Thank you for the cricket, England

The cricket world and especially the Board of Control for cricket in India must say a big 'thank you' to the England and Wales Cricket Board and the England cricketers for saying, "to hell with the terrorists, cricket is our job. We will tour India and play the Game".

When financial hub of India, Mumbai was attacked by terrorists and the England cricketers flew back home after playing five of their seven one-day internationals, it looked as though the game in the sub-continent India was finished.

There was a lot of activity between the two cricket boards of England and India in a frantic attempt to get the English cricketers to return and play the Two Test matches.

England were keen to tour, but the concern was the security risk involved. England were right in demanding for the security of their cricketers if they were to make the tour.

To be doubly certain that everything was well and that the promised security was tight and well organised, England and Wales Cricket Board flew out their Managing Director Hugh Morris, Security advisor Reg Dickason and Sean Morris, CEO of the Professional Cricketers' Association to double check.

The threesome were satisfied with the security arrangements and gave the cricketers the greenlight to tour India and honour their two engagements.

Had the tour been called off, it would have been a victory to the terrorists and the game would have suffered irreparable damage with the game getting dried up in the sub-continent.

But thanks to the cricket gods, the game has resumed and the teams - India and England would be raring, to go and play the game in the best of spirits, with winning or losing being secondary, but how you played the game being of utmost importance.

In this aspect Shas Manohar, President of the BCCI and Lalit Modi, Vice president, must also be given credit and a loud cheer, for they too worked like beavers to see that the tour materialised.

Modi is the man of the moment in Indian cricket. He is the livewire in every form of the game and the Indian Premier League, which doles out money in bags full to the cricketers participating in that tournament.

One can call him the Kerry Packer of Indian cricket. Organising the game is his forte and he has the ability to attract sponsors like a moth to a flame. He must probably be connected to the famous Indian Batsman Rusi Modi who played his own style of game with finesse, elegance and dexterity in the days of V. M. Merchant, Mushtaq Ali and crowd.

When this article is being read, three days of the First Test between the two countries would have been over and it would have warmed the cockles to see the cricket crazy Indian fans, where cricket is religion give the Englishmen deafening cheers.

Though the Indians would have done their best to allay security fears, yet the cricketers would have been apprehensive when it comes to getting on the field and doing their thing.

But they must not feel threatened. They must go out and play the game in the best of spirits and show the world that sport is the great leveller and that the game's the thing.

Ranatunga on the right track

Arjuna Ranatunga, the former Sri Lanka Captain and now Chairman, Interim Committee, Sri Lanka Cricket may not be the most popular chairman to take the hot seat, but when he does something good then it must be appreciated, encouraged and given continuity.

The other day during the Sirasa Twenty20 final when he came on TV to answer a few questions put to him by Roshan Abeysinghe, he was very emphatic and spoke in glowing terms of what he has been doing for outstation cricket and the cricketers.

He said that when President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed him, the first thing the President told him was to concentrate and pay a lot of attention to cricket in the outstations.

Ranatunga said he had done just that and has spotted a lot of talent. What he must now do is to unearth the uncut cricketing gems, bring them to Colombo, polish them and see that they sport national colours, which is the ultimate aim of every cricketer.

Fuard the pioneer

When taking cricket to the outstations is being spoken about, one man who readily comes to mind is Abu Fuard. He was the one who broke through all barriers and saw to it that cricketers from the outstations took their rightful place and hob nobbed with the elite of Colombo.

During his time Fuard was the most persecuted. His captains of that time who came from so called elite schools thought that they were the cocks of the yard, preferred to bowl their schoolmates and ignore Fuard who was at that time the best going off spinner in Asia and probably the world.

With an action that was poetry in motion and the envy of all other spinners of that time, Fuard was a winner in both local and international matches. When Richie Benaud's England bound Aussies played here, bowled beautifully and had the Aussie batsmen in a flat spin capturing five of the best scalps, so much so that Benaud at an end of the game media briefing said he would love to have Fuard in his team. That was the greatest compliment paid to Fuard.

In the Sri Lanka teams of today, there are hardly any cricketers from the elite schools. There are more cricketers from the outstations. And all credit should go to Fuard for showing the way.

Ranatunga must not hesitate, but continue to probe the outstations so that they would carry the challenges of tomorrow.