[SPORTSCOPE]

IPL twenty20 a no show this time?

Elmo RODRIGOPULLE

The Indian Premier League, the money bag of twenty20 cricket is not likely to see umpires calling ‘play’ this time. And if that happens, then it will be sad.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India had made elaborate arrangements to conduct the tournament from April 10 to May 24 on an even greater scale than when they got the first tournament off the ground last year.

But with the terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore, Pakistan it shook not only the cricket world, but the world at large and it was a bad omen for the game in the sub continent.

Elections for the Indian Parliament’s Lower House will take place across the country in five different phases from April 16 to May 13 and the discussions between Indian Cricket Board Officials and the top bureaucrats of the Interior Ministry ended without a decision.

Wide and watertight security has to be provided for the elections and the authorities cannot provide security for the players and the spectators. That is how it stands now.

The BCCI will be hard pressed to accommodate the Twenty20 on different dates.

They rescheduled the Twenty20, but with the International Cricket Council’ Twenty20 to be held from June 5 to 21, the players would be representing their respective countries and as such there doesn’t seem the possibility of the IPL taking place this time.

The new Interim Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket headed by former Sri Lanka allrounder D. Somachandra de Silva has said that they would be making a close study of the security situation in India before committing their players to play in the IPL.

The players who signed up to play in this lucrative tournament would sure be disappointed. But life is precious and has to be safeguarded at all cost and the players should not be sitting ducks as were the Lankan cricketers in Lahore.

Buoyant with the success that the previous tournament enjoyed, the BCCI had made even bigger arrangements to make this year’s one, a tournament to remember. Spectators at the venues and the millions taking in the action on TV would certainly have savoured the exciting action.

But the BCCI which is a very powerful and influential body is not going to take no for an answer. They are determined to sandwich this tourney before the World Twenty20 in England. But how or whether they will succeed would be interesting to watch.

Had the IPL taken off as scheduled, it would have been a good tune up for the players who would all have been fired up for the World Twenty20. But now with the IPL under a cloud of uncertainty, the cricketers will have to find some other ways to be ready for the World Cup Twenty20.

ICC’s referrals and hot spot

The International Cricket Council in its endeavour to see that umpires do not make mistakes introduced what was called the referral system. The system allowed a team a certain number of appeals to the third umpire if they felt that the correct decision had not bee made by the on field umpire.

The system was first introduced in the Sri Lanka-India series, where each side was allowed three referrals in each innings.

But in the ongoing Test series between South Africa ad Australia, the referrals were reduced to two each in each innings. With this system proving inconclusive, they brought in the ‘hot spot’.

But if what happened in the first innings when Australia batted in the Third Test is an indication, then not only the referral system, but also the ‘hot spot’ would be a failure.

When there was an appeal for a caught behind by Mark Boucher off Abe Market, the TV commentator Mark Nicholas was convinced that the batsman was out and was questioning as to why the South Africans were not going to the third umpire. The batsman was Simon Katich.

But when the ‘hot spot’ was shown there was no white mark to be seen. Similarly when Australia Captain Ricky Ponting was caught behind off Morkel and Ponting was convinced he was out, the ‘hot spot’ showed otherwise.

So it will be seen that nothing conclusive could be had with these systems.

Percy Perera on holiday

Former Sri Lanka’s basketball ace Percy Perera is in town on a short holiday from Melbourne, Australia.

Perera who was a household name in basketball in the sixties, was the only Sri Lanka to win the honour of being selected the ‘best shooter’ in the game. He earned this great honour during the Asian Games in Bangkok in 1966.

An Old Benedictine, he also played cricket for the school and went on to show his prowess in the game, playing for the Saracens in the Sara Tournament. He is most remembered for the six wickets he had against the SSC with his medium pacers.

The sixties was when the cager game in the country was at its zenith. Perera was easily the best, most stylish and spot on shooter and many sides of that time feared him.

He along with Cosmas Mahagama Perera who went on to captain Sri Lanka and his brother Malsiri, Milroy de Silva, Vijay and Gamini Silva, Herbert Senadhipathy, Shelton Pietersz, Edward Sumanasekera and Sam Lovell to name a few helped the Old Bens to win many a tournament.

And of course Percy Perera still pays homage to that coach of coaches of that time, the irrepressible Ram Suntheralingam for making him what he was.