Cricket ... and lessons learnt

We won the Micromax Tri-nation Cup last week and we did it without a few of the big names. Sans Sange, Mahela, Murali and Sanath J. M.P., we fielded a young side. Captaincy was rested with Dilshan, who much like Sange led from the front. He batted, bowled, fielded extremely well and even kept wickets in one game. What a man; hungry, determined, calm but out to prove a point that he is second to none. I saw a wayside billboard the other day with him on an advert for a motor-cycle in bold say “Hedakara Wedakaraya” (performer with good looks). That I thought was an apt description of the man. With his young team, he proved that Sri Lanka could do it again.

Can do it

The lesson there was that it is not past laurels that matter, but how they play as a team, without having to carry heavy baggage on their shoulders.

Randiv, Suraj, Taranga, and Thushara did their bit to support Ajantha, Dilhara, Angelo, Kapugedera and Samaraweera. Chandimal proved to be a real asset. Taking on the wicket-keeping gloves, his vibrant presence on the field was electric. The microphone on the stump captured his “come on Menda”, “well-done Menda”, “oh! No! Randi” and “what a ball Ayiah” loud and clear. He batted as if to say, “I too can do it, in power batting”.

Stand up firm

Hats off to Aravinda, the spokesperson for the selectors; both a victim and a beneficiary of the system in his player days, for the thoughtful remark he made. He said to the media, “If you have issues, please direct them to me. Be critical of us, but let the team play the game without worry”. That indeed was a lesson learnt. We must let those who are charged with playing the game, play with ease of mind. They must not be loaded with any negative thoughts or asked to take on external pressures. We must all turn on those responsible for selecting them, to ask them if indeed they have done the job, based purely on merit i.e. ability, attitude, aptitude and form.

No undue pressure

Many lessons are learnt from the game. File photo

Our cricket’s governing board has been accused of wrong doing more than once and like in everything else, its affairs must be run with complete transparency.

From officials, especially those that are involved in running sports bodies we expect high standards of conduct. They must be able to resist undue pressure and set examples to those who play the games, for sport is about nurturing and building character and personality.

More with less

Playing the Asia Cup now and some of the World Cup matches here on our soil next year and our cricketers doing the honours of winning them will be solid evidence of a nation that is on its way to being a wonder. It will bring us several million dollars worth free publicity with many TV viewing potential tourists and investors.

Cricket and tea are synonymous with the image of Sri Lanka and in bad times and good, both did quite well to hold together our fallen image. Why not we move to serving our own ice-tea during breaks and even create some ‘yara th‚ ‘ (hot tea mixed with a pull motion from container to cup) demonstrations, similar to our ‘th‚ kades’ at the matches to capture the attention of the viewing audiences? I think the BOCSL should not be lured by big money spent by sodas made of imported bases, but move on to serving our own brews, so we could expose them to the world at large. That could well be its next CSR project.

I recall how Sri Lanka Tourism worked with our Embassy in Washington, to send Sri Lankan cheer teams from the US to the West Indies, during the last world cup cricket tournament.

These members of the Diaspora held out designer generated placards (produced and sent from Colombo) that had attractive visuals and slogans linking each of our top cricketers to the Sri Lankan experience. They cost very little to the Tourism Promotion Board and the dollar to dollar value generated with free exposure on live telecasts was remarkable. Cricket matches often offer excellent opportunities for us to generate value for money exposure for Sri Lanka and the lesson we must learn is that, we need creative and imaginative ideas; not so much huge promotional spends to make the most of it.

Harnessing synergies

We can learn of ways in which we can as a nation, bring together the synergies we have in each of the areas we shine in. Tea, cricket, our athletes, the tourism offer are principal among these. Our national flag makes a most colourful presence and the more of them we have flying and waved at events, the better it will be. At most opening ceremonies of sporting events, it is heart-rending to see players singing along when their national anthem is played. A lesson we can learn from some of our competitors is how they make gestures such as holding their fists close to their hearts to demonstrate patriotism.

It is true that sound deeds are more important than mere gestures. Here, the call for us as a nation is to do both and do them well.