The current crisis to afflict Sri Lanka Cricket is yet another milestone in the history of the mismanagement of Sri Lanka Cricket’s affairs. President Sirisena has appointed Faiszer Mustapha, a legal man and for a while now a de facto legal adviser to the Presidency, to handle the crisis.
Mr. Mustapha has openly acknowledged that he knows nought about cricket itself but then again on this paradisian isle, we do things differently. There is no rule that the Minister of Sports must be a sportsman of any sort let alone be a cricketer.
It is clear that the President too is aware of the nature of the problem, which has its roots in the Constitution of Sri Lanka Cricket. The lopsided Constitution has facilitated the appointment of office bearers at Sri Lanka Cricket, to an almost select few. Certainly it is well documented that the Administration of SLC has been in the hands of members of a few families. We have had the Dharmadasas, Sumathipala and his proxies, Ranathungas and a whole host of interim committees.
Past cricketers whose heart is still with Sri Lanka Cricket have openly refused to meet the Minister on the grounds that they want a commitment that to stop the talking and to herald real change, they must have an assurance of meaningful change. That meaningful change comes in the form of the drafting of a new SLC constitution and the amendment of the Sports Law Act to accommodate the proposed changes to that constitution. It really is not much.
The inaction thus far of the Minister of Sports, to make headway on this matter has left many of the sport’s lovers and aficionados exasperated to say the least. Sidath Wettimuny who has served on 8 interim committees since 2000 says that he is tired of talking cricket administration. By inference meaning that it was way over the time for some action. He also lamented on a live TV program that it was sad that Sri Lanka as a country had failed to make better use of the most famous of Sri Lanka’s brands: Sri Lanka Cricket in the promotion of the wider “Brand Sri Lanka”.
Coming out of a war situation in 2009 and with global expectations high that once more the beautiful pearl of the Indian Ocean would be open in full to visitors to savour explore and enjoy, it is slightly more than tragic how her legislators have paid scant attention to maximizing the benefits of promoting Sri Lanka Cricket as part of its ‘Brand Sri Lanka’ campaign.
Minister Mustapha is well known popularly for his delaying tactics – all very legally done of course, a credit to his legal training and expertise – as was evidenced in the lengthy delay in holding local government polls. The public’s ears must be still ringing with his favourite excuse at the time ‘delimitation’.
However his delaying tactics or more accurately his inability to come up with a fast start to the management crisis at SLC has seen almost nothing more than expenditure on legal fees. In the Caribbean for example SLC and the Minister could have availed themselves of the services of a Sri Lankan legal eagle whose expertise is beyond reproach and would have cost zilch. The Minister changed his mind, appointed Counsel and the costs went up.
The need of the hour is not the fighting of foregone accusations but to fix the management crisis. It is argued that had a robust management ambiance been in place the Sri Lanka team would not have stopped play for over two hours in the West Indies. That action went counter to the well-known notion that it does not matter who won or lost but how you played the game. This most fundamental sporty notion has been lost at SLC and went a long way towards painting a picture amongst global cricket fans that Sri Lanka’s national team are anything but sporting men. The best and only option would have been to lodge their protest and carry on playing, no matter what.
Several personalities who played a pivotal dynamic and pro-active role in ensuring Sri Lanka received test status all those years ago are aghast at the malaise that Sri Lanka Cricket has descended into. Some of these industrialists created plenty of opportunity years ago when the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka had almost no money to pay for international coaches to up the ante. Neither did the Board have the finances to pay players. Jobs within their organization were offered and one Chairman pointedly told these cricketers that they “may miss coming to office but not miss practices”.
In spite of the malaise these financial backers of cricket in Sri Lanka – immensely successful in the world of commerce – have not shut out cricket and their love for the game. In fact they have continued to encourage meaningful change in a variety of ways. Many such efforts have been pointedly ignored by those who have sought high office at SLC and others who have been appointed. It is clear that Sri Lanka Cricket cannot make progress when it is administered via a haze of bookmaking and charges of mismanagement and ultra vires actions.
Over the years millions of rupees has been spent on legal cases in pursuit of various allegations of usually a financial nature. In spite of the millions spent on legal fees not once has SLC been able to get a result from Court. Each time a matter is dropped and restored again by the incoming administration.
We lament the status of Sri Lanka Cricket all these painful past 18 years. 1996 is almost a hazy memory. Our pride will have to remain with the greats of yesteryear.
The greatest pity is this: that for a Minister whose performance in the political landscape has been mediocre at best, a real opportunity has arisen for him to make a real and lasting mark in the history of this country. No one will ever remember Faiszer Mustapha for any ‘political’ good – for his record on the local government issue has been widely found to be unsustainable (his new rules meant that local councilors now number over 8,000) and he is now almost a laughing stock.
The need is clearly not for any stop gap or interim committee but for a Reform Committee charged with making the necessary changes.
In the event Mr. Mustapha sees the wood for the trees and amends the SLC constitution and backs it up with the necessary amendments to the Sports Law, Mustapha will carve out for himself an unassailable and lasting niche in the contemporary history of cricket in Sri Lanka.
Imran Khan’s 22-year journey in politics has seen him traverse from international cricket star to much loved playboy to the Prime Minister of Pakistan. We take our mind off Sri Lanka Cricket to salute his tenacity, his perseverance and above all, his leadership skills. Let’s hear it for Imran Khan!
