In the land of the crooked

It was just the other day while indulging in a rather serious chat about the state of affairs in present day cricket one person present suggested that the Samantha Algama saga could be termed as “Algate” and the perpetrator of the issue could be called the “Algator”. I was not only amused by the cleaver coining of a situation, but I decided that it also could be my catch line in my little conversation with you this week.

Leave the lighter side of the situation alone, when you seriously start ascertaining the ground situation can you be satisfied? From one end the national cricketers are taking a beating and have fallen in grace and at present are languishing almost in the seventh position only in front of the West Indies (to whom we lost a ODI series in our last outing) along with, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Kenya. In Test cricket Sri Lanka is two positions above their ODI rankings and are at the fifth position.

With this mind what we as cricket enthusiasts see as the need of the hour is to find remedial action against the present predicament. But, sadly when one sees what is really happening, one wonders is it Sri Lanka cricket or some dictator sponsored occurrences in a fancy sport in a far off banana republic.

The insiders in cricket really know that one of the main reasons for the fall of the short tenure of the Ana Punchihewa regime was none other than the post of Chief Executive Officer. A certain party wanted some one planted but the cricket hierarchy decided to appoint gentlemen cricketer Anura Tennekoon to that position.

A while later with another change of management Tennekoon was relieved of his position and it was handed over to Arjuna Ranatunga’s brother Dhammika Ranatunga. Then Dhammika Ranatunga-Thilanga Sumathipala association thrived for awhile until the lucrative TV offers came Sri Lanka’s way. At this juncture it is reported that it may have been a TV deal that created the initial rift between the Sumathipala- Ranatunga clan.

Once the then Sri Lanka cricket board chief executive, Dhammika Ranatunga, was quoted by ‘The Hindu’ as saying that Sony had agreed to pay $7.75 million (roughly Rs 350 million) for an 18-month period for television rights to games in the Emerald Island.

However history shows that a deal for $ 27 million was signed between Thilanga Sumathipala for Sri Lanka Cricket and Harish Thiwani for Nimbus on 3rd December of 2000.

However the undercurrents worked and just before the turn of the millennium a new dimension was added and they called it Cricket Interim Committee. With this development Thilanga Sumathipala was out as President of the BCCSL and veteran Banker Rienzi Wijetilleke was put in charge of cricket in Sri Lanka. However Thilanga was back in the pedestal a year later only to be ousted by another IC headed by former Royal College cricketer Vijaya Malalasekera. Malalasekera’s appointment in the year 2001 saw the end of the Nimbus TV deal that was to run till the end of the year 2003.

However this move proved very costly for SLC (As the BCCSL was being called by this time) as they ended up paying a compensation of Rs 550 million for the beleaguered company. The next elected President of SLC was Mohan de Silva another member of the Sumathipala camp and he this time entered into an agreement with Taj TV for a sum of Rs. 52 million on 17th December 2004 and the deal was to run from January 1, 2005 to December 31st 2008. In the midst of the agreement there were some series that did not take place and on 4th October 2007 the then SLC-IC President Jayantha Dharmadasa and CEO Duleep Mendis were the signatories of an agendum that saw the deal being extended from 2008 to 2012 on a renegotiated deal. Now we see there are complaints that the said deal was crooked and it is put on hold.

It also must be stated that those who were elected came in through some kind of consensus and the others who were placed on the pedestal as the Interim Committee Chairman were gifted and were proven administrators, though none had played Test Cricket like the incumbent Chairman Arjuna Ranatunga.Since getting out if the boundary lines where he shone as a brilliant cricketer Arjuna Ranatunga aspired to be an administrator and may be it was an indicator when he polled less then ten votes out of an approximately possible 121 votes in his first attempt to the hot seat.

He then became a well accepted critique of the system and always was of the opinion that the prevalent voting system does not work in this country as a result of a certain cricket mafia that has eaten into the system. Certain section of the people was of the same opinion and thus they backed Ranatunga in his fight towards justice in the cricket kingdom. However finally when a twist of fate (if you can call if) that is not related to cricket at all made Ranatunga’s lust for the throne real, still some believed in him. Once taking over the hot seat he met the press and spelt out a programme that was based on honesty and transparency. He said that he intended having a complete audit (an audit he did launch, but the outcome is still not known after four months). A pres conference once a month to keep the fourth estate informed of the latest development within the hallowed halls if the cricketing citadel.

Then he launched a series of discussions with cricketers of all dimensions to draw ways getting their input towards the development of the game and four months ago Lankan cricket was full of hope. Ironically within weeks the walls of the citadel began to crack. First it was a statement on empty coffers and a reply to that and the gagging and the sidelining of the secretary of the SLC Interim Committee.

Then started the hunt down on the committees and the ad-hoc appointments which are still to be ratified by the interim committee. So much so a list of new appointments were not given at least six members of the Interim Committee which includes a senior most cricketer of the country, the secretary of the SLC--IC, The CEO SLC and a few others. Interestingly the name Rajan Udeshi of Sony appears in the list of the Tour Organising Committee list. At the same time there are reports of a Dubai based TV Company – ‘ARY ‘Digital’ who has connections with two very senior past cricketers are also perched on top of the canyon waiting for the opportunity to swoop down.

It also says that another very senior cricketer who has many firsts against his name has been sidelined and a junior cricketer has been put over to look after a very significant sector of the game. In short for the past four months in spite of splitting cricket on the whole nothing progressive has been done towards it. On top this there comes the ‘Algate’. Right besides it is another committee appointed that reminds us of that proverbial Sinhala saying. “Horage Ammagen Pena Ahanawa”.

If things continue in this manner ---- “God save Sri Lanka cricket”. However they say ‘In the land of the crooked even the angels are born with crooked wings’.