Hosannas for custodians, Jackal anthems for cricketers

By. Callistus Davy

Feb.26 (Mirror Sports) - One of Sri Lanka’s most famous and adored sons, Muttiah Muralidaran the world’s most iconic bowler of 800 Test scalps once told a journalist that he would be able to muster enough votes to enter Parliament, but none would vote him to enter the administration of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), the so-called custodian of the sport. 

To millions in the country Muralidaran does not have to buy votes, which is the name of the game, or lick behind political patronage to care for a team he took to more people and places and showcased to the world with his exploits. 

Today while disgruntled cricket followers in the country chant Muralidaran’s name in a way they did not even as a player, his successors on the field receive jeers and brickbats for losing while their so-called keepers or custodians at Sri Lanka Cricket savour the best of comforts and continue to be mollycoddled through political patronage. 

The irony is that politicians who pontificated on clean governance and accountability are doing the opposite for reasons best known to them. 

The outcome is that present day players have to bite the bullet amid jackal anthems each time they lose a series or fail to qualify while their masters seated in the comforts of VIP rooms don’t give a damn.

Today cricket followers as young as ten years are naming cricket officials at SLC and calling for their ouster. But nothing can be expected to change and the bandwagon looks set to continue in a set-up that is even immune to Parliament calls for change as it happened in 2023 and now forgotten in the Republic of Amnesia. 

Two Probe Reports submitted by retired Supreme Court judges and another by a Cabinet Sub Committee headed by eminent legal expert and former Minister Ali Sabry calling for a drastic and complete overhaul at SLC with specific recommendations, are in the where-are-they-now files. 

Secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket Mohan de Silva, for goodness sake, blew it open inside-out when he resigned honourably keeping with his God-given conscience while others carry on in a place where contract offerings and office-positions are unlike anywhere else to let go. 

Sri Lanka must be the only place in the world where a cricket team by winning shields its coloured bosses from public outrage and then absorb the wrath on behalf of their comfortably placed keepers who face limited or no media scrutiny.

In the must-win game against New Zealand on Wednesday the mindset of the players at the crease was completely missing, an obvious reference to an administration in need of overhaul. 

Team captain Dasun Shanaka must be the biggest fall-guy in the country as things went wrong on yet another occasion in the long litany of public woes as he revealed some insights, one concerning injured players selected to play. 

His revelation is just the tip of the iceberg. Officials, coaches, managers and team selectors all ink and link together for survival while the common folks who are the paying cheerleaders for the players vent their anger when the team loses but return with high hopes only to see the same old game continue.