Archive for the ‘Sport’

Facades of Development: Of Commonwealth Games and Drag Racing at Green Path

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We woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of screeching tires, booming exhausts and the smell of burning rubber recently. My cousin’s children had nightmares and could not get back to sleep when the test runs were done. Calls to police emergency numbers were ignored: there seemed to be official patronage for speedsters and noise polluters – including of course the daily Presidential convoys in the area. Residents of Green Path and its environs, one of Colombo’s posh residential neighbourhoods, are worried about the latest sports extravaganza planned by the ever entrepreneurial Rajapaksa Bros Inc. Earlier this year they ran a weekend “Hawkers Street” there with loudspeakers blaring till the wee hours, but that was not a commercial success, so drag races are planned to bring in the crowds in November. Drag racing, however, can drive local communities up the wall, and there have been several fatal accidents recently in high profile races. Why inconvenience and…

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Cricketing controversies

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I have always been a cricket fan.  Cricket turns me into a flag waving, national anthem singing patriot and believer in the power of cricket to unite, to overcome all that is ugly and divisive in our country.  As a child I even collected newspaper articles about my favourite cricketers which I pasted neatly in large exercise books.  I remember reading with pride what foreign cricketing correspondents had to say about Sri Lanka’s first test match at Lords, about the spirit of Sri Lankan cricket, the gentleness, humour and courtesy of our cricket team; I was convinced that Sri Lankan cricket and cricketers could do no wrong.  I have no illusions about this: these are clearly my latent middle class, romantic, public school impulses that years of exposure to a harsher and more realistic world have till recently failed to completely subdue. Lately though my love affair with cricket (perhaps in best tradition of all great love affairs) has taken…

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Looking at Sangakkara’s speech from governance perspective

Sri Lanka Nets Session - 2011 ICC World Cup

Image courtesy World Cup Cricket 2011 Photos The former Cricket captain Kumar Sangakkara, in his great Sir Colin Cowdrey speech at Lord’s,  spoke of a shared fanatical fashion and collective joy and ambition of the Sri Lankans, when he  found something in common in the form of cricket.  He spoke of diversity of our society and how cricket brought together a divided nation during 1996 world cup victory. Nobody disputes the fact that Sangakkara played a celebrated captain’s inning at a crucial juncture of Sri Lanka at the Lord’s lecture. So much is spoken about this speech and much was written about it. This article attempts briefly to discuss seven governance points worth elaborating  in the backdrop of the contemporary governance realities of the country. Firstly, the message was very clear and strong. Sangakkara referred to the decay of the Cricket Board and the individuals who run it, directly or by proxy. He says “to consolidate and perpetuate their power,…

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Kumar Sangakkara steps forth like Young Ceylon

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Kumar Sangakkara’s Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture for the MCC this summer was the antithesis of that presented within the same portals in 2006 by Martin Crowe.[i] Where Crowe returned to the medieval archaic within the field of cricket and displayed the sentiments of a caveman, Sangakkara was forward-looking and stepped boldly beyond the confines of cricket to the socio-political dispensation in Sri Lanka. In doing so Sangakkara broke the code of conduct enjoined on him by his contract with Sri Lanka Cricket. He was therefore intrepid. This was boldness in a good cause, the greater cause of the cricketing order in Sri Lanka (and beyond) on the one hand and, on the other, the vital cause of reconciliation across the fractured political formation in Sri Lanka. There are missing dimensions and some sweeping comments in his survey of Sri Lanka’s cricketing history in the last twenty years that call for caveats, issues that I will address separately elsewhere. The…

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KUMAR SANGAKKARA’S COWDREY LECTURE

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Photo courtesy Cric When Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara, Trinity Lion, Ryde Gold Medallist, and former captain of Sri Lanka, delivered what can only be called a magisterial oration at the 2011 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at Lord’s on Monday night, he not only rapidly exhausted the stock of superlatives of his audience, reviewers and fans, but also became the first Cowdrey lecturer to receive a standing ovation since Desmond Tutu in 2008. As The Guardian observed, “August company indeed.” In many ways, it is difficult to imagine someone better than Kumar Sangakkara to deliver a lecture memorialising Lord Cowdrey, who was in his time the personification of the thinking man’s cricketer, and Sangakkara has repaid MCC President Christopher Martin-Jenkins’ confidence in full. From the organisation of his argument, its learned substance, the eloquence of its delivery, and above all, its acute self-awareness of which fights to pick and which to avoid, it is abundantly clear that cricket’s gain was…

