Waiting for low intensity sports Godot SUNDAY MUSINGS

Thereafter Arjuna Ranatunga as the Chairman of the SLC Interim Committee faced a similar fate when some players concerned about their IPL contracts complained to the President and scuttled the England tour which Ranatunga was promoting. Then the most recent is a few sports stars having to act the goat on the political platform, for services rendered. The reason the players saw a benevolent man who would heed to their grievances while at the top there was this shrewd politician who saw far beyond the horizon when it came to opportunities at one point of the day.

Now we feel good of having a sports minister with low intensity. We feel the sports minister should keep away from the inner rooms of the sports administrations and let the sports people work out their destiny.

Maybe he could maintain a high profile team – true to its sense – to advise him on certain aspects of governance, but at large he should keep politics within the precincts of the Reid Avenue compound.

But even at low intensity can the sports minister do that? Right now it is a cauldron full of poses. The minister in his possession has the famous or infamous Sports Law which puts him right in the middle of the proceedings of any given sport.

Hypothetically we could argue Mr. X – the good honest politician is placed as the low intensity Sports Minister. Yet, like you and me he is not an authority of a given sport leave alone all. However, it is he who appoints all selectors. Say it is a Table Tennis team, the selectors do the selecting, but the team cannot proceed without the stamp of approval of the Sports Minister. Yet, the minister’s knowledge of Table Tennis is as good as my knowledge of French.

Yet, in recent times I have seen the sports minister being as competent as I mentioned above making changes in certain sports teams, appointing hacked nobodies as interim committee chairmen.

This is the exact culture that we seek to change. First the Sports Law should be done away with. It gives a nobody too many powers on a subject that he has not mastered. The Sports Minister could seek and act upon the advice that is given to him by a competent committee that comprises experts and not mere favourseeking middlemen who know even less than the minister himself.

Any minister coming in and looking through the glass will know there is not a single sport in Sri Lanka which is in the upward trend. This has come to this position as a result of politicians trying to play a game they can’t and sports is trying to shelter them under a political parasol which has no cover.

PS: Just imagine a government with the former World Cup winning cricket captain looking after the ships and ports and the rest are still running blind looking for someone to bat next in this crucial big match.