Warning! Criminals hijacking, running cricket

by Callistus Davy

Organised criminals, petty thieves and thugs, in a nutshell a shadowy mafia, have taken a stranglehold of cricket in the country, facts that have now been confirmed by a sports minister for the first time in history as he accused the game’s keepers of turning a blind eye to a shocking trend.

The dossier if prepared would show a security official of Sri Lanka Cricket threatening employees at a fellowship party, three thugs on motorcycles assaulting a coach, a professional player able to take banned strength-boosting drugs and now from the very mouth of Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera that the dreaded match-fixers function under the very noses the sport’s guardians.

But the biggest question now being asked is why the attempted match-fixing revelation by cricketers Rangana Herath and Kusal Perera was shoved into a corner and not made public until Minister Jayasekera blew the lid and warned that cricket has fallen into a ‘very dangerous situation’ when he hosted journalists for a briefing on January 1 that eventually became a New Year fireworks.

“I can’t understand this”, Jayasekera declared. “Match fixers are here at our door step, inside the hotels that players put up and they even mingle and interact with the cricketers and yet nothing was done (by Sri Lanka Cricket) to check it”.

He also accused the so-called coaching staff of the Sri Lanka team, the bowling coach in particular, of displaying his ignorance to the presence of match-fixers at the nets where the players practiced.

“There were two people, one was a net-bowler (who bowls to Sri Lanka players at practices) and they both should have been arrested and questioned. The bigger picture is that the sharks are swimming around waiting to be netted in and nothing was done. I can’t believe this was taking place”, said a visibly disturbed Jayasekera. He lamented that despite the International Cricket Council (ICC) being extremely open and frantic in their quest to stamp out match-fixing, Sri Lankan officials did not see their obligation towards eradicating the scourge.

The behind-the-scene rot taking place at Sri Lanka Cricket had also been rocked by a scandal two weeks ago when another team aide working with Under-19 World Cup squad in training for this month’s championship was reported to have indulged in a pervert act with a woman against her wishes during his working hours.

But instead of being taken to task he was elevated to work with the Sri Lanka A team and the posting was revoked only because someone with a sense of accountability pointed out the howler.

Jayasekera will have a hard time over the ensuing days trying to assure the skeptics as none in a country that is tainted with corruption and nepotism has ever been brought to justice.

“Whoever is elected at Sunday’s election (of office bearers of Sri Lanka Cricket) I will ensure that it will not be a place for miscreants”, Jayasekera said in reply to a question by a journalist who charged that wrongdoers always have a field day in a set-up that is highly politicized.