Never before in the history of Sri Lanka, has sport brought this country to a standstill and created so much of outrage so as to make all other national issues take second place as witnessed twice, once before in Parliament in late August and the second on Friday in the aftermath of the once adored cricket team losing disastrously at the current World Cup in India.
In all probability the final chapter has been written or the final innings played and the Last Post sounded for the hierarchy running cricket in the country to pack up and go. If they don’t for Heaven’s sake, the country and people have all the right on earth to cleanse and purge the sport’s once hallowed institution of corruption and shady characters calling the shots.
The first to pack up and quit should be Sri Lanka Cricket president Shammi Silva who has lost everything he had to cling to as he sank with the last straw when the team was humiliated well and truly this week. With him should go his band of merry men who have lost their moral right to rule and guide.
If a head of state in Gotabaya Rajapaksa with 6.9 million votes can be hounded out in a popular revolt, who on earth is Shammi Silva without a people’s mandate to be allowed to linger with the country’s only pride cricket cast into a garbage dump.
Mahela Jayawardena the so-called Consultant who in all probability had a big say in Sri Lanka batting second after winning the toss and allowing India to pile up a match-winning 357, if he has any semblance of quality should present his scalp on a platter and move on. If Mahela contends the toss was not his baby, he is then a puppet and no consultant and should be replaced if there is a need for a so-called consultant.
Pramodya Wickremasinghe is the other protagonist and the most elusively mysterious of the trio. In retirement from the sport, he was a Nobody who became a Somebody and caused problems for Everybody. He should be sacked and the heavyweight who cannot floor him should himself be given the knock-out blow. Wickremasinghe is nothing other than a bloke who hides from the media.
Also baffling to the media is the sound of silence of some of the retired Sri Lanka players with a high calibre reputation who have become timid on the sidelines while the common people have taken up the gauntlet against the downfall of an administration. Nothing can be worse and most dangerous in a civilized society than for thoroughbred men of integrity to remain silent in the face of calamity.
It would be better that instead of enlisting European and Australian experts to coach and groom the players they are made to call the shots not outside but inside the boardrooms of Sri Lanka Cricket offices that have become the domain of crocked and shady elements.
International cricket in Sri Lanka may belong to the ICC, but the country’s cricket team belongs to its people and not to a bunch of self-proclaimed guardians who masquerade as saviours.
