A can of worms has been opened following the Sri Lanka cricket team’s ouster from the T20 World Cup with a revelation that what is being touted as the nation’s top sporting passion has not being able to progress 40 miles north of Colombo while its keepers race about in the latest model cars.
In the aftermath of the team’s early exit from one of its worst showings at a World Cup in recent years, the lid has now been blown open by none other than the beleaguered Sports Minister Harin Fernando with Parliament on yet another occasion becoming the centre of intense debate for a clean-up.
Cornered for answers and accused of mollycoddling corrupt cricket officials, Minister Fernando went where no one had gone before and threw the brickbats that cricket had definitely become the private property of a politically pampered few to do as they please while promotion of the sport was literally confined to the air-conditioned boardrooms of Sri Lanka Cricket in Colombo.
This time pleading for the support of the Opposition, Fernando lashed out in his maverick style unable to back away from how cricket has been administered in the island.
“We are a nation of 22 million people but cricket is only played in a radius of just four million people. There is no cricket even in Chilaw (40 miles out of Colombo). There is a school there Joseph Vaz Wennappuwa but without a ground.
“There is no cricket in Ampara, Batticaloa, the Wanni (Mannar, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya). There is no cricketer from Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa in the (Sri Lanka) team”, lashed out Minister Fernando as he faced questions from the Opposition.
For the first time he did what his predecessor Roshan Ranasinghe had declared and made no secret of the fact that Sri Lanka had become a sporting paradise not with its sportsmen and women winning trophies and medals but where can be found leeching public officials basking in financial glory.
“Not just in cricket. All these sports associations are up to a game where they want to remain in position forever,” said Fernando as he called for the implementation of what has been documented in a Recommendation called the KT Chitrasiri Committee Report compiled by the retired Supreme Court judge after extensive study of the causes of corruption and malpractices in cricket administration.
The Report or Recommendation calls for a complete overhaul of Sri Lanka Cricket’s administration that will, among other aspects, have ex-players of repute calling the shots and vote-buying a thing of the past.
