Lankan cricket at the crossroads

The already strained relations between Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took a further turn for the worse when SLC decided to lift the ban on the five Sri Lanka cricketers and an umpire who had taken part in the rebel ICL tournament in India last year.

The decision taken by SLC at the request of the cricketers to allow them to play in domestic cricket was like a slap in the face to BCCI who run the ICC recognised official IPL tournament.

It seems that SLC has fallen into the trap of the ICL whose Twenty20 tournament has not been recognised by the ICC and in a bid to pressurise the world body the ICL has brought over 13 top Bangladeshi cricketers and now got SLC to lift the ban on the five players. Interestingly, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has slapped a 10-year-ban on the players.

One cannot rule out the possibility of a financial deal being struck between the ICL’s executive board chairman Kapil Dev and SLC interim committee chairman Arjuna Ranatunga who has clearly shown his dislike for the BCCI hierarchy by his actions and comments since he took over at the beginning of the year.
While the five cricketers will gladly welcome the lifting of the ban, the decision taken by SLC is certain to have its repercussions in the long run.

The IPL is the BCCI’s own version of the Twenty20 and to prevent the cricketers who are taking part in it and allow the players representing the rival ICL the freedom to play is something the powerful BCCI is not going to sit back and accept.
By this action Sri Lanka could have kissed goodbye to future tours with India. India last toured Sri Lanka in July-August 2008 and it brought in much needed finance for the cash-strapped SLC to the tune of US$16 million.

Sri Lanka could have easily benefited with a similar amount to boost its coffers had it not drawn the ire of India who were prepared to oblige by playing the postponed one-day tri-series of August 2006. But the present turn of events is unlikely to see it happening in the near future unless there is a change in the cricket administration. Every cricket body in the world including the ICC knows that without India, the money does not flow.

But sad to say Ranatunga is hell-bent on pursuing what he thinks is right. He is blind to this fact and is chasing after moonbeams. He thinks earning SLC US$2 million on the tour to England next year is more important than gaining US$16 million from the tri-series for his struggling SLC. Well that’s how well versed he is in cricket administration.

The UK tour in April-May 2009 is in direct conflict with the second IPL tournament for which a dozen Sri Lanka cricketers are due to play. Presently there is a deadlock between the national cricketers and SLC despite the intervention of the Sports Minister to resolve it. The cricketers are adamant they will honour their contracts with IPL while SLC insists they go to England.

If the worst comes to the worst one cannot rule SLC from sending out a Sri Lanka team under the leadership of former captain Marvan Atapattu. In a recent interview with Cricinfo, Atapattu who retired from international cricket at the end of the tour of Australia in November 2007 said lifting the ICL ban has prompted him to think ‘of making a comeback possibly to international cricket’.

“The previous administration wasn’t quite sure about me and the end wasn’t too good. This time, if they approach me, I will definitely think about it [an international comeback]. I just don’t want to jump the gun,” Atapattu was quoted.
Unless something drastic happens Sri Lanka cricket is facing its gravest crisis since the South African rebel tour of the early eighties.

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