It’s do or die for our harassed heroes

The Sri Lanka cricket team left for Bangladesh in the early hours of yesterday to play in the ICC World T20 where they will be one of the favourites to lift the title. The team had a dream preparation and was on top of the world as they left for the tournament. Having spent more than a month in Bangladesh, the players are well used to the conditions of the host country and can be termed only second to the hosts themselves in terms of familiarity with the territory.

The team is beaming with confidence and on a high following the bilateral series against Bangladesh dominated by Sri Lanka and remaining unbeaten and becoming the undisputed champions in Asia Cup.

Sri Lanka have been holding the ICC's world's number one T20 ranking for quite some time and runners-up of the world tournament just two years ago, could not have asked for a better place to be in for a major tournament.

However, all that was before their habitually bungling officials, possibly backed by their political masters, decided to stamp their importance on the stars and discovered a way to hog the limelight themselves.

The officials somehow managed to pick the worst possible moment to stir up a contract controversy just as the players were gearing up to depart for the tournament and turned it into a media spectacle right in time to destroy the players' psychological equilibrium before the world's most competitive cricket tournament.

Even as we pointed out last Monday, the officials or their lavishly paid employees of whom there is no shortage at the SLC head office had to wait till the worst possible moment to iron out these contract issues.

Players are professionals, who earn their living on the field and it is natural for them to be worried when their rightful income in terms of millions of rupees is stashed away by SLC under various excuses. In addition to being deprived of their money, players have seen their reputations also being tarnished and involved in unwanted petty squabbles with unsavoury elements, when their actual job is to be performing on the world stage.

It is no doubt a harrowing experience for players, who have only been trained to combat the skills of their opponents under a strict set of rules on a level playing field, to negotiate with the wiles and guiles of unscrupulous deal makers. We can understand why the players are losing that battle. If they had the cushion provided by the players' association or had not been bound by contract clauses such as the prohibiting them to talk to media, they would certainly have put up some brave resistance.

That is why our sympathy lies with the players despite the possibility that they may actually be taking it too far and may be asking for more than they deserve.

With the players leaving for the ICC World T20 without signing contracts, the fans can hope for just one thing. The mavericks would understand the serious situation they have put themselves into. Without a contract, SLC is not legally bound to make any of the payments demanded by the players.

So, if the players return as losers without the backing of their loyal fans, they will not have any hard ground to stand on when they take on SLC in the second phase of the contract battle. But on the other hand, if they win and get the whole country behind them, they will be in the best position to knock out SLC's points and obtain all they want and even more.

So, winning is the only way out of this hole for our cricketers now and hopefully they will realise that and perform. Besides, all these troubles can only improve the unity of the players who would be determined and itching to put egg on the face of the officials who had been unfair by them. There is no power stronger than the unity of players to fuel victory in a team sport.

We can only hope that the negative factors will spur the players to conquer the world and collect their trophy at home.