A Shield for Shield for his incompetence

Mark Shield, the Jamaican Deputy Commissioner of Police will do well to mask his face with a shield when he steps into any other investigation after the enormous blunder he made in probing the Bob Woolmer death.

Without asking for a second post mortem, Shields who wanted to play the super cop finally had egg on his face, as the final ball in the Woolmer death was bowled indicated that the Pakistan cricket coach died of natural causes.

For nearly two months after the incident that took place in Jamaica where Woolmer was found dead in his hotel room after Pakistan lost their match to Ireland, the Jamaican police did not make much headway.

Scotland Yard detectives were flown into Jamaica and now comes the verdict from London's Metropolitan Police who have reached the final result after a study by a pathologist from Britain's Home Office proved that Woolmer was not murdered, but died of natural causes.

When the news of Woolmer's death first broke out the consensus among many and this writer too was that the coach would have died of natural causes. But not so the Jamaican police and especially Mark Shield.

When it was announced that the death was allegedly murder, it shook the cricketing establishment and the Caribbean proud hosts of the World Cup 2007 and some critics were baying for the immediate halt of the World Cup tournament.

But the International Cricket Council for whom criticism is more the rule rather than the exception, for once shed its toothless tiger image and ordered that the show must go on and quite rightly too.

But the investigations that took place certainly embarrassed the Pakistan team and their management and all others who were in the hotel that housed them as they were fine combed and put through a lot of hassle.

The death of the likeable Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer saw a pall of gloom descend on the World Cup, but that it went through without any hic-ups was respect to the former Kent and England player who was one of the finest coaches to tread the coaching circuit.

It would not be wrong to ask for the resignations of Mark Shield and his team of investigators for making a laughing stock of not only of the Jamaican police but the whole of the Caribbean.

If shield had played a patient waiting game instead of treading where angels fear and attempting to be a sawdust hero, he could have saved the blushes for everyone.

Shield must be presented a shield in remembrance for his incompetence and for the shame he perpetrated on Woolmer, his family, the ICC and everyone connected with the wonderful game of cricket.

It would be interesting to watch how the Jamaican Government would act on the boob that was made by Shield.

Basketball memories

The playing of the FIBA Asia qualifiers here between India, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka brought back memories of the era when the cager game was at its best in the sixties.

That was the time when the game reached dizzy heights and produced some of the greats who strode the courts here, with their excellent court craft that was amazing to watch.

Names that come to mind are C. Thurairaja, Cosmas and Percy Perera, Jesudhasan, Ponnambalam, Rasalingam, Wilson, Royden de Silva, Hilary White, Naufer Maharoof, Matthew George, Amaradasa, Rohan de S. Daluwatte, Randiligama, Malsiri Perera, Noel Pereira, Milroy de Silva, Edward Sumanasekera, Vijaya Silva, Sam Lovell and Valerian Fernando and a hosts of others whose names I cannot recall.

Coaches of that era who made these greats were Ram Suntheralingam, Mahesan, Nadaraja and Kathiragamathamby and Rev Cooke whose names come to mind. Percy Perera who was one of the finest shooters had the honour of winning Asia's Best shooter award after the Sri Lanka team played in the Asian Games.

That was the time when many tournaments were played, which sadly is not so today. Sri Lanka were regular visitors to India, Bangkok and Singapore for tournaments and also there were many tournaments conducted here. The famous encounter of that time was between the Old Bens and the University and which final used to see a full house of cager fans cheering themselves hoarse and enjoying every minute of thrilling cager fare.

It was the Old Bens who won many tournaments under the able leadership of Cosmas Perera who had no peer as an all court player and who went on to captain the country. Presidents of the national body who worked hard for the progress and development of the game were J. J. Sarangapany, Wilfred Severimuttu and Nagalingam.

One hopes that with the conducting of the Asia qualifiers here, the game will take a turn for the better.

IC and the Cricket selectors

The ugly incidents that took place between the chairman of cricket selectors and the Interim Committee would not have been, had the two sides indulged in a bit of give and take.

Instead of going public and washing dirty linen, better communication and some rapport would have solved the incident to the satisfaction of both sides.

One hopes that the two sides will mend fences and work for the betterment of the player, the game, the administration and all it stands for.