Ranil's googly at Jayasuriya mi sfires

Sanath Teran Jayasuriya, is not only a household word,but a world figure.He has taken the world cricket scene by storm.His achievements on the field of cricket are legion.

He is a respected and honoured figure. And in his home town Matara, he is a demi-god who nonetheless keeps the common touch. It's time that people who have such stature in the field of sport grace the inner sanctum of our legislature so that sports which is alas a footnote in the matters of State gets its pride of place.

The other day at an election meeting, leader of the opposition Ranil Wickremasinghe, had a sudden rush of blood, lost his way. He perhaps thought he would bowl a weak googly at our dashing left hander only to expose Ranil's own poor thinking.

Hat tricks of losses

Jayasuriya's bid in contesting Matara on the United People's Freedom Alliance seems to amuse the leader of the opposition, while not looking at his own scoreboard where there is a string of many successive hat tricks of losses. At that meeting Wickremasinghe asked- ' How can Jayasuriya contest and win a seat from Matara. To win, Jayasuriya must canvass from dusk to dawn, go house to house seeking votes. But Jayasuriya will be leaving to India to play in the Indian Premier League from March 10 to April 19.'Supposing a tsunami strikes Matara, he should be there to help in the relief work.

Betel chewing

"If there is a wedding or funeral he must be available. So how can he be there when he will be playing cricket in India?" asks Wickremasinghe To which, I guess, a betel chewing voter who attended the campaign meeting would have spontaneously spat in disgust.

Jayasuriya has done enough and more for his home town, with his astounding feats with the willow to put Sri Lanka - and by inference - Matara on the world cricketing map.

He does not need to go begging for votes from dusk to dawn. The scoreboard speaks for itself such that the humble folks of Matara are gearing up to send their son of the soil to parliament with a thumping majority.

Cheap scare tactic

And then there is the cheap scare tactic that Wickremasinghe seems to be indulging in by imagining that a tsunami would strike Matara. Yes, Wickremasinghe may be right that there will be a tsunami-but it may well be a tsunami of votes that the folks of Matara will cast for the indomitable Jayasuriya.

To take further from the sublime to the ridiculous, Wickremasinghe then asks how would Jayasuriya be able to attend weddings and funerals if he is in India? The Sri Lankan voter - and no less the voter in Matara - should surely be credited with the intelligence that alas seems to escape those who are desperate to win at any cost.

While sports visionaries like 'Sanna' can do much for the next generation, our country in the place where laws are made and budgets are voted, it is pitiful that cheap sarcasm can get the better of those who, if I may say so in cricket parlance need to hang up their boots to make way for those who, like Jayasuriya ,can galvanize the next generation with charisma and grassroot connections that can serve our country - and sports - better.

World Cup hockey

The World Cup hockey tourney is being dribbled in India and all countries in the fray are battling it out to finally emerge as the top dogs of the curved wand.

In the good old days, the battle for supremacy was between India and Pakistan who were superior in the game and when it came to the final the protagonists were the two countries from the sub-continent.

For many years these two countries dominated the Asian Games, the Olympics and the World Cup. But the other countries, especially the European countries, which were also just making up the numbers in tournaments, wanting to be in the forefront of the game began importing coaches from India and Pakistan.

Magicians

These coaches began to show the European stickers how to front up to the Indians and Pakistanis and get the better of them. The stickers from the sub-continent were magicians with the curved wand and their dribbling was amazing. The Europeans were not taught to dribble, but were taught the hit and run game. They adjusted well to this style of play and it did not take long for them to make their presence felt and confront India and Pakistan and beat them in their own game.

To the World Cup and in the clash of India and Pakistan, India scored an emphatic 4-1 victory over arch rivals Pakistanis. In whatever sport these two teams meet it is no quarter asked or given game and it is blood and thunder.

No different

It was no different in their clash this time, with the game being more of a brawl with India's striker Shivendra Singh being banned for three matches for hitting Pakistan's Fareed Ahmed above the eye.

Shivendra was charged under a level 2 offence of FIH's code of conduct which deals with physical assault without causing serious injury. Shivendra had hit Fareed deliberately, even though the on-field umpires did not penalize the player during the match.

In the 1960s India used to make it a point to play in Sri Lanka after the Asian Games or the Olympics. They had some wonderful ball players and when they played here it was at the Army Ground, Galle Face or the Sugathadasa Stadium.

Explosives

Two names of the Indians that come to mind are Balbir Singh and Vinod Kumar. Singh was a magician as a striker and Kumar carried explosives in his penalty corner hitting. Old Ben Francis Assassi who played against the Indians recalled two incidents. The first was when Singh hit Rupesinghe on the head for coming on the wrong side and Kumar driving a thunderbolt of a penalty which hit goal keeper Freddie White on his tummy. Rupesinghe was hit so hard that he was having double vision for a long time and White was passing blood for a few days. But the gutty Sri Lankans gave as good as they got and in losing the Two Tests were not disgraced.

Now rarely do we see foreign countries playing here.