I am back!!!
Bhanuka Rajapaksa probably lost a huge portion of his hard earned reputation when he reversed his decision of ‘resigning’ from Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) nine days after it was initially announced. The situation would have been entirely different, had the explosive southpaw heeded to the requests of former cricketers and the public outcry no sooner he officially announced of his desire to ‘resign’ from SLC.
But on the manner he switched his stance upon a request and a private conversation with the Minister of Sports, Namal Rajapaksa, who apparently shares the same family name and has a distance family link, cricket lovers do not see the cricketer Rajapaksa in the same perspective that they used to.
There are many international cricketers who had come out of retirement. To mention a few names as a recap Kevin Pietersen of England, Shahid Afridi and Imran Khan of Pakistan, Carl Hooper and Dwayne Bravo of the West Indies, Bob Simpson of Australia and Steve Tikolo of Kenya.
Sri Lanka’s very own Sanath Jayasuriya retired from Tests in April 2006 and reversed his decision weeks later. Rajapaksa had a close association with the former national batting coach Grant Flower of Zimbabwe, who announced his retirement in 2004 and made a return in 2010.
It is unclear if Rajapaksa took any lead from this list or from the Pakistan batting legend Javed Miandad, the world’s only cricketer to come out of retirement upon a request from a political leader, the former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto.
But the credentials of these cricketers and Bhanuka Rajapaksa are unparallel. If at all, he was just beginning to build what could be a blossoming international career, though he is 30. He is far off from attaining legendary status for a political figure to intervene and influence a change of mind.
SLC, on the other hand, customarily, requests cricketers to reconsider their decision whenever they get a notice of departure. And lately, with the numbers of mushrooming franchise cricket leagues around the world, and greener pastures opening doors in first world countries, SLC too had accustomed to deal with players leaving young and earlier in their careers. Of late they (SLC) too have perhaps stopped using the word ‘reconsider’.
Does Rajapaksa have the similar status of another Thisara Perera, Isuru Udana or Upul Tharanga, who threw their towels with more cricket is left in them. Perhaps he is of another echelon, and that may have been the reason why those three mentioned cricketers were never requested to reconsider or influenced to come out of retirement.
No doubt, Rajapaksa did not get the opportunities when he deservingly should have been in the team. If that had happened timely, by now he would have built up an international career of a repute, and with that backdrop any political figure pleading him to stay, would have been accepted by anyone.
If a turnaround was apparent, Minister Rajapaksa could have instructed the SLC to summon the cricketer and convince the player. That would have been a more appropriate and more protocol oriented. But now, fingers are waiting to point at different directions with many anticipated theories, such as political influence on sports and sportspersons and so on.
But who is Rajapaksa, compared to number of other deserving cricketers who called it quits prematurely. His international career statistics — five ODIs with a tally of 89 runs and a top score of 65 and a T20I tally of 320 runs in 18 games with a best of 77 runs.
Is he a legend?, certainly no! But yes, he is an important cog in the Sri Lanka cricket mechanism. It is apparent now Rajapaksa cannot just fail with the bat, or fail the country, as his political namesakes, in which he was a different breed until January 12, 2022.
But now he has a reputation to defend, more than cricket. Welcome back, Bhanuka Rakapaksa, to the real world!