How the World Cup came to be staged in Lanka (4 May 1999)
The idea of staging a few World Cup matches in Sri Lanka in the year 1996 along with India and / or Pakistan had been revolving in my mind ever since I took over Office as honorary secretary of the Cricket Board in June, 1991
04-May-1999
4 May 1999
How the World Cup came to be staged in Lanka
Neil Perera
The idea of staging a few World Cup matches in Sri Lanka in the year
1996 along with India and / or Pakistan had been revolving in my mind
ever since I took over Office as honorary secretary of the Cricket
Board in June, 1991. However, the unknown financial commitment
required for this event and the low income that would accrue to our
Cricket Board from the gates and television rights compared to the
Indian and Pakistan Cricket Boards dampened the enthusiasm I had
regarding this matter.
Then, with the news that the ICC was taking up this matter in June,
1992, I summoned enough courage to review this idea. The Board of
Control for Cricket at that time was finding it most difficult to
even finance the many tours from test playing countries we had
arranged in spite of the tremendous effort made by Mr. Tyronne
Fenando and Mr. Lal Wickrematunge, President and Treasurer of the
Cricket Board to obtain sponsorship for these matches from local
sponsors. Mr. Tyronne Fernando, no doubt used his political clout to
good purpose to obtain the necessary funds for several International
matches after a drought in this regard and thereby giving our
cricketers the necessary exposure against Test playing Nations before
the advent of the World Cup.
In this financial background, the staging of any World Cup Games in
Sri Lanka appeared to be a daunting task. However, undaunted with
what appeared to be a bleak prospect, I requested Mr. Tyronne
Fernando to obtain the concurrence of President Premadasa to bid for
the World Cup along with India and Pakistan, and also to inform him
that financial backing may be needed from the Government in the event
of any financial shortfall. A few days later I received a most
encouraging reply from Mr. Tyronne Fernando that President Premadasa
had given his blessings and was fully supportive of our proposal.
I immediately wrote to the Secretaries of the Indian and Pakistan
Cricket Boards, suggesting that we jointly bid for the World Cup
1996. The Indian Board responded favourably, but the Pakistan Board
was rather evasive. However, I continued to press on with my proposal
and suggested separately to the two Cricket Boards that in the event
any one of them bidding for staging the World Cup, we would like to
join hands.
On the eventful day of the ICC Meeting at Lords in June, 1992, with
the concurrence of Mr. Tyronne Fernando, I approached the delegations
of India and Pakistan and once again suggested that we make a joint
bid. However, General Khan, President of the Pakistan Cricket Board
was adamant that Pakistan would bid separately. We informed General
Khan that the prospect of Pakistan winning against the other 2
contestants, namely, England and South Africa, appeared to be bleak.
Disregarding our advice, Pakistan went ahead with its application to
host the World Cup and finished a poor last in the contest. But the
contest itself ended in a stalemate with England and South Africa,
obtaining equal number of votes from the Test playing countries. The
ICC rules require that two third of the Test Playing Countries should
vote in favour of the winner for a decision in a contest of this
nature. The meeting had to be temporarily adjourned to permit the
delegates to carry out any consultations to resolve the problem. This
gave Sri Lanka an opportunity to cash in and I approached General
Khan of Pakistan again with the proposal for a joint bid with India
and Pakistan. With a great deal of persuasion, I was able to convince
Pakistan to agree to our proposal.
When the meeting started after the adjournment, there were two bids
of which one was by England and the other the joint bid by India,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka. When the vote was taken, we received 05 votes
and England 04 votes from the Test playing countries. The majority of
the non Test playing countries also voted in our favour. A deadlock
again! At this stage the, Chairman of the ICC, Sir Collin Coowdrey
nominated Sir Clyde Walcott to work out a solution to resolve the
crisis. After several hours of backroom discussion among the key
delegates, a compromise formula was arrived at with England opting to
back out of the contest provided it could host the World Cup in 1999.
South Africa not to be outdone indicated that it would agree to the
suggestion provided it could host the World Cup in year 2002/2003.
After obtaining an informal agreement among the Test playing
countries to the compromise formula, the ICC finally agreed that
India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka would host the World Cup in 1996 and
the two subsequent World Cup matches will be hosted by England and
South Africa respectively. The above narrative will provide the
information leading to the staging of World Cup matches in Sri Lanka
which the followers of cricket in this country were not aware of up
to the present time. The achievement of being able to host the World
Cup in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, no doubt set the stage for the
grand finale in winning of the World Cup by Sri Lanka.
Bringing India and Pakistan together in a joint bid for the World Cup
along with Sri Lanka with encouragement from Mr. Tyrone Fernando was,
perhaps the greatest achievement I have had in my long association
with the Sri Lanka Cricket Board, spanning nearly 30 years. The
present Chairman of the ICC, Mr. J. Dalmiya had this to say of my
contribution in this regard,
"Dear Neil,
I would like to thank you for all the hard work that you did in the
last few months to make the joint bid of Pakistan, India and Sri
Lanka successful. In fact, without your crucial role in the ICC
meeting in London on February 2, 1993, the 'cake' would perhaps have
not come to this subcontinent.
In the meeting we observed how you intervened on time and placed your
opinion forcefully, even in the face of strong opposition from the
other side. And the success of the joint bid owes a lot to your hard
work and efficiency.
Now that we have succeeded in bringing the 1995 tournament to this
subcontinent, we will have to work hard, hand in hand, as we did in
the last few months, to make it the greatest show on earth, in terms
of grandeur, efficiency and finesses. And I am sure, we will do it. I
would like to thank you once again for your valuable support and
cooperation. With kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
J. Dalmiya."
Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)