’s anti-corruption chief Lord Condon could have access to these cricketers once the investigations begin.
From the start that should have been the stance as you played and wore the national crest together. You rejoiced the victories together. Yet if you did not like what was going around, there was and is a system and the system works without fear or favour.
What you shouldn’t have done was to blow the whistle for cheap political gain.
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