Sri Lanka sports: Mired between power plots and honey pots!

At long last a renewed National Sports Policy (NSP) was presented to Parliament last week and will no doubt shortly transform into the latest legislation for sport in our sunny isle.

No doubt this is a well-meaning initiative of the Ministry of Sports (MOS) and its front running Minister who only a few weeks ago made the bold statement of moving fossil rocks from their generative perches and cleaning up sports as never done before.

The general dispositions of these bold moves are indeed courageous and widely acclaimed if not for the surfeit of contradictions that accompany such grandiose disclosures.

Highlighted in the NSP before Parliament is the enactment of new legislation to ban the use of prohibited stimulants and drugs, as well as it is said, the election of independent persons in sports organisations.

Streamlining the legal framework of National Sports Associations (NSA) and the development of National Sports Management Structures and Sports Programs are all part of this NSP initiative and at least on paper, bear the hallmark of serious intent. Now, must it stop just there or will the MOS use this framework to bring out far reaching reforms in the way we got about organising and managing the sports development of our nation. 



Creating a sporting nation

It is widely acknowledged that apart from the glory of international stardom and the camaraderie of sporting nations, sports fundamentally helps to make the complete citizen, a nation’s human resource that is sound in both mind and body. Therefore as much as international recognition is the ultimate warranty, good sense and fair play are vital ingredients that go to create a sporting nation.

When those basic features are missing or misinterpreted to serve vested interests, then the canker sets in and erodes the very fabric that holds together these valuable tenets. As the legislation is debated in the House by the Diyawanna, it is hoped that the legislators who now include some of Sri Lanka’s erstwhile sportsman will carefully consider the debacles that Sri Lanka has suffered in many sports arenas and pledge to help the MOS avoid and mitigate the larceny that is so plain for all to see.

In this context, the invitation to Sachin Tendulkar to become a member of the Indian Parliament is interesting; could he make the kind of contribution that we have all seen over the years from the master who is widely admired as a role model for the sport?

Going where angels fear to tread

The MOS, it must be said, goes where angels fear to tread. Last year for instance, he ordered the national cricketers back from the IPL, only to relent later in the face of political pressure. Today, we are beguiled by the freelancers of cricket, men of the calibre of Gayle, Malinga and others, who have made a delectable choice and will no doubt continue to do so in the glare of public disenchantment. And why not?

Many national teams are adjusting their annual programs merely to allow their star players to participate in the IPL because to clash with this honey pot is to provoke the ire of their most valued players. The Sri Lanka version that will take place this year is no different. What is its purpose other than to join the systemic merry-go-round and embellish not just the SLC coffers but the bank accounts of key proponents?

The newspapers are full of how COPE can hardly cope with this juggernaut and even the swashbuckling MOS who is so adept at removing rocks passed the buck to the Sports Secretary to enquire into the deal with Somerset Entertainment Ventures, an apt title for an organisation that is managing the event.

Clearly, sport has now become a spectacle. It is reported that opposition MPs supported the COPE approval and though there are vociferous denials, it will not be surprising if covert sanction is given ostensibly because SLC will stand to lose millions if the SLPL was not allowed to go through. Smacks of the NSB-TFC deal that is defining how our national interests are sold on the altar of deceit and subterfuge!

Political will

No amount of legislature can instil the governance framework so vital for a nation if it does not have the political will to make it work. As far as sports is concerned, the MOS has this responsibility placed squarely within its confines and whoever is pulling the strings will only eventually pull down all that our national sports aspire to so zealously.

Today, almost no sport can progress unless it joins the bandwagon. THE CSN Rugby Sevens is very precisely in that realm, notwithstanding that a coterie of top players from Kandy will decline the invitation to play in this much-insured event as they did from the Asian tourney! It is predictable that football will follow suit shortly, as it awakes from its deep slumber.

Athletics is not far away with the new team which was elected but not necessarily independent. That the IAAF has called for an explanation and Sri Lanka will oblige, is no doubt beside the point. All other NSA will get the message very soon as to how to hog the limelight, with the MOS playing godfather to a seemingly benevolent common parent.

That amply heralds the trajectory on which Sri Lanka Sports is zooming into the future. The private sector is nervously watching the foreplay, wondering how much it will be called upon to cough up, as the Caltex CEO realised to his dismay recently.

‘Resource unlimited’

No more will some of these decisions even in the private sector, be made on sound economic policies and marketing strategies. Smart CEOs know that if its marketing plan cannot justify it, then a convenient CSR budget must pick it up, in order they remain in the favoured enclaves.

For the public sector, amen will be the only refrain as it so very punctiliously demonstrated for the world to see, when it trumpeted the Commonwealth Bid. That COPE has had to take a good hard look at our sports junkets when it has so many more nationally sensitive issues to watch over says more than it needs to.

Modern sport runs the gauntlet of resource unlimited; it may be arguable that contemporary organised sports cannot progress without the cavalcade of carnivals masquerading as sports. One can only hope that some sanity prevails between the power plots and the honey pots. Otherwise, all we may have to do is just sit back and enjoy the fun!