DailyMirror – Editorial
When the One Great Scorer comes to write against your name, He writes not whether you won or not but how you played the game. Though the terminology appears to relate mainly to cricket this hallowed principle or precept applies to the great drama of life also and the values we learn in sports need to be applied for our life or lifestyle to be sincere, sacrificial and selfless. If what we get makes a livelihood, it is what we give that makes a life.
In the light of these traditions, tried and tested for centuries, what we heard about Sri Lanka Cricket from the new Sports Minister C.B. Ratnayake on Monday left all six stumps in shambles.Mainly after our historic World Cup victory in 1996, cricket has become the pride and joy of millions of people. It is one of our treasured possessions and sometimes even becomes an obsession. With too many people watching or wasting too much time on cricket matches. Going beyond the boundaries of these positives and negatives and putting cricket administrators at sixes and sevens, Minister Ratnayake launched a bodyline attack similar to that of the Larwood-Tyson era.
Addressing a news conference at the Sports Ministry, with Sri Lanka Cricket interim committee president D.S. de Silva holding his chin and wondering how to respond to the thrashing with his mind apparently in a spin. Minister Ratnayake described Sri Lanka Cricket as the third most corrupt institution in the country.. Beating cricket in this battle for moral decadence are the Education sector and the Police. The rampant corruption in Education and the Police has a severe impact on the lives of millions of people and retards the growth of the country in serious proportions.
The corruption in Sri Lanka Cricket may not be so destructive or devastating for millions of people yet it is a tragedy that what began as a gentlemen’s game bringing out the noblest values of sports and sportsmanship has gradually turned into a multi million dollar business and consequently a den of corruption. The secret score book will show hundreds of cases of this graceful match fixing, ball tampering, and ball by ball betting at wayside bucket shops similar to the race by race betting on horses. Sadly these horse deals have played havoc to turn cricket fields into race tracks. Time and again we have heard cases of internationally well known players throwing away their wickets or dropping catches for 1,000 dollars. Whether the cancer of corruption in cricket began with the players and then spread to the administrators or whether it happened the other way or both ways would probably be part of the full scale investigation that Minister Ratnayake has launched.
He warned that corrupt officials would be brought to courts and he would clean up the multi million dollar cricket business and other sports within a few weeks.
With our team preparing for the 2011 World Cup Final, some of the officials who had a field day making centuries of dollars for themselves must be wondering whether they would be watching the World Cup Final from Mumbai or Welikada.