Roshan Mahanama: We want to help cricketers not fight the board

Sri Lanka Cricketers' Association (SCA) is still in its infancy, but has started well, have plenty of encouraging plans and look to be moving in the right direction. Their formation is clearly good news for national, club and past players alike.

Other Test nations established player associations long ago, but Sri Lanka's only started last December. Former Sri Lankan batsman Roshan Mahanama, Secretary of the SCA, admits that this has been a long overdue development.

"Ravi Ratnayake, the former Sri Lankan fast bowler, was the one who first stressed on the importance of having an association for the cricketers. This was about 15 years ago. He had all the documents details and everything, but unfortunately it didn't come through as Ravi had to migrate to Australia," said Mahanama.

When asked as to the need for such an association's, he answers: "We formed this to look after the welfare of the cricketers. If you look at the major commercial bodies in the country they all have associations. Cricket is one of the top five earners of foreign exchange, so we should have an association of our own."

Mahanama feels the welfare of the cricketers is not sufficiently catered too at present: "I played for Colombo Cricket Club (CCC) in the one-day tournament last year and I realised none of our players were getting paid."

Now the English Players Association gets 300,000 pounds sterling from the ECB and the Australian Cricketers' Association gets 750,000 dollars from their board, but we don't get a single cent from the Board," he says.

He is, however, hopeful that the players will be offered greater incentives in the future: "They are in the process of recognising us. I hope and pray they will. I am keeping my fingers crossed. But I must tell you that the Sports Minister was kind enough to grant us SLR 100,000 through the Sports Fund."

The CEO of the Cricketres' Association, Don Anurasiri, the former Sri Lankan spinner, agrees with Mahanama that the players' financial situation has to improve.

"The board pays some money to the clubs, but this money is not spent on the cricketers. Whereas in other counties this is not the case," remarked Don. "So we would like to see some of the money given out by the Board going to the cricketers, rather than for the development of the club".

Mahanama has ambitious plans for the future: "We want the clubs to get about 15-20 players contracted and pay them a share of what they get from the Board. Then we want to have an insurance scheme for the players and programmes like career guidance"

In fact, the SCA envisages a time when they too will contribute to the wages of club cricketers. In three years time Anurasiri hopes that: "We would be able to pay every club depending on their capabilities. We would be able to pay some sort of money to the contracted players."

And for those that have had to retire from the game: "Many past cricketers wonder what they are going to do with themselves after they have retired. If they are in trouble and need medical help or financial support, we want to be there to assist them."

The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) has yet to recognise the SCA, but members feel that it'll happen sooner than later: "When we had a meeting a couple of months ago they said they can't recognise us straight away. They said they wanted to see what we are doing."

The SCA is keen to foster a progressive relationship with the board. According to Mahanama: "We have told them that we have to go hand in hand. We didn't form the association to fight with the cricket board.

The SCA has already made efforts to popularise the game in outstation areas. They played a six-side tournament in Matara recently that involved over 50 past and present Sri Lankan cricketers. Last week they played a one-day game against the Matale District Cricket Association in Matale. Both the efforts attracted large crowds and were considered a great success.

A body that can represent Sri Lankan cricketers is long overdue in Sri Lanka. One only has to look at similar associations in the UK and Australia to see the immense contribution they can make towards player welfare. The formation of the SCA is therefore a very significant development that deserves the support of all those connected with the game.