|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 23 May 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
The authentic patriotism of Muttiah Muralitharan SUNDAY ESSAY by Ajith Samaranayake
The apotheosis of Muttiah Muralitharan merits a chapter not merely in the cricketing annals of Sri Lanka, but also in its contemporary socio-cultural saga. Consider the facts. Here is a young man only 32 years old and still a bachelor. He has only 12 years behind him as a Test cricketer. At the age of 27 he was named one of the best five Test cricketers by Wisden, the bible of Cricket. Now, just past the threshold of his third decade in life, this young man from Kandy becomes the world's largest wicket taker and covers himself with the kind of glory which for others is merely the stuff of fantasy. Born on April 17, 1972 and educated at St. Anthony's College, Kandy, Muralitharan is very much a figure of our times. He was born an year after in the same month as the JVP-led Insurrection of 1971 which signalled the advent of a new rebellious generation of the young, who, although in a muddled way, signalled their impatience with the lethargic pace of social change in post-Independence Sri Lanka. Being a Tamil of Indian origin and coming from a fairly comfortable middle-class background, Murali was not typical of this generation excluded as he was from the pressures of stringent economic demand. In fact both as a cricketer and a young man he belongs to a special niche in the country's stratified social firmament. Although an Indian Tamil, his home background has cut him away from the straitened economic circumstances of the bulk of Tamils of Indian origin whose plight on the tea plantations in and around Kandy was so poignantly depicted by Gopalkrishna Gandhi, India's one time High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, in his much under-rated novel Refuge. 'He is the only Tamil in the national team but he is no token Tamil to be paraded in a bid to salve our collective conscience. He has been readily accepted and embraced to the national bosom by all communities in the country and has become a fitting folk hero and national icon in a country tragically flawed by a self-induced communal problem. If his ethnic and class origins separated him somewhat from the generality of the young people of his time Muralitharan was typical in the sense that he belonged to a generation which stormed the citadels and bastions of the established order. By the time he arrived on the Cricket scene, the monopoly which the old established elitist schools such as Royal, S. Thomas' and Trinity had in cricket had already been challenged. Schools such as Ananda, Nalanda and D. S. Senanayake Vidyalaya had arrived on the cricket scene. A further extension and democratisation of the game took place with the advent of cricketers such as Sanath Jayasuriya of st. Servatius College, Matara (a school not hitherto known for its Cricket), a process which continues apace with the injection of new talent from little known schools. Watching Arjuna Ranatunga's farewell match at the SSC, Pradeep Jeganathan, surely our best younger sociologist, observed that Ranatunga had done for cricket what S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike had done for Sri Lanka's politics. Just as Bandaranaike had released the larger masses into the political arena through his historic victory in 1956, Ranatunga, himself hailing from a SLFP political family, had led the democratic revolution on the field of cricket, hitherto the preserve of the privileged. The elitist hold has been irremediably broken and today young men from all backgrounds have found cricket to be a congenial sport. Some do fall by the wayside such as Harshana Roshan of Dehiwela, who had attended practices with the fast bowler Nuwan Zoysa and who says that if his economic circumstances had been a little more bright, he could have continued with a cricketing career. But there are others such as the band of three-wheeler drivers who practise at the S. de S. Jayasinghe ground in Dehiwela and who roam the suburbs of Colombo in their vehicles playing soft-ball cricket as a sideline. All this testifies to the continuing fascination which cricket holds for young people. While being part of the upwardly mobile young in the country of his origin, Muralitharan has also become an emblem of the oppressed people of the Third World; harassed, intimidated and driven to the wall by the white races who would still like to impose their old imperial hegemony on the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. It is ironical that it should be Australia, itself a British colony and which is home to a considerable number of Sri Lankans, which should be in the vanguard of the attack on the Sri Lankan spinner. But it demonstrates how deep-seated feelings against black people can be in white countries and how the white metropolis can gang up against the black periphery with even Australia's Liberal Prime Minister joining the pack and demonstrating distinctly illiberal instincts. The historical paradox here is, of course, that the British introduced cricket to its colonies as an attempt to supposedly civilise the heathen tribes who were beyond the law. Parliamentary democracy and the laws of cricket were supposed to have the same sanctity. But obviously the rules have strict limits. The moment a black man is in a position to outdo the white races, bell, book and candle can be thrown at him without any liberal democratic inhibitions. Part of Muralitharan's fascination is, of course, the man behind the mask. The demonic bowler struggling to overcome his congenital turn of the arm and crucified by the mealy-mouthed white gods reveals himself to be a dusty, soft-spoken and likeable young man both on and off the field. He can be the boy next door or the young executive occupying the table next to you. Praise has not gone to his head and all the laurels and plaudits which his achievements have brought him sit lightly on his forehead. At the age of 32 then, Muttiah Muralitharan of Kandy stands at a historic juncture of his life which has bonded him with the history of his people and their destiny. In a country desperately trying to heal the wounds inflicted by fratricidal strife, he is the only possible unifier in sight. By calmly facing up to the slings and arrows of the white cricket establishment, he has forged the unity of all those forces waging a struggle against Western hegemony of every type. By taking both defeat and victory in his stride, he is a model for all aspiring young sportsmen and women. His heart is certainly in the right place. In the wake of his record-breaking achievement, he very correctly did not rate it higher than Sri Lanka's World Cup victory. Now at the peak of his career he wishes to retire after the next World cup in 2007 which he wants Sri Lanka to win very much. This is the stuff of authentic patriotism at a time when we are offered so much of the fake and the counterfeit by the merchants of the political black market. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
