Lalin’s Column: Sanga –Brilliant strokes and some referrals

A great Sri Lankan is Kumar Sangakkara . At a time when SL was being ground into the dust in England (and not only at cricket) he mesmerised the lords and ladies of the MCC with his oratory. He received a standing ovation.

He is also from Trinity that gave this country its first Olympic Silver Medallist (Duncan White- in the 440 yards hurdles, London Olympics (1948), Lakshman Kadirigamar, its best known Foreign Minister, Jayantha Dhanapala (Ambassador and former UN under Secretary, SML ‘Ahmed’ Marrikar Civil Servant, diplomat and Permanent Secretary to the President of SL and Lt Gen Denzil Kobbekaduwa amongst many others. They were all held in high esteem for their courageous, selfless and exemplary contribution to the country. That they all came from the ‘Best school of all’ is not a coincidence. That they came from Kandy, SL’s historic, enduring and lovely city is only to be expected.

People of all sorts have since sought to make use of Sanga’s brilliant speech at Lords to draw parallels to satisfy their private agendas. One man, afflicted by some mental aberration, wanted the utterly corrupt SLC to submit a report, not on its shameless, reckless, cancerous and sickening corruption, but Sanga’s speech. Saner and more powerful voices shackled him.

Some things may however have escaped Sanga even as his oratory was supremely persuasive. Would his speech have resonated more at the MCC if he had made it known that Colin Cowdrey had actually visited Trinity in the late 1950s. He was a guest of Norman Walter Trinity’s principal who had been Cowdrey’s school teacher in England.

However there are some ‘referrals’ too. When Sanga refers to Anglican schools as ‘elitist’ he may have meant in the early days of the Raj but surely not in the last 60 years – which is a life time. Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim schools will not concede this any more. Getting into them and not only in Colombo, was and remains no mean feat. When he mentioned ‘elitist’ Christian schools he appears to have cast a Nelsonian eye at the Catholic schools. Thus when he says there were no ‘elitist’ schools players in the 1996 WC winning team (unlike the 2010 team that lost in the finals) he appears to have over looked SL’s leading Catholic school St Joseph’s (Chaminda Vaz) as well as St Anthony’s (Murali) and not forgetting ‘little Kalu’ from St Sebastian’s. These schools especially the first two are no push overs, not only in cricket but all round.

He bowled a huge wide too when he corralled Royal College with the Christian schools in his eagerness to show the strength and reach of the so called ‘elitists’.

Royal was and is a non denominational school. Yet if ever there was to be an ‘elitist’ school under the Raj and in the Republic later, it was Royal College’ with hearts as sound as oak’. Today there is Ananda Collage amongst others to contend with too, even if the label ‘elitist’ is not used if not farfetched. Just as no one, rarely if ever, talks of caste now.

Some clubs but only in Colombo were ‘communal’ by name then as now. But they were and are not so in practice as may have been believed by those listening to Sanga’s speech. Clubs outside Colombo (and they far outnumbered those in Colombo) were known by the name of the town and never by community. All native clubs were open to all Ceylonese. In Colombo at that time there were however exclusive ‘racist’ (CCC, CSC, CH& FC) as opposed to ‘communal’ clubs.

‘Even the ranks of Tuscany could scarce forbear to cheer’ (Macaulay)

This was somehow missed by Sanga at Lords. They were all prefixed 'Colombo' as though the Raj had given them a copy right to the name of the capital city. Due to this and possibly to the lack of imagination or even as a deliberate choice, the ‘communal’ names were unfortunately chosen in Colombo by founders of some cricket clubs. NCC, Bloomfield, Saracens and Colts were the latter day cricket club exceptions.

The Brits love good humour especially when it is at one’s own expense. Tracing the evolution of cricket in SL the crack about ‘sarong Johnnies’ are not being tolerated in a Colombo club went down uproariously with the ‘flannelled fools’ of the MCC. Thoughts of Gandhi and the ‘naked fakir’ no doubt added to the rollicking merriment at Lords. However there is no record of anyone saying so in the ‘communal’ club that may be erroneously identified by Sanga’s remark.

Polonowita and Premasiri, famous spin twins if not Ranatunge would vouch for it. Sanga would probably have been made to believe this by a man with a problem with his shoulder.

The inclusion of Sathasivam in Sanga’s speech may have been for valid reasons. Unfortunately Sathasivam also gained sensational notoriety when his wife was murdered. The Colombo ‘elitists’ came to his rescue. SL and the spirit of cricket could have done better without.

Still it was a magnificent speech.

It’s now up to Sanga to lead the way to do something Herculean about the stinking corruption in SLC before SLC uses the heavy roller. His task will be complicated as he should be mindful that Tillekeratne who had not uttered a word for 20 years woke up suddenly in 2011 and said some SL cricketers had dealings with bookies during the same period. Ingeniously if not cunningly no one was named. That sadly makes everyone bar none who played cricket for SL over the past 2 decades, suspect.

Maybe the fans after years of media exposes on SLC’s corruption have now to show their disapproval of the stink that is SLC in a meaningful way. They should demand that the rouges in the SLC be charged in the courts with fraud. If that does not happen, the fans should boycott the Australian series. It would be a powerful, effective and revolutionary alternative. Tillekeratne, who is also a politician if not a canary, should be treated the same if he does not have the guts to name and shame.

Associating with corrupt organizations whether it is cricket or anything else only makes the corrupt more immune, powerful, stubborn and intransigent. They are sure that the long suffering fans would rather allow SLC to go on being corrupt than miss seeing their cricketers in action if only against foreigners. In that case will the players do the unbelievable and boycott SLC?

A Minister has thrown down the gauntlet. He has said that as the players make millions because of SLC, they should not criticise corruption or anything else wrong with SLC and simply get on with playing cricket. He has inadvertently confirmed that SLC is corrupt and that nothing would be done about it. Were Sanga’s efforts wasted?

Who then will lead the charge? Will it be the cricketers who play for the fans or the fans who idolise the cricketers? Or will it be back to the same old sorry story?

- Asian Tribune -