The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Passion drives the game in Lanka

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Thursday, Aug 04, 2005

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Passion drives the game in Lanka

S. Ram Mahesh

DAMBULLA: "Percy's cricket crazy but he has no mercy for cricketers, spectators, administrators, and the rest who are lazy," says the man who — for the last 25 years — has waved a proud Sri Lankan flag wherever the islanders have played. A man who refers to himself in the third person, a man who has named a son and a grandson Garfield and another grandson Sachin.

"I am my flag," says Percy, the glint in his runny brown eyes refracted by his spectacles. The ends of his military-trimmed moustachioed mouth curl and his upper body collapses in a laugh.

He is his country.

The easy grace and laugh that fail to conceal the passion that lurks beneath and occasionally breaks the surface are as Sri Lankan as the salty spray and the graceful skirts. We see it in Muralitharan's dervish dance, in his expectant eyes; we see it in Jayasuriya's monkish belligerence, in Atapattu's shy smile, in Sangakkara's swagger.

But curiously, this passion may have diluted the quality of Lankan cricket. "We have prided ourselves on our school cricket, which compares to the best in the world," says former Sri Lankan wicket keeper Ranjit Fernando, who has followed his homeland's cricket closely. "We had ten to fifteen public schools with coaches who were former Sri Lankan players.

Those who came out of this system could challenge those in the national squad.

"But cricket has become such a passion, such a religion that it has really proliferated to every nook and cranny [and spread] to about 400 or 500 schools. As a result, the support systems are not strong enough and the players coming out of it are not ready."

Shouldn't such proliferation build a wider base to build on?

"The pie is so large, a few good players do get through," says Fernando. Still, few youngsters have come through. Mahela Jayawardene has remained for some time now — about six years — Sri Lanka's best young batsman.

A curious paradox

Roshan Abeysinghe — who has worked with Test Match Special and BBC Asian and World service — points to another reason for the paucity of quality young players: the 1996 World Cup victory.

"After 1996, the schools introduced a limited-overs system. This was the detrimental effect of the World Cup win," he says. "We produced mediocre cricketers — spinners who couldn't flight the ball, batsmen who didn't know where their off-stump was, bowlers who couldn't bowl with skill."

This has been rectified with the introduction of 100-overs cricket "with no limitations" in schools says Abeysinghe. Both he and Fernando say the period in the nineties was where Sri Lanka slipped a tad. "I get the feeling there was a stage where skills were not taken care of," says Fernando.

"Not enough work was done on correcting flaws. It's all right for cricket at home, but you need certain adjustments to play in all conditions."

The decline in the standard of cricket was compounded by the problems of factionalism in the Sri Lankan cricket administration, creating an environment of instability and distracting the cricketers.

But the looming 2007 Word Cup has given the administration a greater cause. Tom Moody was appointed coach. A new physiotherapist and assistant coach are on the way. Moody has also been asked to look into cricket in schools.

"If I find anybody stepping on the line, out they go or out I go," says Tryphon R. Mirando, Secretary, Sri Lankan Cricket Board.

Almost on cue, Farveez Maharoof bowled a McGrathesque spell against the West Indies. Upul Tharanga — left-handed and silken — is the next big thing. Sri Lanka will be serious contenders in 2007.

If there is such a thing as a certainty in cricket, it is Percy and the Sri Lankan flag in the Caribbean.

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