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If ever I am invited to build a state-of-the-art modern building I always would have to gracefully decline the offer because I am well aware of the limits of my capabilities and how far I could carry my ego and my drive. At the same time I am also aware that if I undertake such a task under any given circumstances I would be running the risk of triggering off a huge catastrophe that finally would be far beyond my control to stop.
Sometimes I wonder whether most of the people who are invited to sit on public chairs ever take a step back and analyse the circumstances against their capabilities and own good judgement before giving their consent to take it up. At the same time do the persons who so large heartedly decide to hand over these positions even for a moment analyze the repercussions of their actions and what the long term effects of those actions would be.
It was only last week we discussed the gross violation of the usage of the word interim by the politicians. But, now we find that it is high time that we called a-spade-a-spade.
We firmly believe that the entire populace of this country are naturally sports oriented and they do have skills that bypass the skills of people of other even lager nations around the globe.
Just to get ourselves more convinced of the above statement we say – Sri Lanka has produced the only sprint event medallist at the Olympics in the women’s 200metre event in Asia in Susanthika Jayasinghe. Sri Lanka has produced a World snooker champion in the late MJM Lafir. Last year Sri Lanka even won the World men’s Carrom Title.
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The above achievements come besides the titles and accolades that cricket have brought to Sri Lanka. Just to note down those achievements a separate log book will have to be opened for the simple reason that it is so big.
However, we would be unfair by cricket, if we forget to mention the winning of the cricket World Cup which was the culmination of a good team effort that came from either side of the boundary line. Sri Lanka who won the ICC trophy which is handed over to the cricketing minnows – proved of what they were really made of by taking the biggest plum of this sport in matter of just seventeen years.
Incidentally some of the bigger nations are still at the drawing-board stage in discussing the modalities of how to win the Cricket World Cup.
Ironically we Lankans are also very apt at gloating at what they achieved in the past and cover their head in the sand when comes to the present circumstances.
However the bitter part of this whole scenario is where are we heading with our sports in the present context and how far minister Gamini Lokuge is responsible for this status quo.
Last week-end Lankan sport plunged into a new low when a very shortsighted, hastily and stubbornly maneuvered move saw local rugby enter a new phase in its history. From this point onwards this very popular game rugby football will never be the same again.
It was the minister appointed selection committee that went deep into the pros and cons on the abilities and leadership qualities of each individual aspirant and formulated this composition to take part in the five nation series.
This is a crucial phase in Sri Lanka because if we fail in this mission Lankan Rugby Football which has a rich history of over a hundred years will be subjugated and thrown into the meadows to play with the ‘also played’.
At this point the minister with what ever the powers vested in him should not have got himself involved with the selectors’ decision as they were the professionals while he was not. I wonder whether even Indra de Silva – the chairman of the national selection committee could speak the same rugby language as the national selectors.
The only direct result that would culminate from this unwise move will be that the local rugby which is already broken into more pieces than humpty-dumpty because of its short sighted politics would now grind itself into an unrecognizable powder that would easily get blown into thin air.
Just see the present parlous state of sport in this country. Rugby now has been just pulled into the deep end of the pool with its hands tied. Cricket is suffering for the past sixteen months also as a result of politics playing precedence over sport. Swimming is in disarray, Hockey has its own pocketful of problems and so is tennis. Badminton is also knotted up in riddles and so is the athletics which is groping in the dark searching for replacements for the retired stars, because most of the others who were within the frame work have brushed themselves against the prevailing law of the land and also have got punished. Are we once again going to choose them to go overseas and become our sporting ambassadors?
Since the appointments of Jeevan Kumaratunga and Gamini Lokuge as Sports ministers of this country the sports as a whole has suffered immensely. At the same time people like Arjuna Ranatunga who do have some sporting credentials seeing the crab in the boiling water are ‘crowing’ that it would only be a matter of time for him to take over the hot seat of sports. But, once again a man with credentials along with other agendas will also not be in the healthiest situation for a cause of sports in this country.
One does not need to be a good sportsman to lead the way. The man at the helm should have a vision. The best example is the advent of Ana Punchihewa to the cricket’s hot seat in 1994. He was not a good cricketer at all. But he was a lover of the game, but his biggest plus point was that he had a vision and had enough corporate experience on how to translate that vision into real action.
His slogan of “The best cricket playing nation by the year 2000” mooted in 1995 was not just a marketing slogan. He got the best cricketing brains available in the country and got them to work towards a policy that would suit Sri Lanka cricket and got the game to move in that direction. By 1996 Sri Lanka already had won its first overseas tour match and the series and then went for the biggest of them all by winning the Cricket World Cup.
Cricketers made it real beyond the boundary lines while the administrative machine led by Ana Punchihewa manipulated it on this side of the boundary lines. Sadly for the sport, two weeks later Punchihewa was bumped off cricket by an egoistic lot and then the independent cricket turned towards politics and short sighted politicians from that point onwards.
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