Not since the late Sri Lanka Foreign Minister
Lakshman Kadirgamar presented his off the cuff
dinner speech in the UK in the presence of the Sri
Lanka cricketers during their tour of England in 2004
has anyone come out with a speech on cricket so
stunning that it has the entire cricket world talking. Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara’s hour-
long speech delivered at the 11th edition of the MCC
Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey lecture at Lord’s last Monday
has not only brought unstinting praise for
Sangakkara as well as for his country but has shown
the world that Sri Lanka too have outstanding orators who could hold their own with the best in the
universe. The manner in which he presented his
speech brought Sangakkara a standing ovation from
the 1500 or so invited guests including Members of
MCC and eminent figures from the cricket world.
According to cricket commentator Mark Nicholas The Most Reverend Dr Desmond Tutu was the last
speaker to receive a standing ovation in 2008. At 33,
Sangakkara was the youngest person ever to deliver
the address and he was also the first Sri Lankan and
the first current international player to do so.
Inaugurated in 2001 the list of speakers include Richie Benaud, Barry Richards, Sunil Gavaskar, Clive
Lloyd, Geoff Boycott, Martin Crowe, Christopher
Martin-Jenkins, The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu,
Adam Gilchrist and Imran Khan.
Sangakkara had the choice of choosing any topic on
the sport which was vast but he decided to speak on the story of Sri Lanka’s cricket which coming from a
cricketer himself gave the outside world how and
what they think about the game and how it is run in
the country.
For years on end it has been the media who have
being spotlighting on the highs and lows of our cricketers and its cricket administration. It is thus
heartening to note that someone like Sangakkara
has decided to speak his heart out from the players’
angle.
Unlike cricketers from England and Australia and to a
lesser extent South Africa and India current players hardly want to speak on what’s going around them
and come out with a publication while they are still
actively playing the game. Sri Lanka is one country
where cricketers feel that it is anathema to come out
and express themselves and their thoughts. That is
because their contracts with the Cricket Board (Sri Lanka Cricket) bind them from making any
comments which could be adverse to the
establishment.
Sangakkara’s historic speech no doubt has ruffled a
few feathers back home especially with the Sports
Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage calling the newly appointed interim committee chief Upali
Dharmadasa to investigate and submit a report to
him.
It was a superbly crafted lecture that touched upon
important topics like future of Test cricket, spot fixing
and corruption, history of Sri Lankan cricket and its importance in the lives of an average Sri Lankan and
the way Sri Lankan cricket has been run.
As a contracted player Sangakkara should not have
delved into areas of cricket administration and how it
is run today, but the situation has got to a stage
where even the players feel that it is time to voice their opinions even if it is at the grave risk of putting
themselves in the line of fire.
Certain sections of Sangakkara’s speech simply spelt
out what is happening in the country with regard to
cricket administration which we have been writing
over the years and may have to continue to write till the cows come home. This is the first time a current
player has spoken out so strongly against the
administration. He has done so in the best interest of
the game not to promote himself as a champion or to
gain cheap publicity.
His statement, “My responsibility as a Sri Lankan cricketer is to further enrich this beautiful sport, to
add to it and enhance it and to leave a richer legacy
for other cricketers to follow. I will do that keeping
paramount in my mind my Sri Lankan identity: play
the game hard and fair and be a voice with which Sri
Lanka can speak proudly and positively to the world,” bears no malice towards anyone but it is a
voice crying out to save Sri Lanka cricket to where it
is heading.
Some of Sangakkara’s quotes speak the truth the
extracts of which we carry below:
“The team lost the buffer between itself and the cricket administration. Players had become used to
approaching members in power directly trading
favours for mutual benefits and by 1999 all these
changes in administration and player attitudes had
transformed what was a close knit unit in 1996 into a
collection of individuals with no shared vision or sense of team.
“With the victory in 1996 came money and power to
the board and players. Players from within the team
itself became involved in power games within the
board. Officials elected to power in this way in turn
manipulated player loyalty to achieve their own ends. At times board politics would spill over into the team
causing rift, ill feeling and distrust. Accountability and
transparency in administration and credibility of
conduct were lost in a mad power struggle that
would leave Sri Lankan cricket with no consistent
and clear administration. Presidents and elected executive committees would come and go;
government-picked interim committees would be
appointed and dissolved.
“After 1996 the cricket board has been controlled
and administered by a handful of well-meaning
individuals either personally or by proxy rotated in and out depending on appointment or election.
Unfortunately to consolidate and perpetuate their
power they opened the door of the administration to
partisan cronies that would lead to corruption and
wonton waste of cricket board finances and
resources. “We have to aspire to better administration. The
administration needs to adopt the same values
enshrined by the team over the years: integrity,
transparency, commitment and discipline. Unless the
administration is capable of becoming more
professional, forward-thinking and transparent then we risk alienating the common man.”
We wonder whether the Sports Minister has listened
to Sangakkara’s speech in its entirety and then
wanted an inquiry held to certain areas which in his
opinion Sangakkara should not have delved into, or
whether he is going on the basis of someone telling him only part of the speech.
As Sports Minister he has the right to call for an
inquiry, but then again he must also look at the
mirror and ask for himself whether he has any
skeletons in his cupboard before trying to question
the action of others.
Source : Sri Lanka Cricket Update
No comments:
Post a Comment