Atherton should stick to job assigned!

In this column last week I touched on the bias that is the Sky TV cricket commentary team. I now move to the newspapers that are British.

While on the Sky TV team, I failed to mention about former England Captain Michael Atherton and his penchant to veer away from describing what is happening out in the middle and straying on to a field that, can best be described as not being his field. Or, put another way showing his incompetence or ignorance or both.

Instead of sticking and concentrating on the action happening out in the middle and describing it, Atherton moves to where angels fear to tread. He instead talks of the ethnic and political situation in Sri Lanka which he is not competent enough to do.

He will do himself, the game and Sky TV immense good if he sticks to the job he has been assigned to. He must not forget the "rubbish in the pocket incident" when he was captain of England which amounted to ball tampering.

University educated

Being university educated, he need not be told that those in glass houses should not throw stones. Let's hope he will get wise and endeavour to do a better job during the India-England series.

Atherton took Alastair Cook to the cleaners when he was named captain of the one-day squad calling him a 'plodder' and a 'donkey'. Cook brought him crashing down to earth saying that one has to be both to call another that! That would have made Atherton red in the face.

While on the subject of the newspapers, there was hardly anything about Sri Lanka's performance or India's arrival. The reporters here blow up the efforts of their cricketers and make them look like demi gods. The efforts of the opponents are hidden somewhere in the copy.

Take for instance the magnificent record breaking knock of a near double century by Sri Lanka skipper Tillekeratne Dilshan at the holy land of cricket - Lord's in the Second Test against England.

Fractured thumb

The gallant effort of the Lankan who played a gutty innings, being hit on the thumb constantly by fast bowler Chris Tremlett which resulted in a fractured thumb that forced him out of the Final Test, was not given the publicity it required.

Even Kumar Sangakkara's match saving century in the Rose Bowl Test in Southampton received just passing reference.

Although England boasts of having given the game of cricket to the world, the publicity it receives is minimal. Instead football takes top billing, followed by tennis, boxing, rugby and then cricket.

During the Wimbledon tennis championships, the papers went to town on Andy Murray -- predicting him to win the title for England not since the time of Fred Perry. But what happened? Rafel Nadal stuffed him in the semis.

Then they puffed up boxer David Haye as the next Briton to be the World Heavyweight boxing champion. Russian Waldimir Klitschko toyed with him for the entire fight to win easily.

The cricket correspondents here too are biased, in the sense that they shower praise on efforts or achievements on their individual players and their performances, but not give the same prominence to the efforts of the visiting players and teams.

Ratnayake - interim coach

Cricket in Sri Lanka is still in interim land, and the latest to arrive in this land is former fast bowling allrounder Rumesh Ratnayake who will be the interim coach of the Sri Lanka team during the forthcoming tour of Australia to Sri Lanka next month.

Ratnayake was one of the finest allrounder's produced by Sri Lanka. In addition to tremendous pace and biting swing bowling, both ways, which brought him a harvest of wickets, he was a hard hitting batsman and scored a lot of runs for the country. He starred in Sri Lanka's first ever Test victory against Kapil Dev's Indians at the Colombo Oval in 1984.

One incident I well remember was when,with his wippy action, he drew blood by hitting former West Indian Captain Clive Lloyd and later Larry Gomes. Lloyd was so livid and in an interview with Dick Tucker the Australian cricket writer who was 'ghosting' Lloyd, he said that Ratnayake's action was suspect.

Lloyd denies

Lloyd later denied having said so. When I toured Australia and while covering the Sri Lanka tour for the Daily News and Sunday Observer. I asked Tucker about the allegation made by Lloyd. Tucker swore that Lloyd said so, but later denied it. However that was the end of story.

It will be interesting to watch how Ratnayake will perform as interim coach. If he delivers, and there is no reason why he should not, he should be offered the job permanently unless he has to honour his contract with the Asian Cricket Council.

Now that Sri Lanka Cricket is on a cost cutting mission, getting down a foreign coach will cost a lot of money. SLC better wait and see.

Dickie Bird admired

Remember the famous English umpire Dickie Bird? Cricket fans were admiring a statue of legendary umpire Dickie Bird when at his home town in Barnsley when he happened to pass by.

Bird who was famous for sporting a white flat cap when standing in the middle was immediately recognized by the cricket fans. They went berserk. He personally took the coach load of cricket fans on tour of his home town and Shaw Lane, Barnsley Cricket Club's base where Bird played cricket.

Bird stood in 66 Test matches and Three World Cup finals before retiring in 1996. People from all over the world have been to look at the statue from Sri Lanka, India and Australia.

The statue, by artist Graham Ibbeson, portrays the umpire with his finger up giving the batsman out signal to send a batsman to the pavilion.

Bird was a highly respected umpire and cricketers came to believe him and never were his decisions questioned.

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