"What an ungrateful lot the Sri Lankans are," exclaimed a distinguished retired Sri Lankan lawyer I know as we exchanged views about the England Test series we had just lost
Nigel Kerner03-Sep-2002"What an ungrateful lot the Sri Lankans are," exclaimed a distinguished retired Sri Lankan lawyer I know as we exchanged views about the England Test series we had just lost. An expatriate Singhalese of illustrious Kandyan pedigree, and a proud dignified man, he was utterly disgusted with the things he had read and heard about the recent tour of our Test side in England. It was soon evident that he was less upset about the defeats, than what they were saying about his hero Dav Whatmore."It’s typical….typical of our people to say things like that. I’m a Singhalese as you know," he said hurriedly…."but I’m not like that". He launched into a tirade."I hear Whatmore is a friend of yours. Please explain to him that we are not all like those racist types that you see and hear around the SSC bar, extolling the virtues of Dutugemunu, Vijaya Bahu, Ananda College, and the SSC.I was taken aback a bit at the vehemence of his diatribe and the sincere shame he apparently felt, about the written and rumoured stories coming out of the island about the defeats, blaming Dav Whatmore as chief coach, for the beating our team took at the hands of the English."But this kind of thing happens in all countries," I protested. "Look at the English. How nasty, disloyal and petulant they can get in the Press, when a football match is lost!""Oh but I’ve worked in this country (England) for many years and the English don’t do and say things like that. They say nasty things as a reaction, in the heat of the moment. Our people, on the other hand, calculate what they say. Our people say things because they usually have hidden agendas motivating them. They have political and family centred motives in mind when they run people down.""What do you mean exactly?" I asked."These things they say about Whatmore… blaming mostly him for the Sri Lankan debacle….It’s all because he is not a Singhalese. They keep quiet when he is doing the business for us. Winning nine tests on the trot…Winning the World Cup. They even resent it, because he is not like them. They won’t blame Sanath, because he is their folk hero. Their boy. Their hero…their own kind. Yet he is the one who…."I interrupted him. "But what’s wrong with that. We all need heroes and its only natural to make one out of your own kind. The British, to my mind, are far more parochial than the Singhalese.""The `Sinhalayas’ resent the fact that a full blooded Singhalese is not the Head Coach," he retorted…. "I know our people. You are a Burgher. You don’t know what these Sinhalayas are capable of.""But you are a Singhalese… don’t you want to see a Singhalese in his job?""I want the best man for the job. Whatmore is after all a Sri Lankan," he said, banging the bar stool. "We should be jumping for joy that we have him. Put a Singhalese in charge and you will have his aunt, niece and kussiamma and all his machangs acting as panka walla’s for him in no time."The mini world cup is coming up. The ICC World Cup itself is next year in March. Not long now. These people see thousands of dollars up for grabs. But it’s not just money…it’s the prominence… the influence …the free tickets…They want the reflected glory. I read something so true the other day," he said, stopping to sip his whisky soda. "Some one wrote," he explained…. `The performance of the Sri Lankan cricketers is inversely proportional to the number of coaches they have, and the amount of money spent on them’…At last he said something I could agree with wholeheartedly. Something I have suspected as the root of the debacle in England. It started on a golf course in Colombo, over a year ago, when a member of the previous three man committee fell prey to the self seeking solicitations of a foreign coach, who persuaded him to hire his services for a few weeks, at the equivalent of $1000 for every day he worked. Let’s say that it was at that point that we lost the series in England.We then went on to hire other foreign coaches, whose home countries present the two main rivals to us in winning the World Cup. Someone who would train a rival team to beat their own nation’s team, in something as important and precious as the World Cup, is to say the least suspect. What an ideal opportunity to sabotage the team they train. Information gleaned about a team’s weaknesses, technically, politically and socially could be priceless, if conveyed to the cricket authorities of the coach’s own nation.No doubt foreign coaches would throw up their hands in protest and say that a man’s profession is distinct from his cultural roots, as they laugh all the way to the bank and their own national players’ dressing rooms.We have given priceless `intelligence’ away to our rivals, about the most private things, such as our internecine team relationships and player kinship. Valuable psychological insights, when rivals plan match strategies against individual players. Those who know anything about cricket at all know that first and foremost it is a mind game. It’s chess on grass. It is won more on strength of character and mind, than strength of muscle. Arjuna Ranatunga proved this, time and time again, during his inspired captaincy.What does appointing all these coaches do? It does one thing. It undermines the Head Coach – Dav Whatmore. He is reduced, in effect, to a simpering acquiescent non-entity, whose opinion is sublimated by so many people that no one knows what to do, or when to do it.My friend’s contention was that this was the intention all along. He actually spelt it out. I quote "Whatmore was set up by an `Ananda’ cartel. So that a failure on his part would