Paying a heavy price for ignoring wise counsel

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

It is becoming evidently clear by the day that what we have repeatedly written in these columns for the past one year or so is turning out to be true the way our cricket is shaping up. Two back-to-back T20I series losses to Australia and India has only confirmed the fact where our cricket is heading. 

The selection committee has been stumbling from one disaster to another and each mistake has been more damaging than the previous one.

We pointed out prior to the appointment of the selection committee that the people whom certain interested individuals holding top positions in sports appointed by the Minister of Sports were trying to bring in were to suit their own agendas. And now it has been proved from the way selections have been done and the way the national team is performing. 

Countries like Australia and India have simply made a mockery out of our cricket by making use of the T20I series to test their bench strength. Sri Lanka cricket has sunk to such low depths that we even suffered big losses to those sides. Just imagine if Australia and India had played their full-strength teams, where Sri Lanka would have ended up?

As far back as 6 February 2021 under the headline “Fortune favours the brave” the Daily FT commented: “What the young Minister must safeguard is people who come and whisper things in his ear which he should not listen to. There are moves to bring in people in spite of their proven failures when there are more capable administrators with much better track records who for some reason or the other have not even been considered. What they hope to achieve by doing so is anybody’s guess.”

“The Minister is young and inexperienced in holding a cabinet portfolio. He should be very careful whose counsel he takes and not get misguided into taking the wrong decisions. He should have the courage to disseminate the good advice from the bad and make the right call because at the end of the day he will be accountable for it. At the end of day what we want is the best for the country and cricket, it doesn’t matter who comes and sits. What we want is cricket revived to a level where 22 million people of this country will get back the pleasure that they have enjoyed for years.”

The damage was already done by appointing Pramodya Wickramasinghe as the chairman of selectors. From day one the very first decision this committee took by appointing Kusal Perera as the captain without going into his captaincy capabilities where he had not even captained an under 12 side it has been one disaster leading to another. Leadership is not something that every Tom, Dick and Harry can take, especially in cricket. His appointment raised the question how suitable he is going to be as a captain. Being a permanent member of the team was not the question but there were reservations on his ability. There is a saying that captaincy has to be in your DNA.

From Kusal Perera, the selection committee made another blunder by appointing Dasun Shanaka to succeed him in white ball cricket. That appointment came as no surprise. We predicted in the Daily FT May 10, 2021 under the headline “Latest selection of white ball squad sparks more questions”: “In time to come it would be no surprise if Dasun Shanaka is made captain of both white ball formats – ODI and T20Is possibly with influence from outside. That way you can keep the captaincy with one club for both formats so that selections can be influenced.”

These are repeated warnings to the Minister of Sports in these columns to be careful of what is being recommended. He has chosen to ignore all that at his peril and it is coming to haunt him. The Minister’s biggest blunder was appointing a technical and advisory committee with past legends to advise and put Sri Lanka cricket on the right track. More than one year into that appointment and Sri Lanka cricket is sliding down a slippery slope with these so-called legends only interested in their personal agendas.

On February 22, 2021, the Daily FT commented under the headline “National interest secondary”: “It is obvious that people in the guise of helping Sri Lanka cricket are only interested in controlling selections for personal agendas. This in fact is a bane of Sri Lanka cricket that has plummeted our cricket to the depths which we are lingering today. It is also reported that the technical committee appointed by the Sports Minister also wants their people installed in the selection committee. The primary responsibility of the technical committee is to recommend reforms that need to be brought into the electoral structure.”

“The question arises why everybody on the pretext of helping Sri Lanka cricket is interested in who sits on the selection committee. To any knowledgeable cricket fan, the reasons are very clear. The Minister is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea due to the duplicity being practiced by people whom he has placed his trust on to guide him through in fixing cricket in Sri Lanka. It appears to be people who are in the Ministerial circle leading him up the garden path.”

This is what we said at the time and now it has been proved because the Minister chose to turn a blind eye on the warnings and not listen to wiser counsel given to him in black and white. With the criticism that is being hurled at them from all corners in time to come they are going to throw their towels in and walk away at the drop of a hat and it will be the Minister left holding the can and taking all the flak for taking ill-advised decisions for which only he has to blame himself.

What is happening in our cricket is no better than how the government is running the country.  Given the country’s situation, the sports arena and cricket especially look quite susceptible to further chaos.