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Sports and Governance: A Look at what the Doping Scandals means for International Politics in Sri Lanka

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Sri Lanka opening batsman Upul Tharanga, who was found guilty of committing an anti-doping rule violation. Photo courtesy International Cricket Council (ICC) In the world of international governance and law, where definitions of human rights, sovereignty, and even war are hotly contested, one rulebook is quite definite in denotation and rather absolute in punishment. An athlete has either been using performance-enhancing drugs, or he has not; he can compete and retain the titles he has won, or he cannot. The punishment for infraction usually entails a stripping of awards and banishment from international competition, while a clean test means business as usual. And Sri Lanka is no stranger to the world of international sport scandal. Enter the accused: boxer Manju Wanniarachchi; weightlifter Chinthana Vidanage; rugby players S Swarnathilaka, Keith Gurusinghe and Saliya Kumara; and cricket player Upul Tharanga – all Sri Lankan and all found to have been using banned substances during international competition. This series of scandals and the…

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The state of tomfoolery: 2018 Comonwealth Games in Hambantota

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A prominent English newspaper recently reported that the government has paid US$ 2.4 million to a British PR firm to promote its candidacy to host the 2018 Comonwealth Games in Hambanthota. This news item would definitely raise the eye brows of many Sri Lankans who constantly get beaten by the scourge of cost of living. For those who are not aware of international currency rates; 2.4 million US dollars means 264 million Rupees. The minimum salary of a state sector worker in Sri Lanka is Rs. 11000. The average monthly income of a middle class family in Sri Lanka is Rs. 20,000. But, the average monthly expenditure of an ordinary middle class family is way higher than that. As we all know, almost every one of us can feel the excessive pressure, generated by the soaring cost of living. Everyone in this country, including the government of Sri Lanka, has adopted a “hand to mouth” policy when it comes to…

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Cricket, Lima

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In the mist that blows over the field at Lima Cricket near the Pacific, moist, cool air lets the wicket breathe and the crack of bat on ball sing like a memory of toffee I recall, outside the tuck shop, the day Josephians played St. Peter’s in the wet air off Beira Lake and all the boys, let off early from class, rang the ropes with cheers: St Joseph’s victory, St. Peter’s parippu; now forty years later, accused still of immaturity, I have dressed in whites, a sun hat, am padded up and ready to go out again into the middle to knock four fours and a couple of sixers in half a dozen balls, to save the side from infamy.

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  • 10 Apr, 2011
  • 6 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Identity,
    Reconciliation,
    Sport

World Cup Cricket and Football: Nationalism in France and Sri Lanka

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Photo credits: 888 Sport Zone and Daily Info Picks I know absolutely nothing about cricket and honestly would not have paid attention to the Cricket World Cup, had I not been in Sri Lanka the week its team made it to the final. Although the Sri Lankan team lost in the end, it was an electrifying moment to live, even as a foreigner. World Cup fever is universal, whatever the game, whatever the continent. The tension was so palpable, emotion and excitement at its highest on Galle Face Green where I went to watch the game amid a crowd of 8000 cricket fans. People seemed proud to be Sri Lankan, waving the flag, faces painted and broad smiles. An entire country behind its team. This was particularly interesting, as Sri Lanka will be soon celebrating two years since the end of the war and mostly reconciliation between the different ethnicities remains a theory. Being Sri Lankan still largely means belonging…

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Proud to be Sri Lankan?

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Citizenship, as I know it, is a means by which citizens of a particular country are recognized as entities of that country. I feel that citizenship gives each of us a sense of “belonging” and “responsibility” towards our motherland, and also a sense of “security,” that as holders of this particular citizenship, we’re ensured of our protection and wellbeing. At least, that’s what one would hope a citizen of a country is entitled to. I guess we were called a “Land like no other” for a reason. That being, that we truly are like no other. The concept of “citizenship” as I mentioned above, is nothing but an illusion in our fair land. As citizens of one country, we hold no sense of camaraderie with one another. We’re told that a “good citizen of the State” obeys the State. That they should not question the State. That they should accept that the State only acts with their wellbeing at heart,…

