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| Only 11 can play, yes. This is about some who didn't make it but not because they lacked talent or had not performed. |
Perhaps it is the fact that Sri Lanka is not playing any
international cricket right now and has a fairly lean schedule ahead that makes
me dwell on cricket these days, forgive me.
I was remembering an article written by my school friend and now
architect, Sumangala Jayatillake for a Royal-Thomian Souvenir a quarter of a
century ago. He was relating a dream
about playing in the Roy -Tho
and coming up with a fantastic performance. He ended the piece, if I remember
right, with a quote: ‘Everyone is a hero in his dreams’. He followed it up with another post script:
‘I knocked out Mohammed Ali in another dream!’
I have had cricket dreams like that and long before
Sumangala articulated his. My dreams
were associated with records. As a young
boy there were two things that bugged the hell out of me. The first was the fact that St. Thomas ’ had shot out Royal for 9 runs in
the 1885 encounter. Thomians maintain
that Royal didn’t turn up on the second day and considers the game forfeited
while Royalists, given absence of any proof, considers the game drawn. There is no disagreement however regarding
the fact that Royal were all out for 9.
That bugged me. It also bugged me that STC had the highest total of the
series (at the time): 351 for 7 if I remember right (broken several times
since).
So here’s the dream.
Royal bowls out STC not for 8 runs, not for 7, not for 3 or 1 but
zero. The scoreboard reads: St. Thomas ’ all out for
0. The innings is all done in 10
deliveries and includes 3 hat tricks.
The wrecker? Self. Obviously I couldn’t take all wickets if the
innings was over in 10 deliveries, so there was a partner in crime. RajithaDhanapala, a classmate who from Grade Three used to come home after school and
stay with us until his father, who taught at Royal along with my mother, came
to take him home. Rajitha and I, in my
dream, opened batting and we broke the record for the highest total. I am sure
one of us broke the record for the highest individual score, then held by
Duleep Mendis (184) but can’t remember who it was. The rest of the match was not dreamt. It was not necessary. The point was to dream-out those
uncomfortable bragging-rights owned by the ‘other school’.
Rajitha was a cricketer. I was a fan. He played first eleven cricket. I
cheered. Fast forward to the year
1984. Check the big match souvenir.
Royal was led by Sandesh Algama. The
book will show that the top 4 run-getters of the season didn’t play in the big
match. Chandana Panditharatne and Assaji
Ranasinghe, both stylish and dependable batsmen were dropped, along with
Rajitha, the only one to score a century that season The fourth, Kapila
Dandeniya, was touring Australia with the Sri Lanka Under 19 team. Royal escaped with a draw thanks to the
heroics of Nalinda Premachandra and Chandana Jayakody, both in the team for
their bowling skills, incidentally.
More than a quarter of a century later, I went to see an
‘Under 13’ cricket match being played at the Mercantile Cricket Association
grounds. This is the first junior level
cricket match I went to see after leaving school. Royal vs. St.
Peter’s. Semi-Final. I went there
because there was a boy called Thiran playing.
Thiran Dhanapala. He made some
runs. Royal lost by a few runs in a closely fought game. Whether Thiran will go further than his
father is left to be seen, but I was happy to be there with my friend. It was not exactly justice catching up after
a quarter century, but it made me happy.
It happens a lot doesn’t it, this business of the deserving
being sidelined and those with ‘connections’ being penciled in? It is less about what you have done and what
you can do but who’s who you are, isn’t it?
It is about the Old Boys Club, about wining and dining with the right
people, throwing parties and having a certain air about you, isn’t it? And it is not limited to Royal College
In a few days time nominations will be submitted for the
forthcoming General Election. Peruse the
lists carefully. Try to find out how many decent people with credentials were
‘dropped’ by the various parties in favour of those who have lots of money or
have ‘spectacle’ value. There will be
film stars and sports personalities, the filthy rich and the thugs, I have no
doubt. Already the city walls have been
plastered with the ugly mugs of the rich, those who have the bucks, the men and
are absolutely free of shame.
There are rare cases when a good rugby player is also a
decent cricketer. Among those at Royal
in my time I remember Ajitha Pasqual, Michael Muller, Jagath Fernando, Graham
Lawrence and Rajiv De Silva. Krishan
George and Sampath Agalawatte were likewise multi-sports personalities, the
former securing colours in basketball, rugby and athletics. For the main part, though, cricketers don’t
make good politicians and neither do film stars, singers and beauty
queens.
Check the lists. Let
us see if any of the major political parties can come up with candidates with
some kind of relevant accomplishment. I
am willing to wager that incompetence and unsuitability will be what describes
best those who do make the lists and indeed those who get elected, which of
course is an indictment of the voter and supports the contention that people
get the governments they deserve.
Strong and visionary leadership does not on the other hand
pander to the least common denominator, does not calculate a candidate’s worth
in terms of his/her ‘star value’ or spending capacity but the ability to
function as a responsible and honest lawmaker who delivers on tasks
assigned.
The ‘lists’ then will show us what kind of people we are
(for candidates are chosen for ability to secure votes) and as seriously what
kind of leaders we have.
Thirty five years after dreaming a crazy dream and twenty
five years after burning inside at an injustice my friend had to suffer, I got
some kind of consolation. That is too
long for a society to wait, especially since we’ve waited for several decades
now for a different kind of politician and political culture to emerge. Today it is up to the leaders of the various
political parties. And if they don’t
deliver then tomorrow they will not be consulted or heeded.
Malinda Seneviratne is the Editor-in-Chief of 'The Nation' can can be reached at menevira@gmail.com
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