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| Sunday, 15 May 2005 |
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Sports |  |
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Straight talk by Lal Gunesekera Sports Minister's actions against cricket body confuses all Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Jeevan Kumaratunga, seems to possess plenty of "rabbits inside his hat", and it all revolves around the game of cricket and its administration. First came the suspension of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), and what follows need not be repeated again. The latest is the replacement of Asantha de Mel as Chairman of the Selection Committee last week. De Mel together with his co-selectors were praised by Minister Kumaratunga himself just three weeks back. He said that they had done a good job and saw no reason to replace them. So, why the sudden change of heart? The only good thing that came out of this affair was the reduction of the number of selectors from seven persons to five. It was reported that de Mel was against two of his co-selectors (K. M. Nelson and Shabir Asgerally) since they had not played cricket at the highest level. The former is alleged to be an arrogant personality. Lalith Kaluperuma, returns to head the selectors who also comprise Don Anurasiri, Pramodya Wickremasinghe and Nelson and Asgerally. They were there in the previous committee too, and apart from Kaluperuma himself, are the others worthy to be selectors at all? In my opinion, certainly not. Minister Kumaratunga seems to take (and continue to do) some very strange decisions. Are these his decisions alone or is he being instigated by others? Every Minister of Sports from Nanda Mathew downwards, be they from the UNP/UNF or PA/UPFA, have been interfering with the administration of various sports bodies, and not allowing them to work independently. Sports must be free from political interference and only then will sports prosper in this country. There were veteran Sports Ministers in the calibre of the late V. A. Sugathadasa and K. B. Ratnayake, but they hardly ever interfered to such an extent as now. Is Arjuna serious? Was Arjuna Ranatunga, the Deputy Minister of Tourism, serious when he spoke about quitting politics and do something for the betterment of cricket? He was always interested in occupying the hot seat at SLC since his retirement from the game. He was even disappointed when he was not given the portfolio of Minister of Sports when the UPFA government came into power. He wanted to control SLC. Here is the country's 1996 World Cup winning captain, and his remarks must be taken seriously. He always had a rift with Thilanga Sumathipala and now that Minister Kumaratunga has suspended SLC and appointed an Interim Committee, Ranatunga, must be pretty happy, although he says that it took over a year for Minister Kumaratunga to take action against SLC. Perhaps, Ranatunga, still has ideas of occupying the hot seat at SLC. Now he is Sri Lanka's representative at the ICC Cricket Committee. Always outspoken, he has even gone to the extent of saying that cricket was run by a "mafia group" led by Thilanga Sumathipala, and if no action is taken, cricket will be in a big crisis. He has also gone on record to say that he feared what will happen after the seniors in the national side retire, and also that weak sides like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe will give Sri Lanka a good run. Ranatunga is correct, but is he that serious when he talks about quitting politics for cricket? Lakshman's head wanted Derwin Perera the Deputy Director of Sports in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, who was also the national coach of athletics at one stage, has now requested his own Ministry and the Sri Lanka Athletic Association (SLAA) to remove Lakshman de Alwis, who is now the national coach, from his post. Perera who lost the Presidency of the SLAA to Minister of Local Government and Provincial Councils Janaka Bandara Tennekoon, by just a couple of votes at the AGM has even gone to courts on this matter. He heads the National Athletic Coaches Association (NACA) and says that de Alwis (who had a stint in Brunei earlier) has neglected his duties and is involved in private coaching assignments at certain international schools. De Alwis in turn says that Derwin Perera's accusations are baseless and its all "petty politics." He says: "If they want to sack me, let them do so." Why cannot petty differences be settled for the betterment of the sport - any sport for that matter. Limit: Rs. 150 million The organising committee for the 10th South Asian Games rescheduled to be staged in Sri Lanka next year are not expecting more than Rs. 150 million from the government due to the Boxing Day tsunami. Earlier, the Games were to have been held in August this year and the estimated cost was Rs. 500 million with the government chipping in with Rs. 300 million. The "countdown" is fixed for June 23 at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium with representatives of all countries taking part. The opening and closing ceremonies of the Games are likely to be at the Premadasa Stadium as having them at the Sugathadasa Stadium may damage the Tartan Track and grass and the authorities would be able to accommodate the crowds expected. Will this mean that the Olympic Torch be erected at both venues? It's normally erected in the main stadium where all competitors march past the VVIP enclosure? Also, there has been no decision reached as yet to appoint the official TV and Radio Stations. The Indian Olympic Committee has already confirmed that they will be fielding a team of 496 (247 men, 136 women and 113 officials) for the South Asian Games and for athletics alone, there will be 50 men competitors and 40 women. They are to compete in all 19 disciplines. Last time in Pakistan there were only 15 sports. Archery, Cycling, Wushu and Judo have been included for Colombo. The Indians have also requested that hockey too be included and are supported by both Pakistan and Bangladesh. The rule is that four countries are needed to conduct a medal event. Sri Lanka too are preparing for this sport and are to send three coaches to the Netherlands for advanced training. Also proposed is the venues in the outstations for some selected sports be scraped - except for rowing and rifle shooting, which is to be staged at Bolgoda and Welisara respectively. Thangavelu inquires I understand that the IGP Chandra Fernando is annoyed that the CID officers went with arms to the headquarters of SLC to hand it over to the Interim Committee, and has appointed DIG Thangavelu to conduct a special investigation to find out whether arms were really necessary to be carried by the CID officers for this sort of "operation." I also understand that it was a senior official attached to the Attorney-General's Office who had requested that the CID provides security to the Sports Ministry officials to enter the headquarters of SLC. As the CID officers were in civies, seven officers from the Cinnamon Gardens Police accompanied them (the CID) in uniform with IP Amarasinghe in-charge. The CID says that a senior official of the Interim Committee had received a call from the headquarters of SLC saying that they (the SLC) will not hand over its headquarters to the Interim Committee, and this was one of the main reasons why the CID went with arms. However, there were no obstructions for the Interim Committee to move into the SLC headquarters. |
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