Shame on the Delhi Cricket Association

Before going on to slam the Sri Lanka cricketers for their disgraceful showing in India, I would like to tell the Delhi Cricket Association that it was IRRESPONSIBILITY on their part that led to the calling off of the final one-day match between Sri Lanka and India at the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday.

Obviously the men who matter at the Delhi CA would have allowed the curator to do what he wants with the wicket and not kept track of what sort of wicket that the curator was preparing.

The officials need not have been told that this was no ordinary game, but an international clash between two international teams. By their irresponsibility the officials who must take the blame have shamed their city, the country, the BCCI and the good name of the game.

World Cup matches

The Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium has been given the honour of conducting some of the next World Cup matches. So is this the irresponsible manner in which they are hoping to conduct the WC games?

The DCA officials are now having the Sword of Damocles hanging over them and will be moving every obstacle to see that Match Referee Alan Hurst will temper his report and not make an adverse report that could see the venue changed and no WC games.

Cricket starved spectators in Delhi showed their dissent and should not be faulted for throwing things on to ground venting their anger of having been deprived of seeing their heroes in action. Making refunds is not the answer. Spectators were deprived of the action they paid to watch.

Show cause notice

The Board of Control for Cricket in India should not sweep off this act by the DCA, but issue a show cause notice on the offenders and appropriate action be taken that will serve as a deterrent not only to the DCA but all other venues where international games would be played.

Match Referee, Hurst a former Australian pace bowler has forwarded a confidential report to the BCCI which has 14 days to respond. The response will then be taken up by Ranjan Madugalle, Sri Lanka's former captain and stylish batsman now Chief of Match Referee and Dave Richardson the former South African wicket keeper batsman, ICC General Manager who would determine if any action against India is justified.

The process it is stated would take about a month. But Madugalle and Richardson who are reputed for their honesty and fair play and playing straight as batsmen should have no sympathy, but not hesitate to lynch the culprits.

Condemnation

Not only the media but also the Indian Minister of Sport Manohar Singh Gill showed his displeasure by joining in the condemnations of the irresponsibility of the DCA by saying that it was very unfortunate and a great embarrassment for the country. 'It should not have happened. I watched the match a bit on TV and it was terrible to see what was happening.'

It would be interesting to watch how things will go from here.

Disgraceful show

The Sri Lankan cricketers who took wing to India after big talk to contest a Three Test series, a Twenty20 match and a series of five one-day internationals, returned empty pocket sweating in vain.

The big talk was that they have the men who were going to rewrite history by being the first Sri Lankan team to win a maiden Test or 50- over series in India. The Test series was a calamity with two Tests being lost by innings and the Five one-dayers being lost three-one with one called off with the Lankans on defeat street at 83 for 5.

One can't blame the selectors and the coaches. They picked the best available troopers to go to cricket war. That these troops failed to fire is their own failing and blame should not be levelled at others.

No bed of roses

Accepted that India is no bed of roses to play cricket. It is an exhausting tour with pitches and conditions varying from venue to venue. But the cricketers left knowing full fell how arduous the tour was going to be. So excuses should not be entertained or accepted.

Sri Lanka Cricket has a duty to perform. They must appoint a committee and probe as to what led to these disgraceful defeats. Probing the alleged late nights by players is not a panacea for the ills that afflicts the game and the players. SLC must probe the bigger picture.

To the alleged late nights and it is unacceptable media people poking their fingers or sniffing into cricketers private lives. I am not commending or holding a brief for the alleged miscreants. They are not schoolboys. Do's and don't have been told to them and they are intelligent enough to understand.

Anyway a lot will depend on Manager Brendon Kuruppu's report. Any action if necessary must be based on that report. And I can vouch for the fact that Kuruppu would not shirk his duties, but present a true report as to what happened.

O'Reiley's advice

An advice given to me by former Australian leg spinning legend Tiger Bill O'Reiley I still maintain and will continue to maintain when accompanying cricketers on tours. On my tour to Australia in 1987, I was eagerly looking forward to meeting and having a chat with the great bowler. And that opportunity came my way when Mike Coward, a highly read and respected Australian cricket writer introduced me to Tiger during a Test match between Sri Lanka and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground when Ranjan Madugalle captained Sri Lanka. O'Reiley was then covering the tour for the 'Sydney Morning Herald' and it was the final tour he was covering as he had made plans to retire. As a cricket writer he was forthright, fearless and would not fear to skin any cricketer who thought he was bigger than the game. O'Reiley was widely read around the world and if my memory serves me right contributed to newspapers in Sri Lanka too.

Very simple

I stood in great awe after being introduced to the former leg spinning great. But the great man was very simple and immediately put me at ease by saying that he had been to lovely Ceylon and had also read and heard about the country and inquired after the great batting maestro Mahadevan Sathasivam.

The only question I posed to O'Reiley was: 'Sir, as a cricket writer what should be my job?'

'Mate, your job begins when the cricketers open the gates and take the field. Once on the field say the good things about the players and describe how they performed. If you have to criticize them do not fear to do so. But don't forget to shower praise on them when they deserve it. 'But mate my main advice to you is - once the cricketers leave the field, whatever they do after that is not your effing business. Stick to this advice and you will never go wrong.'

Reporting career

And that advice I treasure and it has made my reporting career an interesting one for the last 20 years since I made that epoch tour to Australia with Madugalle as captain and that great off spinning all rounder who has done wonders for the game, the player and the administration Abu Fuard as Manager.

I was the first Sri Lankan journalist to tour with the Sri Lanka team after its inclusion as full members of the ICC. The tour was to Pakistan in 1982 under Bandula Warnapura with Anura Tennekoon as Manager and my Benedictine team mate Ranjit Fernando as Assistant Manager.

Incidentally it must be reiterated that Fuard, along with Gamini Dissanayake, R. Rajamahendren, Daham Wimalasena and Vasantha Coomaraswamy were the architects who fought the good fight to have Sri Lanka admitted to the International Cricket Council as full members.

The lords at Lord's at the time Sri Lanka were pushing to be full members seemed to be suffering from a complex, and repeatedly bolted the door to us. It was then that the above mentioned, whose names should be written in letters of gold who togged themselves to flay the cunning and tantalizing deliveries bowled by the ICC to bowl us out by offering a straight bat and finally forcing the lords at Lord's to relent and have us admitted as a full member.

It must also be stated that it was Fuard who opened the doors for outstation cricketers to rub shoulders with the players from elite schools, show their prowess and sport the national cap. The outstation cricketers playing for the country today, is testimony to Fuard's determination to give them a place in the sun. Fuard should not be forgotten.