Rowing to make waves islandwide The anatomy reveals the rot within SLC system
As head of coaching, one man who was passionate about his vocation was Jerome Jayaratne. There was hardly a frill in his work style and he knew what he was doing. Jayaratne’s factory was the strip of land behind the Premadasa Stadium, where Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) conducts its daily training sessions. There, he used to tell me, “What we have here is what we call a centre of excellence? In most major cricketing centres in other parts of the world, there is one in every state hub or province, and they are definitely bigger and better equipped than ours”.
Last week, when we dwelled on the subject, “Why a change of the SLC constitution is warranted," I took up some points about our provincial and club structure but, it seems the effort was not sufficient. Many people wanted me to get to the core of the subject on how our cricket is structured. Is it sugar and spice and all things nice?”
First of all, Sri Lanka's domestic structure is top-heavy but, in reality, it is hollow inside. SLC describes its premier cricket as revolving round provincial cricket? But, it is as hollow as the tyre in my car and seemingly, it is running beautifully but, inside it is full of air. Definitely, they have carved out some hubs, the Southern Province, the North Central Province, the Uva Province, the Central Province and the Western Province, with some others being added lately.
The Southern Province: It has two major grounds within its territory, the Galle Cricket Stadium and the Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium in Hambantota. In reality, the Galle stadium is facing an uncertain future, for the simple reason that it is owned by the Galle Municipal Council, and wrapped by a cartload of UNESCO problems. Then, the Hambantota Stadium is not accessible and in a state of utter disrepair. Yet, neither of these centres has its provincial hub based there, the cricket exported to this area from the club system is mainly based in Colombo. A lot of school cricket is played in this vicinity, but there is hardly an influential cricket club besides the Galle CC, which plays Premier ‘ Tier B’ cricket in the major club tournament.
The North Central Province: May be it has a major cricketing centre in the Dambulla Stadium. Other than this, there is no major cricketing centre, club or school in the province. So, all cricket here has to be imported.
The Uva Province: A province run by two powerful politicians in the Government: Minister Wijith Wijayamuni Zoysa and Opposition MP Dilan Perera. Besides that, the Uva Province has no major school hub or major cricket club.
The Central Province: It has a major centre in Pallekelle and has