The importing-mania in school cricket

The school cricket season is about to start. Newspapers, as they usually do, will feature the top teams in the island. The top players will be talked about, the records too and of course the greats produced by the particular school. The particular scribes will no doubt put their fingers on what’s most important about the particular teams. 

Think about the team photos. They’ll get the names. They’ll indicate captain, coach and teacher-in-charge using brackets. It is unlikely, however, that they’ll talk about the schools that the players attended prior to being enrolled in the school being featured. 

Of course, there’s nothing illegal in students moving from one school to another. They do so for various reasons. Some get into schools with better facilities on account of performance in the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination. Some move after the OLs. Some, on the other hand, are ‘imported’ to use a term that’s been used for a long time when referring to the phenomenon.

It’s simple. Schools, usually the ‘bigger’ ones with all kinds of resources, especially name-value that opens corporate doors to school-leavers, scout for talent. It could be at the Under 15 or Under 17 levels. In certain situations they might even look for talented players for the First XI.

There’s nothing illegal in all this. As for ethics, it can cut both ways. One argue that the particular kids’ chances in cricket, studies or career are significantly enhanced. One can say, ‘it’s demand and supply, stupid!’ for after all we’ve embraced or have been made to embrace the relevant ‘ethics’.  It’s a reality bro, someone might say. 

As for those who talk about the ‘full-blooded’ kids, i.e. those who’ve been in the school from Grade 1 and have worked hard to make it to the team, toiled through the various age-groups only to find themselves displaced by an ‘import,’ well it can be argued that it’s all about performance and that the better player gets the spot in the team.  

We can talk about loyalty to the school, that hard-to-identify ‘something’ that will persuade a player to dig in and fight to the bitter end. I don’t have the stats on that one, but gut says that those who have over the years formed strong attachments to the school will fight long after others have given up. Still, the jury is out on that one, to be fair.

The issue that remains unresolved in my mind is this: the obvious motivating factor of winning (or not losing as the case may be) at all costs.  Drive is one thing. The will to win is good. However, the ‘at-any-cost’ of anything cannot be wholesome. 

Forgotten in all this is the fundamental purpose of schooling. Learning. Learning not just facts and figures, properties of matter, how to resolve complex problems, the histories of the world, a sense of the great architects of the edifice of knowledge and science etc., but obtaining something that would make for a more wholesome and benign engagement with friends, family, community, nation and the universe. 

What does ‘importing’ do, apart from the disillusionment that gets ingrained in those who worked hard for years only to see ‘an outsider’ parachuting into the team? When schools act in ways that students get a message such as ‘by any means necessary, putha’ out goes all values, all ethics and all notions of fair play.  Sure, they could pick such things from any number of sources outside school or even within the school, but why risk it?  

Cricket, importantly, is a glamour sport. Cricketers are held in awe by younger students. They are mini role models for many kids. If character is imprinted on them, it rubs off on many. If by-any-means-necessary gets tattooed on their general conduct, it pricks the kids and could leave scars they could very well do without.  

Principals could be principled about such things. Coaches too. And of course old boys who seem to have a big say in decision-making with respect to getting ‘the right team’.  If they ‘import’ questionable values, they invariably export the building blocks of a decent, responsible and ethically solid character.  

Somehow, I can’t convince myself that this is the best way to go about dealing with talent-deficits.  

Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer. malindasenevi@gmail.com 

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Reflections on ‘The Ponting Principle’



Former Australian Captain Ricky Ponting

The Australian cricket captain, Ricky Ponting, is unarguably one of the best batsmen the world has ever seen. His career statistics in all forms of the game makes awe-inspiring reading: total of 11,435 runs in Tests (average: 55.88) and 12043 in ODIs (average: 43.32).  He has scored 38 Test centuries and 28 in ODIs.


In the first Semi-Final of the ongoing Champions Trophy in South Africa, Ponting scored an unbeaten 111 of 115 balls and with Shane Watson (136 not out, off 132) to see off a resurgent England team.  It was not ‘extraordinary’ on Ponting’s part because he is so good that one almost expects him to deliver each time he walks out to the middle.

