It eventually happened after numerous warnings were brushed off and fell on deaf ears as Sri Lanka’s south Asian neighbours Afghanistan and India dismantled the only pride of the island nation that triggered the common people to explode in all their anger and fury calling for the immediate sacking of cricket officials in a telling uprising on Friday.
Member of Parliament Hesha Withanage: Abolish cricket
In damning and provocative scenes Sri Lanka’s young and old alike threatened to pull down what was left of a ruined administration that is now being guarded by a heavy police presence with trucks after the team suffered humiliating defeats at the World Cup this week.
Joining the people’s warpath was the firebrand Member of Parliament Hesha Withanage who called for a complete sacking of officials running Sri Lanka Cricket that he said brought shame on a scale never witnessed before.
“There is nothing left to disgrace. Abolish cricket than allow it to continue with rogues running the show”, he declared as he blasted unscrupulous cricket officials who lived in a fortress that only they had access to that held their darkest of secrets amid untold riches and luxury.
One disgruntled elderly cricket fan told the Sunday Observer that it is not Sri Lanka Cricket that should be purged of corruption and nepotism, but people like him who should be sent to a firing squad for patronizing matches of the team.
But the extent to which the country’s only pride was trashed into a hell hole by boardroom notoriety was manifested in leading television news channels giving top billing to the calamity on their night News while all other issues took second place. The public slang directed against cricket officials was unprecedented while Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe who is yet to match his words with deeds issued a warning for the sport’s shady administrators to resign or face a sacking.
One of the cornered cricket officials at SLC told the Sunday Observer he was willing to resign from what is left of a fragmented administration and bow down to the people’s call for surrender if one more colleague fell in line.
With no reputed track record as players most of SLC’s decision-making officials stand accused of buying their positions through a corrupt voting system and exploiting its riches for self gain that includes intimate comforts, foreign travel, enhancing private business activities, commissions through shady deals and other entitlements like the latest model cars while preparations of the team for the World Cup was secondary or taken for granted.
