A Sportsman hyped and a Sportswoman griped

This cat is interested in all sports and if time permits, watches cricket matches. She is, however, passionate about justice and fair play and sports, as sports, should be indulged in similarly.

She grew up in a right-thinking age when sports meant fair play; team games were played to give a good game to the opponents and spectators, not to win at any cost. Politicians were out of it then.

This cat was Games Captain in her school in Kandy and that meant a whole lot of responsibility and watching her Ps and Qs on the field and off it. Baseball was introduced to her school and playing a House match, she inadvertently blurted out ‘not fair’ on being run out, the ball reaching the base circle just as she did.

The umpire was one of the games teachers, her nickname being ‘OW’. This teacher was very attractive, very stern and very reserved. At the end of the match, this cat, then a frisky kitten, was called up by that teacher. In a quiet, dispassionate, incisive, manner the umpire slated Menika.

‘How dare you challenge the umpire’s ruling?’ was the gist of the tongue lashing. Yours truly was truly contrite, apologized, had a silent cry and then, it being end of the year, got ready for the Literary, Music and Drama Society’s final concert and party.

She had to sing a mere two lines in the item her class contributed - a musical version of ‘Belling the Cat.’ Rising in her rat costume and swinging her coir rope ‘tail’ forward, she started her two lines.

Then, seeing the umpire-teacher gazing at her, this cat completely forgot the second line and had to be prompted loud and clear by the annoyed co-student director/producer. Believe me, she gets hot under her feline skin remembering that faux pas, even now, six decades later.

What Murali said

To get back to my topic of the day, I have just now listened to a You Tube recording of what Muralitharan said to the electronic press. He spoke good Sinhala spattered with a couple of English words, totally excusable. The main point is that sincerity shone through, every word was totally believable and, he stated facts not wanting approbation or empathy. Here are the facts, he presented, some new to me. You judge.

Three months ago he was requested by the Australian Cricket Board to coach spinners in the team. He accepted the assignment on condition the coaching was well over by the time the Sri Lanka-Australia series of matches started. He said he would not be in the camp of the Australians during the matches; his stint of coaching two spinners for ten days being long over.

He said that neither he, nor other superb players of the calibre of Sangakkara and Mahela have been asked to coach our players, the Sri Lanka Cricket Board always engaging foreign coaches, paying heavy in dollars. So his justifiable contention: What if I coach other players, if requested to do so? I have expertise which I want to share. I have not been asked by our Board to help which I would do even voluntarily.

He was emphatic that he was deeply grateful to the Sri Lankan people for always supporting him. Modestly and almost unwillingly, he said that he tries to repay this loyalty extended to him by the public by helping youngsters to take to cricket and play well not only coaching them but building cricket grounds (Seenigama and up North) and providing equipment too.

He, with others, have organised matches between boys of the North and their Southern peers. The Foundation of Goodness set up by him and others have built houses and helped hundreds of families.

He gave of his all to Sri Lankan cricket for ten years and now the Board brands him a ‘traitor’. This cat asks: has the Sri Lankan Cricket Board done even one hundredth of such acts of necessity to consolidate reconciliation?

Of course they built a stupendous cricket pitch to match Hambantota’s vast ‘swimming pool’ port and airport necessitating the killing of peacocks and elephants. The Cricket Board, like the country, almost went bankrupt due to these extravagances. Let this cat, purring away, congratulate you - much loved and admired Murali - on your exposition and say we are 200% with you. (That’s the new in-percentage as pronounced by our Prime Minister).

Hero seems too trite a word to use for you. I call you a true Sri Lankan national with the country’s best interests at heart and doing much, un-proclaimed, for the youth of the country, especially in depressed areas.

But, Susanthika

Susanthika Jayasinghe has been publicly griping again. A daily of Wednesday, August 3, had this headline on page 15: ‘Susanthika bitter after state neglect’.

The article continues thus: “Dubbed the ‘dazzling gazelle’ by the media, she was only the second Sri Lankan ever to win an Olympic medal… But even then, she was a controversial figure. While in Sydney, she had alleged that Sri Lanka’s then sports minister had tried to ruin her career after she rejected his sexual advances, an explosive claim in a deeply conservative country.”

We remember how they seemed buddy-buddy - she passing on to him to hold all the garlands she received at the Katunayake airport on her triumphant return as Bronze Medalist, soon to be upgraded to Silver. One had the gut feeling she had exploited the Minister’s influence and clout. And then she said she could hardly practice at the Sports Ministry grounds since the said minister would drive back and forth gazing at her!!

Susie girl, didn’t you get enough and more praise and adulation, gifts and public attention? You were gifted valuable land, we were made to believe. Don’t you know the saying from a ballad sung during World War I by British soldiers: ‘Old soldiers never die, they simply fade away’?

More true about athletes. You had your day. Now retire not to obscurity but out of the limelight. Give younger sports people a chance to bask in it. Give of your expertise to young ones. You recently washed some domestic dirty linen in public by speaking out from a hospital bed. We did sympathise with you, even if you were, as accused by your ex, merely seeking publicity.

Susie wails: “See what has happened to me. I am an Olympic medalist, but today, I am a wastrel.”

Not at all! You ARE a medalist, but what do you want now? To be sent to Rio? No can do, Girl!

- Menika