E Rodrigopolle: Bribery and Corruption Council of Cricket in SL (3 Nov 1997)

Tuesday 04, November 1997

Bribery and Corruption Council of Cricket in SL

Elmo Rodrigopolle

The Sri Lankan cricketers proved in no uncertain terms that the sordid bribery scandal has not affected them by rubbing the once mighty West Indies in the dust in Lahore in the Independence Cup tourney on Saturday.

The victory was a convincing one by seven wickets with nearly 10 overs to spare. Our cricketers also proved the point that had they met the Windies in the World Cup the result would have been the same.

Before the cricketers left they had to face a barrage of questions regarding the alleged bribery scandal. The most tormented was skipper Arjuna Ranatunga whose telephone kept ringing incessantly with the foreign media pestering him for information.

Ranatunga who has not only proved that he is the best captain in world cricket, also showed the diplomat in him, by telling the foreign media that his job is playing cricket. `Bribery is not in my vocublary', he told them.

Reports reaching us have it that even on arrival in Pakistan the cricketers were jostled by the media wanting to know more about the bribery scandal.

The bribery scandal has knocked the stuffings out of the cricket board and no amount of convincing of cleansing will restore the once good name.

Every where that sports fans gather the question is: Why doesn't the Cricket Board members resign gracefully and allow an impartial inquiry to be held.

The BCCSL could very well in future be called the Bribery and Corruption Council of Cricket in Sri Lanka. Had a bit of common sense and intelligence prevailed this shame would not have arisen.

The alleged bribery scandal gets intriguing with each passing day and indications are that the final overs will be bowled in the law courts with actions and counter actions.

Amidst the dirty linen that is being washed, with more interesting revelations to come, our treasured cricketers in Lahore did what they are best known for and that is keep winning.

At one stage Lara and Hooper looked like taking the game away from the Lankans with their clever and powerful strokeplay. But the Lankans who are undettered by big names and whatever the situation fought back like the magnificent men they are and had the Windies on the ropes at 237 for 8 in 50 overs.

When they replied the Lankans had early hiccups losing the very correct Marvan Atapattu and the master blasters Jayasuriya and Aravinda de Silva with the score on 69. That was as far as the windies could sniff for victory.

The reliable Mahanama and Captain cool ranatunga then got together to play one of their now familiar acts, to knockout the Windies and take Sri Lanka to a cake walk victory.

They were unruffled and played the bowling on its merits. First they unsettled the bowlers and fielders by finding openings in the field and once they got on top punished the pace of Ambrose, Walsh and Rose and the spin of Hooper and Lewis and the up and down stuff of Simmons with top class batsmanship.

When Ranatunga was on the field commentators Geoff Boycott and Henry Blofeld poked fun at him because of his rotundity. Blofeld said he looks roly poly, while Boycott who sent crowds scurrying out of the ground with his snail paced batting asked Blofeld whether he would call him a teddy bear.

What these two English men were forgetting is that it was their country who played `baby elephants' Colin Cowdrey and Colin Milburn. We mean no malice to these two great cricketers.

Oh for commentators of the calibre of John Arlott, Brian Johnstone, Fred Trueman, Trevor Bailey etc.

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)