Cricket Board suspended, a judicial injunction and player timed out - EDITORIAL

Sri Lanka cricket has not reached dizzying heights. Much like our country earlier this year - when declared bankrupt - cricket too has hit its lowest depths. The cricket board has been sacked, and charges of corruption and mismanagement whether true or false abound.  
Just as our present president was the constitutional appointment, cricket’s new interim committee headed by our World Cup-winning captain - Arjuna Ranatunga - has been appointed to clear the good name of cricket in our country and rebuild the national team.   

But the Court of Appeal has issued an injunction on the Interim Committee and Parliament has criticised the Court’s decision.  
We can only hope, that the new interim head of the cricket board will be able to rebuild the national team and cricket administration in the country as successfully as the president turned around the fortunes of our country. At the time he occupied the presidency, the nation was hurtling into a situation of anarchy. He halted it.  

He also changed the international perception of our country as not being creditworthy. He succeeded in negotiating an IMF debt restructuring deal and brought back a semblance of normalcy within the country albeit rather slowly and painfully. The government’s own statistics show large sections of the population - over 70 per cent - are unable to adequately feed their families.   
On assuming the post of chairman of the Interim Committee, Ranatunga announced he would undertake the rebuilding of the national team, spotting talent, and instilling discipline and pride in playing for one’s country.  

Ranatunga added he had a competent team of Judges of the Supreme Court to investigate and take steps to eliminate corruption in cricket and past administrators to negotiate with the ICC, adding these were not his fields of competence. He also alleged corrupt practices were taking place in the regional body.  
In turn, this brings us to the latest of our cricketing miseries - Monday’s (6th November 2023) - fiasco at the World Cup match against Bangladesh. One of our players was ‘timed out’. Sadly, this most senior player in our team who was ‘timed out’, has since been making a shameful public spectacle of himself and cricket in our country.  
We need to keep a few facts in mind.   

In cricket as in any other sport or industry, the rule of thumb is to know the laws of the game and act within it. Bangladesh is one of the newer teams with test status. The team knew the laws governing cricket. When our senior player breached the law appealed and the umpires upheld the appeal.  
The Bangladesh captain was thinking ahead. The match against Lanka was of no consequence to the campaign in the present World Cup competition. But he and his team needed to ensure they won a place in the Champions Trophy Series which is to be played in Bangladesh itself.  

They aimed to eliminate any chance of having to undergo the indignity of having to go through the process of qualifying for that series.   
Unfortunately Mathews, the player at the centre of the ‘time out’ decision - a former captain and most experienced player in the Lankan team - did not know the letter of the law.   
Rather than admit the blunder he made, this player has taken to social media and interviews to claim victimhood rather than his ignorance of the laws governing the game which provides him with a very lucrative livelihood.  

In a way, it represents the collective attitude of the present Sri Lanka team. Just recently, they have on two occasions been shot out for less than 60 runs at an international level.  
The national cricket team needs an overhaul as is the entire Lankan cricketing establishment. There are also fears the ICC, cricket’s governing body could penalise the country, challenging the decision of suspending the SLC. Yet, the Auditor General’s report reveals some of the corruption within the SLC.   
Whatever the ICC’s decision, corruption and favouritism within the cricketing establishment need to be weeded out at whatever the cost, to bring cricket back to its past glory.   
We can only wish the interim committee the best in its efforts to rebuild the spirit and quality of cricket in the country.