Opinion Dropped catch

A sport is only as noble as its compact with its players and spectators. The competitive mobilisation by political parties in Tamil Nadu apart,can cricket’s administrators escape some tough questions? Questions that,first of all,the profiles of the affected players pose.

Take Sangakkara. There are countless ways of marking cricket’s many and overlapping phases,and one is by delineating the type of cricketer on the ascendant across national teams in that time. We are coming to a close of one such great phase,that of the exceptional wicketkeeper-batsman-captain. Mahendra Singh Dhoni,Adam Gilchrist,Sangakkara — each has been phenomenal under his own steam,but as a collectivity they have raised the profile of their specialisation,and consequently of cricket. But it falls to very few to propose a credo for their sport — it came to Sangakkara and his iteration,at the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at Lord’s in 2011,is unlikely to be matched for a very long time,for its content,sweep and grace. Read it.

In effect,long before he was made a fall guy for muddled diplomacy and political fisticuffs,Sangakkara had addressed the very issues that presumably deny him a chance to play at Chepauk. Cricket,he had then explained,is at the heart of social and political change in his country,and Sri Lankan innovations in cricket (Sanath Jayasuriya’s textbook-defying batting,Murali’s wristy off-spin,Malinga’s round-arm action,Mendis’s carrom ball) captured local aspirations for inclusion across class and ethnicity.

In a touching passage,he spoke of the odd,disturbing confluence which brought cricket and the island’s ethnic troubles into his Kandy home as a child. In his own words: “I recollect now the race riots of 1983 with horror,but for the simple imagination of a child not yet six it was a time of extended play and fun. I do not say this lightly as 35 of our closest friends,all Tamils,took shelter in our home. They needed sanctuary from vicious politically motivated goon squads and my father,like many other brave Sri Lankan from different ethnic backgrounds,opened his house at great personal risk.”

For the young Sangakkara,it seemed to be a dream — school was shut,he had companions in plenty,they could play cricket and football all day. The only annoyance was the occasional call to retreat indoors for the fear,difficult for a five-year-old to comprehend,of discovery by the goon squads.

Sangakkara’s hope that the end of the war against the LTTE would lead to the “re-integration of isolated communities in the north and east” and thereby “open up new talent pools” may not have materialised as yet,or that cricket could play a key role in guiding the post-war period of reconciliation and recovery. However,his stinging critique of government interference in the affairs of cricket brought instant censure from the government,with the sports minister railing against his outspokenness. He was,stated simply,not someone Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government would have chosen as a roving ambassador.

Neither,it seems,would the IPL — why else would it summarily dissuade teams from fielding Sri Lankan players in Chennai,without even attempting to nuance the issue and explain what it may see to be extenuating circumstances for going so far as to interfere with team selection?

How unfortunate. By doing so,cricket’s administrators have lost a chance to make a claim for the game that its practitioners and fans have so often sworn by: that,as Sangakkara said that summer’s day in 2011,the spirit of cricket can be the gold standard we choose for life,as it may ideally obtain,to approximate.

For all the opprobrium flung at it by purists,the IPL has been,these past years,a valuable crucible for nurturing talent. Just see Shikhar Dhawan. It cannot be wished away. It sustains the commerce of the sport not just in India but elsewhere too. For instance,national boards get a percentage of players’ fees from the IPL. And national boards have moved to accommodate the IPL’s schedule — just recently,the West Indies and Sri Lanka abandoned a Test series reportedly to allow their players to fulfil their contracts with franchisees.

The IPL,in turn,has the obligation to be more forthcoming on its place in the cricketing universe,its players worldwide and the rules by which their contributions are honoured. How wanting it has been found this week.

The writer is a contributing editor for ‘The Indian Express’

express@expressindia.com