7.1.2008
by Trevor Chesterfield
It
is a fusty of cliché but even the allegory of how
a new broom sweeps clean has its uses.
Well, Yahaluweni, as long as the new broom doesn't sweep
old debris under the carpet and allow it to become forgotten.
That is always a real danger. The International Cricket
Council did that with the early warnings of the match-fixing
malpractice in the 1990s and look how that blew up and left
rotten egg on the ICC's image.
But Arjuna Ranatunga, aka 'Cap'n Cool' could also soon find
himself ladled with a new handle (not one of the broom variety
either) in 'Cap'n Clever' as he negotiates the first weeks
of his tenure as chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket. He became
an astute captain of the national side and as such earned
much international respect.
This is a reminder that he not only has a major role to
play in sorting out the weak areas of the game in this country.
He fills, for a while at least, the position of President
of the Asian Cricket Council and in March will need to attend
the ICC meeting as the country's member of the council and
other ICC roles. All of which means there is far more on
the surface that the job of running the sport locally.
This last named role carries a lot of prestige as well as
work. There is no doubt, with his playing background expertise
and mindful of his own pathway to the top, he should add
value to position. Also, he has Duleep Mendis, the SLC chief
executive, who will fill in the background of what he can
expect.
Yet, the man at the top can only be as effective as the
team he has around him. The plans to bring the popular and
highly respected Michael Tissera back into the system, along
with Aravinda de Silva, can only but help create the right
environment. As it is, Tissera and Sidath Wettimuny have
played a role as part of a committee in the redevelopment
of infrastructures as the country's Test and international
venues.
All this, of course, is invaluable window dressing as the
system works towards the 2010 World Cup when Asia have their
third turn.
Ranatunga says that he plans to run the system until then.
Two years though is not a long tenure when you think of
the time he was captain; the point here is that two years
is about the shortest term available to put effective structures
in place to see that they work. The planning is built around
such long-term development ideas.
This is where the help of those he trusts, and those he
knows, who will work for Sri Lanka Cricket and its advancement,
becomes important. It is not a job for those with egos,
to throw their weight around. It is a team game and as such
the man in charge needs to know how his team works to achieve
lasting success.
In this, hopefully, he will be able to retain some of the
national selection panel for the term of his tenure. One
of the problems in Sri Lanka and India is how all too often
selection panels are changed: on the island because of some
sports law decree. While the convener Asatha de Mel has
been in charge since 2006, it would make sense to retain
him in this position at least until the next World Cup.
Maybe replace some of the others, but the convener is the
man who has to deal with the captain, coach and the senior
team management with forward thinking.
This is where continuity becomes so invaluable. Without
it the long-term goals are all too often lost. When Wettimuny
walked away from the position of selection convener in 2000
because of sports ministry interference, the longer-term
aims were in part side tracked.
Now, in the early days of this column, in 2004, it surprise
me that there was no national plan for the game. A design,
that is, with demarcated caoching and provincial structures
had been mapped out by Aravinda and was working. But when
he was turfed out as vice-president of SLC by the interim
committee, his format went with him. The result is the chaos
at Under19 level that have been highlighted all too often
been in these files last year and drew serious sniper fire
because of the comments.
Ranatunga knows all too well, from his own experience, as
does his senior playing days lieutenant Aravinda, and those
he is bringing into the system, the value of quality coaching
at school level. Far too often coaches value their worth
on results and forget the talent factor. It is a universal
problem and not just a Sri Lankan one. But the real danger
in Sri Lanka is that talent is lost to the system as well
as being wasted because of poor coaching management and
lack of structures.
While the Sri Lanka team in Bangladesh didn't do too well,
there maybe comfort perhaps in the knowledge that Bangladesh
are now in an under19 triangular series in South Africa
and twice beat the hosts but lost to India. In fact, emailed
results from South Africa indicates India have been quite
dominant in this series.
While the move to have Aravinda coach the Under19 squad
should have come sooner, he cannot be expected to perform
miracles either. Those responsible for allowing the Under19
system to get into the current muddle need to be made accountable.
And here you cannot blame the manager of the squad but the
system through which the team was selected and coached after
the 2006 Youth World Cup held in Colombo.
As the late Bob Woolmer once explained to anyone who listened
when Plan A went wrong, it was back to Plan B that requires
the 'hard yards to earn success'. In this, he is so right.
All the extra work in the nets and other training earned
the rewards and built reputations, not invitations to the
coach's room to smoke and drink because he is bereft of
ideas. It breaks down morale and respect.
They are like the cheap politicians with their coterie of
thugs who charge in uninvited and beat up those who are
honest and hardworking and are good examples of a system
that tolerates mediocrity. These are the two-legged mongrels
and jackasses that are allowed to run amok unchecked and
cry 'foul' when cornered and plead 'innocent' when they
are given a little of their own in return.
Cricket is the game for the people, not the so-called elite,
and to devise (not device, which means something totally
different and that a local comic had in one of their headline
blurbs), a long-term national roadmap that outlines the
future is the sort of clear thinking and environment the
sport needs in this island nation.
Ranatunga has a team of genuine, well-versed and qualified
people to run the structures that the SLC Cricket Committee
has in mind. His plan to take to game to the schools and
outstations that have been so long neglected, spreading
it beyond the confines of Colombo, is a blueprint that needs
to be supported by all. It is not a time for brickbats but
endorsement for what he and his team plan to achieve.
Forget the 1996 World Cup success. That is only been part
of this journey. For some, that windfall came far too soon.
After all, Ana Punchihewa talked eloquently well into the
night at the Culture Club in 1995 about turning Sri Lanka
into a world power by the Millennium year. They were brave
ideas and the plan was to upgrade country schools with facilities
as a starting point.
He was jack-knifed from the system by politics and other
so-called administrators eyeing bulging bank balances from
they money that World Cup success would earn, tried to run
the plan as if it were their own. And just how typical is
that? Only the umbilical cord lacked the oxygen needed to
allow it to grow and the scheme was dead long before the
Millennium arrived.
This time the vision is back in the forefront of the long-term
planning, but to get the coaching system right within two
years may be asking too much unless the right people are
placed in charge of this delicate scheme. Of course developing
the 'hard yards' as a way of developing and nurturing genuine
talent creates many schools of thought.
All you had to do was see how Australia went about it yesterday.
It proves the point that at Test level, anything can happen
and it did.
Michael Clarke is better known as a batsman than a bowler
and taking those three wickets to give Australia a 2-0 lead
in this series leaves a bitter image of why India are failing.
They have been left with a warped coaching system and Gary
Kirsten, the man in charge sitting in Cape Town watching
from afar while the man they could have had, John Dyson,
is working on his West Indies plan.
As if a reminder, one of defining the memories of last year,
popped up again on the TV screen last Tuesday night as an
Indian channel showed 2007 highlights. This was of Yuvraj
Singh and his six sixes off beanpole Englishman Stuart Broad
at Kingsmead.
Lastly, before he headed for troubled Kenya last week, the
Emeritus Bishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, rededicated
Newlands in Cape Town to commemorate the 200 th anniversary
of the game first being played in South Africa.
What better way than a Test between West Indies, with most
of the players whose roots are from the horrendous slave
trade and the new South Africa. While the symbols of apartheid
era are dead, there are those who still hoist the old South
African flag to celebrate. Where else but at rugby matches
would you find this blasphemous statement, giving distorted
values to a discredited sport and those who run it.
Courtesy - SNNI |