(FormerSriLankaCricketCaptain)

Ijust cannot understand what has gone wrong with Sports in Sri Lanka, especially in Cricket. We are going down in the sport badly, year by year. I see Cricket as one of the main sources of income for Sri Lanka. But, with the current bad status, I believe most countries are hesitant to play international Cricket with us, because they fear financial losses if they play against Sri Lanka. The best example is that, the South Africans have decided to cancel their series against Sri Lanka scheduled for end of this year. Officials of the NSAs are mostly concerned about their positions. They do not care about the veteran players, and dislike taking any advice from them. This is because these officials do not have any knowledge of Sports administration. Today, every Sport has become a victim of politics. Their main concern is the election campaign and not the development of the Sport. Also it is difficult for a veteran player to be elected to these NSAs. With the current situation, I see all those who are financially sound taking the top posts, while the seniors are pushed aside. I, of course, can talk only about Cricket, being a former National Cricketer. I was also involved in the former Interim Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). This is a country which has won the World Cup and the Twenty20 World Cup. But now, I see we are not strong enough to play the game. The main setback is the lack of domestic tournaments in the country, to identify talented players from the outstation. We cannot identify talented players by playing Club Cricket alone. We introduced an Inter-Provincial Tournament when I was in the Interim Committee. We included the best 60 players for this tournament. This was an ideal tournament to identify talented players. But later, the tournaments were scrapped from the calendar. The SLC should be held responsible for this. Today, we do not have playgrounds, clubs or top tournaments. We have not been able to make use of the players who repre- sented the country at the 1996 World Cup, except for Aravinda de Silva. The current administration is more keen on looking into the welfare and benefits of their immediate families. These officials create their own clubs to obtain votes when election nears. They spend more funds to try and retain their positions, rather than looking into the development of the game. Like all other Sports, Cricket too, does not have a National Plan. Other countries conduct top level tournaments like the English County matches, to identify talented players. But we do not have a proper plan of that nature. These officials are always thinking about themselves and their future. This is a common feature in every NSA.