Sri Lanka is out of the tournament after weak outings against England and New Zealand following a clinical performance against hosts South Africa. The sports pages this Sunday are full of cogent post-mortems on Sri Lanka’s early exit. I am sure Kumar Sangakkara, the selectors, coaches and others involved with cricket in Sri Lanka will have their own theories and, if they are not arrogant, will at least read these analyses and pick up some tips for the future. 



I am hopeful, too, that they will not miss a brilliant 3-word explanation of success offered by Ricky Ponting regarding the secret of his team’s success: ‘Respect every ball’.  That was his message to his team mates before taking on England, a team that the Australians thrashed 6-1 just a few weeks ago.  The subtext is very clear: no complacency, nothing frivolous, no showmanship; just discipline and hard work in the middle. It worked.  I would say it works most of the time. 

What is respect?  It is about treating each delivery on its merits. It is also about playing the percentages; taking risks only when you can afford to take them and milking the singles until you are set. If Shane Warne offers you a full toss you don’t pat it down back to him because he is Shane Warne: you clobber it over midwicket because it is a loose ball meant to be put away. This does not mean that Shane Warne is having an off day, it must be remembered.  His next delivery could be a replica of the ball-of-the-century (his first on English soil) at Old Trafford when he got the ball to pitch several inches away from the leg stump and turn back to take Mike Gatting’s off stump.  What came before, then, could give an indication of what can come next, but all you should take away is the confidence.  Going overboard might get you a couple of boundaries but the law of averages will play out and often this could be the difference between victory and defeat.

Treating every ball with respect is easier said than done. It takes hard work by way of preparation. It requires discipline and a commitment to both team and self to go the extra mile, i.e. to work on all aspects of one’s game, especially those elements which a coach cannot hone beyond a particular point. You can have all the respect you like but if you don’t have the skill (and this includes mental preparation, positive frame of mind and a thinking cricketing brain) you are probably not going to score with the consistency of a Ponting or Tendulkar.



ICC Chief Match Referee and former
Sri Lankan Captain
Ranjan Madugalle

I remember Sri Lanka’s former captain, Ranjan Madugalle commenting on life using a cricketing example: ‘Whenever I find myself getting out early, or consistently getting out in the same manner, I go back to the basics:  my stance, my back lift, things like that.’

‘Whenever you go wrong’, he told a hall full of schoolboys, ‘you have to get back to the fundamentals, find out where the error is and work hard to correct it’. 

This requires, among other things, a strong capacity to be humble. There are three things that inhibit learning: laziness, arrogance and the unwillingness to suffer the pain. 



Kumar Sangakkara will bounce back, I am sure because he has a mind and he can employ it to discover all the chinks in his armour. How about the rest of the team? How about politicians, officials and citizens?

‘Respect every ball’ is a lesson that can be applied in all engagements, I believe, where these is contestation of one kind or another, for example, foreign affairs. We know there are bowlers who are difficult to negotiate. We know there are bowlers who may not have the speed or variation but will bowl a nagging line and length. We know there are bowlers who can turn the ball on any wicket. We know also that there are good bowlers who will have off-days, bowl a wayward line and an erratic length. We must not forget that there are rank bad bowlers who can have a good day at the office, who can even come up with a peach of a delivery now and then. 

In the international arena, we get people who are pretty ordinary, in terms of intellect, integrity and diplomatic endowments. Most of these ‘bowlers’ can be put away without too much sweat. On the other hand, even an ordinary bowler can be counted on to attack a batsman’s known weakness and sooner or later get him out. The lesson: cannot afford to be complacent.



We also have to take note of the second key word in the Ponting Principle: ‘ball’. You play the ball and not the man. Sure, it is good to have a sense of the bowler’s character, history and so on, which no doubt gives the batsman a clue about his thinking process, but in the final instance you have to deal with ball and now who delivers it. 

