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S.B.’s travails

Sports and Samurdhi Minister S.B. Dissanayake did no credit to himself by his hamhanded attempt to intimidate Mr. Rienzie Wijetillake, the head of the interim committee running the Cricket Board. This led to the resignation of all members of the committee widely acclaimed by the public for restoring credibility in the cricket administration and assisting our cricketers to make a pitch once more to regain the heights they reached in winning the World Cup in 1996.

All praise then to President Chandrika Kumaratunga for mediating in this dispute and persuading the interim committee that has been doing a fine job to remain in office even though it has led to some egg on the face of a minister who had by all accounts played a significant role in securing her re-election by a comfortable margin. Nevertheless, cricket lovers are only too well aware that the interim committee, as the very name suggests, is not for all time and it will not be too long before elected officials replace it.

Given the big business that cricket has become and the massive resources that the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) now controls, there is no doubt that all kinds of elements will seek the prize. Whether we will have the right people who are both knowledgeable about cricket and have a reputation for integrity to continue running the affairs of the board is an open question. Even though Minister Dissanayake came off second best in his tiff with the interim committee, he must be credited for putting an able and tightly knit group in place in the first instance. Whether this was at his own initiative or due to good advice he received, we do not know. However that be, the right thing was done and the whole country hopes that this will be the continuing state of play.

Given the money that the BCCSL manages - and this without exaggeration runs not into millions but billions - it is essential that professionals manage the funds of the board and that every cent spent is duly accounted for. The best people must be chosen for paid full-time positions in the board and there cannot be room for patronage in such appointments. The pity is that with politicians taking much more than an academic interest in cricket particularly, we have in recent times seen the affairs of cricket being conducted in much the same way that the game of politics is played in this island of ours. While no less than the president herself showed a willingness to intercede when things seemed to be going tragically wrong, it is to be hoped that those who will hold the rudder in the future will be of the calibre that will neither permit wrongdoing nor indulge in any malfeasance themselves.

Even before the dust had settled over the unhappy Cricket Board affair, Minister S.B. Dissanayake has got himself embroiled in another controversy. Whether there will be anybody this time to haul his chestnuts out of the fire remains to be seen. Politicians often make loose statements and whenever the chips are down attempt to wriggle out of an uncomfortable situation by alleging mis-reporting by the press. It is the good fortune of the newspaper that reported Dissanayake’s amazing statement last week on how the new constitution is going to be promulgated, that it had a tape recording of what was said at the Architect’s Institute a few days ago.

While the opposition is seeking to extract the last ounce of possibility from this situation, the courts too are looking at what has actually been said. The government has time and again hinted that if a two thirds parliamentary majority for its constitutional proposals is not possible, it would seek a ``revolutionary’’ alternative for getting them through. Although Prof. G.L. Pieris had denied that the course allegedly charted by his colleague at the Architect’s Association was the government’s way for giving a new constitution to the country, it is known that various alternative strategies have been under consideration. Living as we do in a country where there has been radical changes in the Supreme Court with several judges sent home during the Jayewardene years, there is reason for the public to fear that similar extremist measures may well be attempted again.

Obviously what is needed is a consensus between the PA and the UNP to offer the LTTE a realistic basis for the settlement of a problem that has cost so much in blood and national treasure. It is to be presumed that the way the state media played Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe’s request for more than the three days that was offered for his party to begin talks with the president is the way the government wished it to be presented to the public. Now we have the president portrayed as ``magnanimous’’ in extending Wickremesinghe a second invitation. If the government is really serious about reaching an agreement with the UNP, it is time it reined in its sycophants who will only queer the pitch. But with a general election due by mid-year, it is most doubtful that any game but politics will be played in the interim.

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