It has now been confirmed beyond doubt that Olympic sports in Sri Lanka has been left in the hands of some of the world’s most corrupt and shady characters to the point that the National Olympic Committee like cricket was taken to Parliament for exposure and debate.
But unlike the cricket administration which was officially declared as corrupt and shady in Parliament, the activities of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) was merely discussed in the national Legislature and now forgotten or ended up in the where-are-they now files although websites read by Sri Lankans are full with volumes of the rot taking place.
After the upheaval backed up a popular people’s revolt and a Parliament outburst for the pending clean-up of corruption at Sri Lanka Cricket, another sordid saga has been reportedly taking place at the NOC which has been run like the private fiefdom of a chosen few who enjoy a kind of immunity that even kings and queens in the island may not have savoured.
Like cricket officials, the custodians of Olympic sports in Sri Lanka is tragically not about the athletes but about themselves and it was confirmed beyond measure when the secretary of the NOC Maxwell de Silva told a reporter from the Sunday Observer attending a felicitation ceremony some months ago to photograph officials along with the athletes. De Silva probably saw it as an opportunity to make Sri Lankans believe the NOC was working hard and honestly towards the welfare of sports and sportsmen in the country.
Some sports officials in Sri Lanka are going bonkers to assume that people have become suckers so as to think that they (officials) and not the sportsman are everything that matters. It has been documented in many publicized reports that De Silva has to answer questions over allegations of corruption and other secretive or clandestine activities that have been taking place under cover of NOC activities after two of its officials resigned.
The fear now is that with sports in Sri Lanka all about officialdom and not about cricketers or athletes, everything will be swept under the carpet thanks to political patronage that has been saving the day for shady characters entrusted with sports management in the country.
Sri Lanka must be the only country in the world where its sportsmen or women with on-field achievements cannot become decision makers in a rotten set-up and if some of them were able to, will they be in a position to play fair, be honest and live up to public expectations or sports followers in an establishment that has created a kind of profitable culture that is well entrenched and cannot be changed.
Arjuna Ranatunga lifted Sri Lanka’s only cricket World Cup more than 25 years ago and still he is struggling to rid Sri Lanka Cricket of corruption that has been well documented in legal Investigations. Why has Julian Bolling, one of Sri Lanka’s best swimming exponents who won five medals including four Golds at the Colombo South Asian Games in 1991, not being able to contribute much as would be desired. Did the set up drown his ambitions or targets in retirement, or was he not true enough to turn things around and live up to public expectations.
Where is Susanthika Jayasinghe today after winning Sri Lanka’s only Olympic medal in 50 years? Is the country to believe that these are the very people who lacked integrity to take an honest lead role and shut the door to unscrupulous elements who have held sway in a paradise for crooks who have never been quizzed by the media in the way politicians are subjected to?
This is the kind of immunity that sports officials in the country are savouring and basking to glory, enriching themselves, climbing the social ladder in the name of sports some of them amassing untold riches that would never have acquired by them being in any other field.
For how long will crooks and miscreants eating and drinking and swelling their bank accounts in the name of sports be allowed to hold sway while scores of village boys and girls who possess the potential to be nursed and groomed to wear the Sri Lanka colours are made to languish.
The most shameful act that a human being can do is to feel honoured by the humiliation of his fellow beings or scrounge on what is not his or hers.
A head of state was hounded out by a people’s revolt but some sports officials are living free, above the law and bigger than the country.