be a sop to replace him with one of home grown pedigree." If this is so, we will go back to square one. To the dark ages of cricket, when we were losing match after match and taken to be a team not much different from Bangladesh and Kenya.Why oh why don’t we learn our lessons. Why are our memories so short. Is there no one out there in the Sri Lanka cricket establishment who thinks of the interests and reputation of the country, before their own petty little ambitions and ego. I cannot believe that everyone in the echelons of cricket power in Sri Lanka is a cheap self-centred peacock, poser and opportunist, tuned exclusively into their own wretched personal interests. How can we be taken seriously for the imaginative and talented people we are, when foreigners see us too often for the greedy, short-sighted, opportunistic way we behave, when and where it matters.The series debacle in England was likely to be due to a multitude of reasons – and to go into them would be a useless exercise, because few will ever agree on their veracity. It was one thing, if it was anything – good captaincy (Nasser Hussein’s effort) and climate. No one in Sri Lanka, who has not spent time in England this summer, would know how dreadful the weather has been. And the cold – it has been an unbelievable 13o C on July 24th – the midpoint of summer. Try gripping the ball if you are a tropical lad, or indeed stopping it, when it is coming at you at speed, with cold hands.Having said this – at world level, with our elevated position in world cricket, having won 9 tests on the trot – there is no doubt we should have done much better. The days of inspired captaincy seem to have gone and Sanath had to do his best with a confused bowling situation, due to Muralitharan’s injury, and a pace attack that did not work in the conditions. The sun is the blood of all tropical warriors of the willow, and there was to be too little of it, too late, in England. – Morocco proved the truth of this. When the sun shines on the back of a Sri Lankan batsman, or bowler, it shines down his arms and limbs and blazes a talented light into any bat or ball. It has often brought spectacularly successful results.And so the knives were out in disappointment and angst in Sri Lanka, when the cold and lack of cricket practice set us at a disadvantage that affected us throughout the tour. Judged seasonally, setting early date tours against tropical players brings a considerable advantage to the home side in temperate parts. But that has always been the privilege of the home side. The only way we judge the true performance of any team, in terms of `venue’, is to play all Tests or series in neutral countries.It was a surprise to many that Dav Whatmore had, and has, no say in selections. He had a rhetorical input, but that was usually overlooked by the Selection Committee. Whatmore’s cricket intuition and insight is second to none and is respected by all Test playing nations.Although he is not happy now to have no official selection input, after the recent experiences he’s had in England, he was happy at one stage not to be a selector, because it might have affected his rapport with the players, if he had to choose from amongst them. It is the vital psychological rapport he has with the players that finally provides the incentive, impetus and motivating power that has brought so much success to the team. But this is easily sabotaged by rumour, innuendo, or deliberate lies, planted strategically to have a particular effect on particular people. It was the way of `Iago’ and we all know what happened to `Desdemona’ as a result.If we want to lose the World Cup before we play it, just continue as we are going and I am convinced Whatmore will be off to parts foreign, to coach other teams, for offers well in excess of the sum the Board pays him. The going rate for a world reputed national coach, in any of the world’s top sports, makes Whatmore’s salary look like a pittance. Many who know him personally know how much he adores the land of his birth and how much he has sacrificed to be here to contribute to her progress in world cricket.The team is triumphant now, after their marvellous victory in Morocco. They beat Pakistan and South Africa twice, with ease, and most of all with good powerful cricket. No partisan fix ups here. It was all done as equals in neutral territory. The scoundrels who crawled out of the rocks to criticise our team, when they were down, are now squirming with denials, if not smiling obsequiously with false features loaded with praise.Who said Aravinda De Silva was not a one-day player! Who said he was a `has been’. Dav Whatmore should talk to Aravinda De Silva about ungratefulness in cricket. Aravinda could tell him a thing or two. I bet you, you will find no one in Sri Lanka who will admit to saying these things, unless the rascals were caught in print. Even if they were, they’d say it was a typing error.How do you do this to your own Sri Lanka. How do you treat our magnificent `Lions’ of the leather and willow with such fickle grace and treacherous dismissal, when occasionally they wilt. We all hold our heads up and chests out in the world today, not for our political finesse, or social comradeship, as a nation. These things have shamed us in the past 35 or so years. We stand upright in the world, because a group of laconic, polite, young `gentle’-men become lions on a field of green and take on all-comers in the world arena with a talent in hand and eye, muscle and bone, second to none on their day. They have delivered handsomely. We should cherish them. All of them, and support and be loyal to them when occasionally they fall. It is only then that we can claim that we have a right to the glory they bring us all. It is the least we owe them.
