Like everything else in a land that’s a free-for-all, the campaign to rid Society of the scourge of corruption came to an anti-climax as far as cricket was concerned in one of the most dramatic weeks of off-field action.
What will never be known to everyone living outside the walls that shield questionable characters are the pledges and deals made that has brought about a stalemate from a stand-off that engulfed the country for nearly a month.
The end result was that changes have been made but real change is yet to come for Sri Lanka’s most corruption-ridden public institution that has come to be known as Sri Lanka Cricket administered by a group of ‘untouchables’ basking in the power of influence and the might of money.
In reality what happened was something of a cease fire, return to base, hand back weapons and ammunition and pack up.
Taking the protagonists in the drama, one character will go down in history for his uncompromising bravery to fall in line with public decency while the other savouring political patronage is more likely to remain silent and hope the bat does the talking to save face.
But the nesting ground will still be fertile for some of the new rich running cricket and in a nutshell no further proof is needed that the war on corruption and the defence of decency has failed.
What cricket followers in the country will be cracking their brains to find out will be just how and why the whole episode ended the way it ended with no solution that many expected and cricket officials have more or less being given the freedom to do as they wish or bide their time hoping that the outcry for change will die a natural death like it is with most cases in the country that end up in the where-are-they-now files.
A former Sri Lanka Cricket official who quit the scene unable to be part of a set-up that was alien to him told the Sunday Observer while wishing not to be quoted: “Win or lose there is super business in cricket administration, you can own your own Island, posses your luxury yacht and even own your own jet by the time it’s time to say I am out”.
The Sunday Observer was clogged with telephone calls over the past week wanting to know if the chapter that one man set about to write was nullified.