‘Respect the ball’ is made of three simple words. Behind the words is a philosophy that can make a huge difference in the success rate if applied comprehensively to our engagements. Let us hope that Sri Lanka Cricket takes note and let us all read deep into what Ricky Ponting said. It won’t harm us, that’s clear.

Courtesy: Daily News - 5 October, 2009

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Kumar Sangakkara: a man, a heart, a residence for all Sri Lankans

It was bound to happen. Peter Roebuck, who knows something about cricket, zilch about politics and history, has a sweeping style of commentating that is well fed by an arrogance that ideally compliments ignorance, took away a lot of gloss of what’s being described as one of the finest innings at Lords.  Factual inaccuracies and wild extrapolations slipped in with cogent arguments offered by others made for a piggy-backing of the most nauseating kind. 

I listened to what Kumar Sangakkara had said at the MCC ‘Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture’ all over again. Sangakkara was sharp, critical, pertinent and hopeful; Roebuck was caustic, off-context, dishonest and pessimistic.  Sangakkara got a standing ovation of the kind that Roebuck would never have got for his cricket or for his pedestrian commentaries. 

There are codes of conduct and a man of Sangakkara’s experience, intellect and stature would naturally be aware of these. I am not sure what kind of fallout there will be, but I am sure Sangakkara would not be unaware of possible costs of bring forthright. 

He was applauded at the Nursery Pavilion at Lord’s on Monday night (July 4, 2011) and the applause has not died down yet. Indeed, there is no reason it should.  Most importantly, not here in Sri Lanka, where people across the political spectrum are appreciative of the home truths that needed to be told but aren’t. His words are important for even as they are about mal-administration in cricketing circles, they speak to mal-administration across all institutions and in all institutional arrangements; it is not something relevant only to sports bodies. 

A friend commented: ‘Here's a man who defines what being Lankan really is’. True. Sangakkara will be quoted and re-quoted for years to come. There are quotable quotes in that speech that cricket scribes will savour for a long time to come. This, for example: ‘Fans of different races, castes, ethnicities and religions who together celebrate their diversity by uniting for a common national cause. Those fans are my foundation, they are my family. I will play my cricket for them. Their spirit is the true spirit of cricket.’ 

If cricket is taken as metaphor there is a lesson here for every young boy and girl in this country and in the world. Family is larger than father, mother, siblings and other relatives. The collective is indeed a ‘family’, and it is for that family that one plays or ought to. That is the true spirit of nationalism and solidarity.

We live in a country and world where party-loyalty, genuflection before employer and silence on account of costs involved override all other things. Sangakkara points to a different way of being: ‘My loyalty will be to the ordinary Sri Lankan fan, their 20 million hearts beating collectively as one to our island rhythm and filled with an undying and ever-loyal love for this, our game.’ Our ‘game’ is not cricket. Well, it is cricket and is not. It is more than cricket. It is about healing and embracing, being and becoming, distinct as well as common. 

There are words spoken with heart and when heart speaks words go to heart like the rays of the young son. Exhilarates. Empowers. Makes us want to be more than we are and strive to stretch the horizons of the possible. Kumar Sangakkara said it beautifully: ‘With me are all my people. I am Tamil, I am Sinhalese, I am Muslim and Burgher. I am a Buddhist, a Hindu, a follower of Islam and Christianity. But above all, today, and always, I will be proudly Sri Lankan’. 

I feel at home in those sentiments and resident in the heart of that man. This is why I believe that many recognize that Kumar Sangakkara has taken up residence in their hearts. He has, in mine. I am proud that he has and I am proud I am Sri Lankan in a Sri Lanka which, for all its errors and disappointments, does not forbid residency of all peoples in one and one in all. 

Kumar Sangakkara is not perfect. He will slip, he may fall, but he can be assured that for this speech and the sentiments therein, there won’t be lack of people to help him up. For he’s picked us all up. All by himself. 

http://www.dailynews.lk/2011/07/07/fea02.asp 

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