Shihan Wijesinghe
It is high time that the administration of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and the Cricket Technical Advisory Committee came down from their high horses and resolved the player contract issue which took a back seat during the recent white ball series against India.
What these so-called pundits do not seem to understand is that it is callous to refuse annual contracts to cricketers. What they seem not to foresee is that if the livelihoods of the present set of players are not secured and handed annual contracts, a mass exodus of players to other countries, and early retirements of several senior players to play in privately sponsored franchise leagues to earn their bread and butter, is inevitable. The elected administrators and the appointed Technical/Advisory Committee appear to be hell bent on punishing the cricketers for daring to challenge their obnoxious ill-thought policies with little regard for the welfare of the game of cricket in the country.
The signs emerging as a result of these ill-advised policies are ominous, with several experienced cricketers planning their retirement from international cricket in disgust…
Most SL journalists are idiots. Sa’adi has brains. Rex wants harsher punishments for players who broke the bio bubble. Rex wanted Malinga to be taught a lesson too when Mailinga had an issue with the board. These idiots must be thinking there are international quality cricketers under every coconut tree because they are chasing away many players. I can’t believe we went into several world cups without Upul Tharanga who is one of the greatest ODI batsmen in our history. He has 15 ODI centuries and had at least 10 more ODI tons under his belt but his career was mismanaged by idiotic selectors like Sanath Jayasuriya and others. Angelo and Dimuth are now facing same calamity. These guys are in their prime years and have the ability to score big, match winning hundreds.
Yes, its not the cricket board’s job to teach anyone harsh lessons, punish people or instil discipline. Trying to ban players for 1 year for breaching bio bubble is madness. Where was team manager during this situation? How good was security if they could leave the hotel? Why was no one else reprimanded? Fine the players and make them pay hefty fines but dont ban them for so long and banish them. Some people are behaving like we have an abundance of world class players. We have a very few skilled players with enough experience to compete at the top stage.
Well said!
Saadi is right. Most Sri Lankans will not agree. Aravinda and his technical committee are causing a bigger mess not fixing anything.
Mickey is spineless and will do as he is told so no hope there.
Namal will appoint committees filled with people whom the public adore because Namal is a populist politician and that’s what they do.
Right before a World Cup they are experimenting with the side. More competent management would be using this precious time get their World Cup top order batsmen into form by playing them consistently. Not us. Even in 2014 they selected Chandimal (a guy who wasn’t even in the T20 team) to be captain of 2014 T20 World Cup side and later they had to drop him in the middle of the World Cup! Our problems have existed even before 2015 because the political stooges at SLC are not there because they have the skills and ability to manage a national sports body. The worst is yet to come. The decline is far from over and cannot be reversed by Aravinda’s c
Excellent points! And you make a very important point about populist politicians. We should not get hoodwinked by all these committees and meetings they organise just to make it seem like action is being taken.
Let’s be clear here… Thawfeeq just compared some of the greatest Cricketers in the World History of Cricket (Sanga, Murali, Mahela, De Silva) to the likes of Udana, TP, and Tharanga in terms of having fair player contracts to reflect the assets they are to the country? Is this a joke? Assets appreciate over time. For example, Sanga retired with a Test Batting average over 57, ODI batting average over 40, etc., by the time he retired. I don’t need to state the statistics of the more recently retired players mentioned above because they are pedestrian to say the least. How they managed to continue to playing for Sri Lanka till their mid-30s is the real question. Have we truly forgotten our cricketing achievements of the past we are calling the most medicore of players now assets? If these medicore players want to retire and go play in meaningless T20 leagues here and there let them – not a loss. That’s probably a fairer reflection of their ‘asset’ worthiness than what they are to
Depreciating assets? Bad form is temporary. All our past greats were pretty average players for most of their careers, ha ups and many downs, and bloomed after playing for many years. We have had 50+ debuts since Sanath Jayasuriya became chairman of selectors. That is crazy. No one has been allowed a long consistent run for years.
You want to have the best talent, you pay them well and treat them well or someone else will and you lose. If there is no incentive to become a professional cricketer, youngsters will look for different careers. National pride and nationalism won’t matter when it comes time to pay your bills.
The author Thawfeeq is a veteran journalist and one of the most respected cricket writers in SL.
He has given us a different perspective on this issue and we must value that. All the bayyos in the SL media and some former players are behaving like political stooges and giving us only one angle.
I have only read one other article about this contract issue that gives a balanced view like Thawfeeq has and all other news coming from SL about this has been to punish the players and chase our valuable talent away.
These bayyos were attacking Kumar and Mahela years ago too. Not every person has the knowledge/skills to manage employees and value staff in order to grow and be successful.
Bayyos have no management skills or good ideas. Cricketers are the cricket board’s top assets and should be top priority.
Read this article as well if you want to get a clearer picture of this fiasco: https://www.islandcricket.lk/news/featured/sri-lanka-contracts-cricketers-dispute-210615/
100% agree with Sa’adi. Only very few cricket commentators these days who have the courage to talk straight. Bulk of them do not want to upset technical committee or the board.
We expected lot from this technical committee but they have failed so far. The new contracts with KPI’s appear to be having some faults. No point of having KPI’s if you cannot measure them in a transparent manner. Once cricketers pointed it out that to the board and the technical committee they got angry. Now they are all out to take revenge from senior cricketers. Even our great Murali’s reaction was very poor.
It is good to give more opportunity to young talented cricketers. But we need a good short, medium and long terms plans with seniors also in the mix.
We also need a chief selector who is capable of earning respect from from all the cricketers. Of course he cannot make everybody happy but with clear policies and transparent action he can earn respect from everybody. ( such as Mahanama )
Mahanama seems like a good choice to be Chairman of Selectors. And I am in complete agreement with your views.
Murali’s behaviour in recent times has been shocking.
Difficult times I am afraid! Yes cricketers are assets but the stocks are down due to years of poor performance. Talking respect, I am not sure if some of the cricketers themselves have had the same level of respect for the game in recent time. Unfit players, poor fielding, brainless batting and constant injuries isn’t exactly the associated with respectable assets!
There are many different fixes to problem and this fix requires breaking and dismantling before reassembling. There will be more pain before we get back on the horse.