Minister, act boldly instead of playing Jekyll and Hyde
At times I wonder whether I am yet again immersed reading the Mr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde episode all over again or, following the Faiszer Musthapha melodrama of “The way the cookie crumbles in Sri Lanka cricket”.
By a slight quirk of fate, quite unexpectedly, the Sri Lanka Cricket AGM was postponed in May this year, and, since then, it has been more of a melodrama of how things should not be handled, rather than a smooth sail.
Yes, right at the inception, Sports Minister Musthapha confessed he knew very little about the game of cricket, but the episode at hand had little to do with the game that is played within the confines of the boundary line. There, the task is very clear. The court order clearly spells out that the necessary changes to the Sri Lanka Cricket constitution should be effected and steps taken to hold a fresh cricket election, using the road map given. Instead, the Sports Minister and his bandwagon are running from one pot hole to another, without any destination.
Especially Minister Musthapha, it seems, has got interwoven with his political priorities over sports necessities. Any Jinadasa, Piyadasa or Sirisena knows that, both Thilanga Sumathipala and Faiszer Musthapha are political colleagues. That is the very reason he should not show any bias in this matter but, at every turn he has taken he has erred, and thus the cricket community of Sri Lanka is losing faith in the Sports Law and the system.
Bringing the Cabinet paper on the appointment of the Competent Authority for cricket was a good example. Sports Law expert Panduka Keerthinanda s ay s : "Minster Faiszer Musthapha presented a Cabinet paper in Parliament to appoint Sports Ministry Secretary Kamal Pathmasiri as the Competent Authority of Cricket. The proper procedure would have been the appointment was made in accordance with Sections 32 and 33 of the Sports Law. When a sports body gets cancelled, suspended or refused, Sections 32 and 33 clearly state that the Minister of Sport has the right to make an interim arrangement. Instead, he wanted to protect the previous committee and bypassed Sections 32 and 33, and made a special regulation under Section 41 of the Sports Law. Thereafter, he was quoting from a non- existent Subsection 44 of the Sports Law.”
This was later interpreted as a typographical error by the S p o r t s M i n i s t r y, but Keerthinanda says it may have been done to safeguard the interests of the last SLC Executive Committee, which otherwise would have lost the right to contest for elections under Sports Law Sections 32 and 33. At the same time, the hullabaloo in Parliament over the same issue, following an argument between Arjuna Ranatunga and the Sports Minister was also painted in a different colour by the unconventional media.
In the same breath, Minister Musthapha keeps talking to various cricketing factions about bringing sanity to the whole situation and what’s needed to be done. Cricket lovers are elated and say they feel the messiah has arrived but, the minister's very next moves generally thwarts all such elation, and that faction of the cricketing community is bemused once again.
While the sports minister, wittingly or unwittingly, is turning in circles with his cricket theatrics, the deposed SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala is making the rounds, as if he is the owner of the local cricket institution in Sri Lanka. At one juncture, the camera is focused on Sumathipala seated in the VIP Lounge, talking to National Cricket Coach Chandika Hathurusinghe, during a Test match in progress. Then, in the next turn, he is in full force in Dambulla, with an army of supporters, inspecting the wicket. I wonder whether it was only a show of strength?
There was an angry reaction to this from a former National cricket captain. He said, “I wonder if I walked on to the wicket while a team is preparing to play a serious international game, what would the authorities have to say? I am aware that the ICC anti- corruption sleuths are on the prowl where matches are played. A person who has no connection to the game can provide information to interested parties.
“I am sure the minister, who is the head of cricket in Sri Lanka, is aware of the situation, but I think he has either opted to ignore the issue or, is powerless to take action or stop people doing such things. Having done that, he did not stop Sumathipala’s next move of opening the can of worms, squealing about the match-fixing issue, implicating former National Captain Arjuna Ranatunga and his Deputy Aravinda de Silva.
“At one point in history, they were all great friends -- and as teammates, there are many untold stories you always prefer to keep within one's circles. These stories will live among us and die off when our final call dawns upon us. I do not think what Sumathipala did was cricket at all.”
What the minister should understand is that, by letting these issues drag on, there would be more unsavoury episodes surfacing and thus will keep harming the game. I mean, we are damaging the very pivots that our cricket glory is attached to. Once that happens, I am sure, there would not be anything that would be able to bring that shine on us again.
We now feel that the time is right. The minister is an independent observer in this whole episode and he need not take anyone’s side in this hour of crisis. There is absolutely no necessity for him to do the Mr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act. Yet, what he must remember is that cricket is one redeeming factor that we sports- lovers have in this bleak day- to- day life. Uncertainty prevails in our very government ‘ big time’, so there is no solace for the people. The cost of existence is also precarious. Yet, it would be very easy for the sports minister to put things right in cricket. It will take only one bold decision to go down in the annals of cricket as the man who really did it.