By Sa'adi Thawfeeq

The Government’s recent clamp down on sports goods due to the foreign exchange crisis in the country is affecting a lot of sports, especially cricket.

Whilst the national cricket team has performed brilliantly in the UAE where they have reached the Asia Cup final and our Under-19 cricketers comprising schoolboys have beaten England in the Youth Test series, complaints are pouring in especially from school cricket authorities that the ban is affecting them badly as cricket equipment cannot be sourced due to the ban of numerous items.  



The inter-school cricket season third term is due to commence this month after being badly affected by COVID-19 for the past two years, and the paucity of cricket equipment in the market is certain to affect many schools. Cricket being a specialised game where so much equipment is required for playing as well as for training the current ban, if continued, will affect the game.

Sri Lanka is a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and cricket is the only sport that brings valuable foreign exchange into the country as was witnessed during the recently concluded Australian cricket tour here. Cricket not only brings the highest revenue it is also a recreation sport that cannot be affected by lack of equipment.

We do understand the acute problems related with foreign exchange but sports should not be hampered especially at schools and district levels. The ban applies not only to cricket but to all sports who are attached to international bodies like the IOC, IAAF, FIFA, World Rugby (WR), FIBA, IAAF, BWF, ITTF to name a few.   

We hope the authorities will look at this aspect positively and allow the flow of sports equipment to the country as quickly as possible.

The Minister of Sports should make a strong case on behalf of all sports bodies to ensure that sports equipment is adequately made available.

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