Your Sunday Times highlights for this week

Read this week's Sunday Times for your interesting articles

Among tomorrow's articles are:

- Lanka braces for fallout of Iran war

- Energy minister faces indictment over fertiliser tender

- RTI commission directs AG to disclose information on abduction of Lasantha’s driver

- Fisheries minister plans to visit TN after polls for talks with fisherfolk

- SLAS exclusive domain in public service dismantled in SC ruling

- Protesters in Batticaloa demand in to anti-terror laws

- Mandaitivu, worst site for Jana, stadium and sports city

- Conflicting claims compound coal crisis

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The 5th Column's full text is as follows; 

My dear Dasun and the cricket team,

I am writing to you when cricket fans are shocked with your performance at the T20 World Cup. In a tournament where all our games are being played on home soil, we have been booted out already. What has happened to the game thirty years after we won a World Cup is the talk of the town. 

I am not at all surprised. The way in which the game was being run in the country, it would be a miracle if we made it to the semi-finals. We lost three T20 games in a row to England only weeks ago. It was that win over Australia that got everyone’s hopes up, only to be brought down to earth again.  

In sixteen days, it will be thirty years since we won that World Cup won under Arjuna in Lahore. It was the best thing that happened to our cricket. I daresay that it was also the worst thing that happened to our cricket. Big money came into the game. The rot set in very quickly after that.

Sri Lanka Cricket was run by men of the calibre of Gamini, Ana, Rienzie and Sidath. It fell into the hands of dark horses of betting fame or their proxies. They call SLC, ‘Shammi’s Limited Company’ now. It was a change from the sublime to the ridiculous. Since then, the game has been on the decline.

Dasun and the team, I know there is much criticism about you now but few remember that there was a similar situation just over two years ago. That was after the 2023 World Cup. We were knocked out in the group stages, losing seven out of nine games including those against Afghanistan and Bangladesh.   

Uncle Ranil was in charge then. Everyone wanted Shammi to go, including Roshan who was Sports Minister. He brought a resolution in Parliament sacking Shammi and his officials. Anura sahodaraya, then in the opposition, strongly endorsed it too. In a rare show of unity, it was passed unanimously.

Still, Uncle Ranil sacked Roshan from the Cabinet and said what he usually says, that he will act on a report from the Chitrasiri committee appointed by Roshan. Shammi went to courts. He also ran to his Godfathers in the ICC. They suspended us. With help from his friends in the ICC, Shammi prevailed.

That report suggested a radical overhaul of how cricket is run in the country but, with the ICC supporting Shammi, it is not worth the paper it is written on now. Nothing has changed. Here we are, exiting the next World Cup disgracefully, hearing the same ‘Shammi go home’ slogans all over again.  

That is why people have said that we can change Presidents, governments or our Constitution, but we cannot change how our cricket is run. Murali was as accurate as one of his deadly off-spinners when he said some seven years ago, “magey mathey nam eka bay”. This is why people are so frustrated.

However, Dasun and the team, there is another aspect to all this. It is not all the administrators’ fault. It is also the manner in which some of you behave publicly and flaunt their hairstyles, their tattoos and their lavish lifestyles on social media. Fans wouldn’t grudge them any of that, if only they performed.

The times when the legends of the game- Arjuna, Aravinda and the others- performed, with great sacrifices for very little reward compared to what you get today are still fresh in the minds of people. So, comparison is inevitable. The feeling is that money matters to you more than a nation’s honour. 

The fans are not asking you to win every game. They only want you to perform at your best, not lose games that seem to be within your grasp at first but then slip away inexplicably. Not surprisingly, Javed from Pakistan has accused you of losing games to suit India though this hasn’t been proven.

This is why fans hooted at you. Our fans are more tolerant than those in Bangladesh and India, where cricketers’ houses are torched. We do not wish that on you, no matter what. Yet, you must realise this is what cricket means to us- the only sport in which we were world class, so a source of great pride.

Dasun, that is why your comments about having so much negativity around you and asking the government to intervene are pathetic. That negativity is of your own making. It wasn’t there when we beat Australia. Also, the government can’t control the negativity around itself, so how can it help you? 

We are waiting to see whether Anura sahodaraya, who breathed fire on Shammi and asked whether cricket was Shammi’s private property when in the opposition, will now act with all the powers at his disposal. If the ICC is an issue, surely he can speak to his friend Modi who can speak to Jay’s father? 

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS- Some say we must bring in that absolute gentleman, Roshan M, to clean up the mess. I do worry whether he will suffer the same fate as Roshan R and fail too. If we don’t though, Aravinda who won our first world cup for us will never have his dream of seeing another world cup win come true!