 It was a balmy Wednesday morning in late 1982. I got on to my motorbike to check out on a piece of information that I had received the previous night.
Unlike today, it was not the information-technology era where news travels faster than light. Even a home phone was a luxury and checking out on some of the news had to be done manually.
So I travelled to Bloomfield grounds where one of the Mercantile ‘A’ division matches were supposed to be in progress and it was the second day of the three day game, but, the game could not begin. Why? Some of the players who took part in the match on the first day had taken wing to Singapore to catch a connecting flight while the final destination was South Africa which was a no go zone to the rest of the civilized world. Reason – South Africa was black listed (even on the face value) for their apartheid policies.
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| Angelo Mathews |
By September 1982, Sri Lanka had played only five tests -- the inaugural Test against England, three Tests against Pakistan and a one-off Test against India. The incident took place right after the Indian tour.
The players who took wing were Bandula Warnapura (captain – the then national cricket captain), Mahesh Goonetilleke, Lalith Kaluperuma, Ajith de Silva, Anura Ranasinghe, Flavian Aponso, Hemantha Devapriya, Lantra Fernando, Nirmal Hettiaratchchi, Susantha Karunaratne, Bernard Perera, Bandula de Silva, Jerry Woutersz and Tony Opatha (player/manager).
Out of the lot, the first five players had already worn their Test caps while the others were very serious contenders.
The rebel tour was a direct result of dressing room politics that prevailed at that time. So much so we learned later that some of the players who were on the original list did not make the trip while some other complete outsiders who had not even thought of making such a tour and might be even unaware of what was developing around them, joined the rebel band through sheer frustration and external pressure at the last moment.
Coming back to my part in the story – though I worked for an evening daily at that point of life, I got the page one lead in the morning daily the next day with my by line – a result of a good investigative story.
As a result, Sri Lankan cricket then got a new captain, a new vice captain and they had the task of rebuilding. Automatically the juniors who were already in the Test squad like Ranjan Madugalle and Arjuna Ranatunga became seniors with responsibility and they kept the ship afloat while building the game in Sri Lanka with them around it.
The Lankan cricket did not die as a result of losing a few seniors but kept growing and thus culminated in winning the cricket World Cup fourteen years later -- and leading the side was none other than Arjuna Ranatunga.
Today, there is no argument that the Lankan cricket has hit its lowest ebb since gaining Test status. The reason: Internal bungling, internal squabbling and back-stabbing taking the pride of place. Besides, political interference or persons with political clout interfering with internal cricket affairs; selection bungling owing to external pressure, and Sri Lanka Cricket losing its grip on the whole gamut of the game are also contributory factors.
Cricket is no longer the ‘wearing the national crest is my dream’ game. It has become a bottom line entity where individuals who have the ability and the luck come and stay there at the crease and hold on to their positions as long as they could. The reason: As long as they wear the national crest they keep getting the dollars. TV commercials, charity matches, public social appearances and Indian Premier league contracts keep building their bank balances more than the meagre ‘player contract fees’ and the match fees and the winnings that the local cricket authority brings in for them. The outside dollars are most of the time their main source of income (some times untraceable even for the Inland Revenue gentry) while the SLC money is the year-end bonus.
This is where the above mentioned scenario begins. Generally to reach that category one has to become a top performer. In reality only the top performers do get an extended stay at the top the cricketing rung. Yet, once you reach it – even the sky is one of the top stairs. Who then comes into this category – the seniors!
It is around the seniors that the cricket hierarchy revolves. At least the seniors feel that way. They feel without them there would not be any cricket in Sri Lanka.
Today in Sri Lankan cricket we possess national treasures like T.M. Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena, Thilan Samaraweera and Lasith Malinga. Yet, with this lot on show how much have Sri Lanka achieved since the retirement of that one individual – Muttiah Muralitharan? Muralitharan retires and the rest of the Lankan cricket dies along with the galaxy of stars.
Even with the galaxy of stars Sri Lanka cricket is failing to deliver. Why? This is the question. For instance, Malinga’s injury may be there. But, it does not look that bad when he turns out for the Mumbai Indians. Good. They give him leave to engage in his passion and drop him from the squad. At the same time, the rest of the senior gang also could be given a huge ‘thank you’ for services rendered and give them the option of being eligible for selection through the normal process if they wish to do so.
Hand over the captaincy to a non-dollar man like Angelo Mathews (He is yet too new for the dollar game) and build the rest of the colony with players with talent and players who could see eye-to-eye. Let them form the nucleus for the next coming.
However, in this commercial environment automatically they too will be hit by the dollar bug. Then down the line the authorities must get a cane out and spank them or let them go before they contaminate the rest of the brood or have systems at hand to streamline the process so that they would not face situations that they are facing with the current lot.
Yet one priority still remains open. Who is going to bell the cat? Who in the selections committee can take a decision of this nature? I bet you the present lot does not possess enough freedom even to think in those lines.
My argument is after the first jolt in cricket way back in 1982, the Lankans survived. Similarly, with a major reshuffle in the team, cricket will still sail through.
PS: Notwithstanding the sudden wake up in third Test match against Pakistan; we are discussing the general trend in Sri Lanka Cricket at present. |
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