5th Column

Cricket, politics are much alike for different reasons
My dear Murali,
I thought I must write to you because you have again become the victim of some little known cricketer-turned-match referee's ignorance and your career once again hangs in the balance.

I know this is a weekend when most people will forget about cricket and will be analysing our latest election results over and over again. But then again Murali, you must know by now that there are quite a few similarities between cricket and politics, especially in our country…

For instance, Murali, it is no secret that the media start circulating stories about your action whenever England or Australia play Sri Lanka. This then builds up to a propaganda campaign against you and then some umpire or match referee does the needful. The moral of the story is repeat a lie often enough and it begins to sound like the truth and you only have to look at the way the state media acted recently to realise how alike cricket and politics are…

In cricket, the umpires' word is supposed to be law but that is hardly how it is these days, because the players simply do as they like trading insults while the umpires and match referees look on helplessly. Reminds you of political talk shows on television, doesn't it?

And in politics, like in cricket, you can get away with almost anything and then return to the fold to be hailed as a hero like Shane Warne did after being caught taking drugs, his only punishment being a one year ban. Sounds rather like the General from Kandy being banned from this election after he cheated and I am sure he will be back soon and will no doubt be hailed as a hero when he returns!

And then we all know what the latest trend in cricket is if you want to win matches-get a Sri Lankan born coach who lives overseas. And that is precisely what Satellite did for this tournament, getting down Somawansa from England although he didn't exactly win the World Cup for her…

If you still have any doubts how similar the games of politics and cricket are Murali, you only have to think of match-fixing where the results are altered when money changes hands. I am sure this aspect of cricket was developed by someone who studied Sri Lankan politics but I am not an expert and if you do want any advice on this you should really ask Thilanga because he has a good knowledge of both games although he has not been playing well recently…

So Murali, you should take heart and just keep on playing the game no matter what obstacles come your way. After all, you have done more to make us think as one country than all these alliances put together and you will have all our support, perhaps even Prabha's and Karuna's-and that is something no political party can boast of these days!

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS-Spare a thought for Hashan too. Just when I thought he would make a great politician because he put on a brave face and carried on despite performing poorly in all aspects he has done the one thing a politician would never do-he has resigned. Poor chap, he couldn't claim that he was sworn in secretly and asked for one more year, could he?

Back to Columns