It was a very disturbing factor. While working through last week’s rendition of the musing I just kept thinking how insensitive people can get, may be for personal agendas. Obviously school cricket is a sensitive subject. This is a subject where we speak and work on young children to mould them for the future.
The issue at hand has two serious implications. The first, if you are dabbling with a young mind and mishandling the issue or working outside the accepted norms, the little mind also could pick it up and keep that for future reference even unwittingly. The second is that school cricket is the definite nursery for the national grid and incidents of this nature may work just the same way on a latter date on a different issue and scale may be.
A tree needs its roots to stand up and a building, however huge, needs a foundation – a common factor to both these examples are that the two things that we have spoken about stand tall but the actual moulding lies under the surface unseen. In the same manner the children who grow up to see the real world as men and cricketers are initially carved out by teachers whom the children believe in.
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| An inter-school match in progress. Now a school plays 22-25 matches per season. |
There was a time in the past, where a school match between two famous schools was highly patronized. For instance a match between Ananda and Royal at Campbell Place meant it was not only the schoolboys from the respective schools who would throng the venue to witness the game. A cross section of the Colombo general populace would also gather and get involved with the game. They knew the performances of each individual prospective cricketer who used to walk into the middle or even the bowlers and how each individual was expected to perform whether he was a fast bowler or a spinner. Royal’s legendary gram seller -- ‘Kadale’ was one such character.
Yet each school played 8-12 matches and the oppositions that they took on were balanced. More importantly the matches were arranged by the respective Prefects of Games (POGs) or the masters-in-charge and no other outside institution like the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA) got involved.
In the late 1980s with Pure Beverages Company launching the Coca-Cola Schools Limited Overs cricket tournament the school cricket pendulum began to swing faster. After a few versions of the tournament which was run entirely by the company, with the SLSCA playing a limited role, the school cricket machinery took over the steering wheel and began to drive towards its destiny.
What occurred at this juncture was like a drive to the unknown. Gradually the SLSCA began to tighten its grip on school cricket. Territorially, the game expanded and the numbers taking to the game also grew rapidly. Even now the tree is growing. Last week Sri Lanka Cricket’s School Cricket Development Manager Carlton Bernadus said, “You begin a sponsorship for a project with 300 cricket playing schools; you find 600 schools which have taken to the game by the next year”.
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SLC also provides assistance to schools. But, some of the
teachers are a law on to themselves. |
Then the programme itself goes into shudders under sheer pressure of the numbers and the project itself becomes unfeasible because the money at hand becomes insufficient for the project. Bernadus thus feels that even the growth of the numbers taking to the game should be managed in a sustainable manner. Then if it is done in such a manner even the sponsorship monies could be utilized in a meaningful way.
As we have said before, there was a gap between the growth of the school cricket and the planned growth. The number of children taking to the game increased, but did they get the right moulding is still a huge question. Though arguable, even the average Sri Lankan is sports-oriented and talented. It may be one of the reasons that Sri Lanka, though a tiny island in comparison, has produced a World Cup Winning cricket combination – a feat that even the Englishmen who thus invented the game have failed so far -- and an athlete in the calibre of Susanthika Jayasinghe who won an Olympic ‘Silver’ against all odds.
The talent is such that even the children who are new to the game have made an impression. Often one learns about Shaminda Eranga, Nuwan Pradeep Fernando and a load more coming to the level of national recognition. But, ironically unlike the brethren from more established schools these cricketers may not have the right basics imbedded into them in their younger days. The result is they do not know the art of sustenance.
Speaking of sustenance, playing almost seven months of hectic cricket from October to mid-March the next year also has a huge impact on a youngster’s anatomy and mind. Player burnout is common place and in addition most of the cricketers have to neglect their studies if they are keen on playing serious school cricket. This is another catch-22 situation that the entire gamut of education authorities must delve into. Mind you after the under 19 season, the under 17 season begins and most of the Under 19 cricketers get involved in it. This season goes on from May to September.
Another interesting factor is the new breed of professional coaches in school cricket today. Yes, this is another avenue that cricketers who do not hit the real top can fall back to. Once leaving their alma mater they hit the road and they have to make a living out of the only skill that they learned while in school. Yet, the disturbing point comes when the coach brings in the norm of ‘winning at all cost’ to his curriculum.
At this point, the coach may overlook a bent arm, encourage loose strokes or even prepare unrealistic wickets for school matches if that ploy helps him to win the game. At the end of the day they are responsible for the schools’ fortunes so the ‘plus vs minus’ sheet at the end of the season is very important. So to attain that goal they may jump over his neighbour’s fence for a little steel.
Next comes the real subject matter in our little discussion. The master-in-charge (MIC) of cricket is the main driving force to most of the up and coming schools. In a well-established school where cricket is a tradition there may be several teachers who would strive to get that post for more reasons than one. But, definitely it is a feather in their cap. However, in a periphery school where cricket has to be played at all costs is a cross of burden. It is the teacher who has to make it happen. If not the children will be ignorant and deprived. Then in the midst if there is a Shaminda Eranga who loses out, it is a national tragedy.
Most of the teachers get into the subject matter initially through the true love for the game and to fulfill their inner desires of living out of the box. Yet, once joining the band wagon they see a different world – planes, big cities and tinsel towns with the extra dollar packed in their bootie. This is where things go wrong. This is where hoodwinking donors come in and show the teachers bright pictures to fulfill their agendas. This is the malady that has to be looked into. This is the place that the inner desire turns into hard cash and overseas trips. Then the cookie crumbles. |
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