International cricket stadium project –will sanity prevail?

The issue of whether parliamentary elections could be held any time soon in view of the public health situation has been engaging the attention of the public for the past few weeks.

The focus has now shifted to the Supreme Court with several Petitioners invoking the jurisdiction of the highest court in a bid to avert the looming Constitutional crisis that the country is likely to face. With the National Election Commission informing the Supreme Court that it will require a period ranging from nine to 11 weeks from the date the health authorities give the country a clean bill of health, to prepare for Elections, Sri Lanka is now faced with the possibility of being without a legislature for a minimum of at least six months. That may well be the case unless the President rescinds his proclamation of March 2, 2020 dissolving Parliament , or in the alternative the Supreme Court holds the proclamation null and void.

With the ball now well and truly in the court of the health authorities it is likely that they would prefer to err on the side of caution and be slow to give the green light for a parliamentary election, which can put many lives at risk. Sri Lanka may therefore have to resign herself to being governed only by executive fiat at least for the foreseeable future.

While these critical matters are engaging the attention of the highest judicial tribunal, comes the news of plans to build an international cricket stadium in Homagama, at the cost of 40 million US dollars with a capacity of 40,000 spectators. The move has come to light at a time when the country is grappling with an economic crisis and the Government is directing its attention to keeping the wheels of the economy moving.

With this in mind the Government is seeking to even curtail non-essential imports to leave sufficient funds available for the day-to-day running of the Government. In such a context, the idea of building an international cricket stadium expending such a colossal sum of money, can only be described as obscene. World Cup winning Captain Arjuna Ranatunge has drawn attention to the fact that there are large number of people in the country struggling to get food on the table and said the first priority should be to help them.

Responding to public outrage as a result of the ill-timed proposal in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has said it will not utilise Government funds, and instead will rely on its own resources as well as ICC funding. The SLC also said the addition of such a stadium would boost the country’s bid to host future World Cup games.

The ICC Media Manager has however rebutted the claims about ICC funding and has said they are unaware of any plans on the part of SLC to build an international stadium.

The proposed international cricket stadium has also incurred the displeasure of Sri Lanka’s cricketing greats like Arjuna Ranatunge, Mahela Jayewardene and Roshan Mahanama all of whom have pointed out that the country has sufficient venues of international standard at present. They have also emphasised that at this point what is more important is to infuse funds to develop the cricket system than spend on costly projects.

Mahela Jayewardene has pointed out that at present Sri Lanka was not playing sufficient international or domestic cricket to warrant the colossal expenditure on another stadium.

The former Sri Lankan Captain has pointed out that Sri Lanka has hosted several international tournaments with the existing facilities and there was no real need to add to the venues available. Mahela Jayewardene has pointed out that the way to go would be to win a World Cup bid and thereafter build any new venues, if necessary, with ICC assistance.

SLC President Shammi Silva dismissed criticism of the stadium project by the former National cricketers. He said past cricketers did not know what was happening.

“Most of the past cricketers oare not involved with Sri Lanka Cricket administration and they don’t know what is happening. They think we are playing cricket only for 65 days a year.”

However SLC President’s views have been countered by Roshan Mahanama who has functioned as an ICC Match Referee in different parts of the World. Mahanama is reported to have said the following: “I have officiated World Cup matches the world over and only one cricket ground in New Zealand has a capacity of more than 40,000 fans. Even in other places like South Africa and England there are smaller stadiums in which World Cup games have been played. I am pretty certain the facilities we have at the moment are more than adequate, if we win a World Cup bid.”

SLC embarking on such a project at this point in time is somewhat difficult to understand in view of the “new normal” in sports being discussed the world over. The possibility of many sporting events needing to be restructured to take place in empty or half empty stadiums, at least in the near future, is an option being considered. Training methods are being tailored to suit the immediate COVID-19 pandemic health requirements that were put in place.

SLC itself has re-organised its training of cricketers in smaller groups to meet the needs of the situation. The SLC Chief Medical Officer is closely supervising these sessions to ensure they conform with current health requirements. It would therefore seem that it is premature, at the least, to consider projects like a large International cricket stadium at this point of time.

The saving grace in this unfortunate drama is that there seems to be growing consensus across the political divide with regard to the inadvisability of what, in the current context, is another vanity project that is insensitive to the difficult circumstances the country faces.

Former Government parliamentarians Wimal Weerawansa, Udaya Gammanapila and Namal Rajapakse and former Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, together with Arjuna Ranatunge, have all questioned the purpose of embarking on such a project at this point of time.

Gammanpila, who together with Weerawansa, had said the project would be funded by the ICC, later apologised saying he had been so informed by Minister Bandula Gunawardena.

“I unconditionally apologise for saying the proposed cricket ground would be financed by a grant from ICC having relied on the information given by Minister Bandula Gunawardena,” Gammanpila said in a tweet, while Weerawansa had said there were other priorities the Government should look into.

Minister Gunawardena and the local cricketing body had earlier said the country’s largest cricket stadium will be constructed in a 26-acre state land in Diyagama, Homagama which is Minister Gunawardena’s constituency.

Namal Rajapaksa too had tweeted as follows: “Infrastructure development is vital for any sport but this should not have been a priority at a time like this.”

Former Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa pointed out that a Government should not embark on such plans at a time when the country is facing a national emergency. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has now promised to consult senior cricketers before deciding on whether to give the go ahead for the project. If the current state of play is any indication it is unlikely the international cricket stadium project will get the green light, at present.