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  • 5 Apr, 2011
  • 6 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Features,
    Sport

2011 World Cup Cricket Final: Right Royal MESS-UP at the Toss-Up

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Image courtesy Business Live There was a truly remarkable moment at the start of the World Cup Final between India and Sri Lanka. Amidst a deafening cacophony of noise Match Referee Jeff Crowe, TV Compere Ravi Shastri and the two captains assembled at the centre of the ground to make the toss, or kaasi vaasi (the advantage or leanings of the toss) as they call it so appropriately in Sinhala. Dhoni tossed the coin and Sangakkara called “Heads” (in a rather indistinct fashion it is said). But as the Referee picked up the coin it transpired that neither he, Shastri or Dhoni had heard the call because of the background cacophony. Worse still, it appears that Dhoni misheard the call as “tails” and Michael Vaughan in the commentary position heard it the same way and therefore contends that Sangakkara indulged in some skullduggery by allowing Dhoni to spin the coin again. So, the procedure was repeated. Sangakkara called – or…

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  • 4 Apr, 2011
  • 9 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Features,
    Identity,
    Sport

The victory that never came: Photos from Colombo during Cricket World Cup Final

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This was a big match. Akin to a curfew, Colombo’s streets were deserted on Saturday afternoon, but Galle Face was not. Over 7,000 people had congregated there to watch the cricket world cup final between Sri Lanka and India on a big screen erected on the grounds. Nearly all the electronics showrooms with TV’s on display had tuned in to the cricket as well, resulting in small crowds who had settled in front to watch the match sometimes with deck chairs and stools. Traffic was chaotic in the morning in Colombo and its suburbs, with people thronging to stores to buy both genuine and imitations of Sri Lankan cricket sporting garb and other memorabilia. As we noted on Twitter, “Never seen so many Sri Lankan flags on vehicles after the end of war.” Nationalism and over the top displays of patriotism were on a crescendo, leading up to and on Saturday. There was Sarath Fonseka who said that a victory…

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  • 31 Mar, 2011
  • 53 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Jaffna,
    Peace and Conflict,
    Sport

World Cup cricket aiding reconciliation in Sri Lanka: Fact or fiction?

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Groundviews is running a poll on its Facebook page (direct link to poll here) on whether its readers feel that the current interest in cricket can help reconciliation in Sri Lanka over the long-term. The visit of the Sri Lankan cricket captain, our beloved spin-bowler Murali and Ian Botham to areas most ravaged by the North was heavily covered by the media. Kumar Sangakkara’s statement after visiting the North resonated with many and was very widely featured across Facebook and Twitter, “[The people of the north] have been deprived for 30 years of everything that we’ve taken for granted in Colombo. Sometimes Colombo seemed a world away from the war. We’ve never felt it as much as the communities in the North and East did. And sometimes we have to understand that we owe them our very lives and all the comforts we enjoy,” said Sangakkara.” As was noted at the last World Cup, Sri Lanka’s cricket team is “…is a…

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A MATTER OF DECENCY: MATCH-FIXING ALLEGATIONS AND THE STATE MEDIA

For anyone familiar with ITN’s Vimasuma programme, the storm of controversy it raised this week with a thinly veiled allegation of match fixing against Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera in the World Cup ODI against Pakistan should come as no surprise. Vimasuma is a five minute post-news segment scripted by a party hack by the name of Mahinda Abeysundara, which is usually used to heap innuendo, calumny, smears, slurs and sundry abuse on anyone or anything perceived as critical of the regime. Favourite targets in the past have included the international community, independent journalists, civil society activists, and of course the political and civic opposition. It is variously snide, spiteful or just plainly malicious in its tone. Guided by the unerring compass of servility to the regime, the tools of Abeysundara’s trade are fear, hatred, prejudice, paranoia, conspiracy theories, economy with the truth, terminological inexactitude, and a hefty chip on the shoulder. It is a caricature of agitprop that is…

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  • 2 Mar, 2011
  • 9 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Satire,
    Sport

Say No to ‘Dharmista Cricket’ in Sri Lanka!

Sri Lankan cricket fans look for villains who (almost) ruined their national game By Banyan News Reporters The crisis may be over, but Sri Lankan cricket fans are still fervently debating who very nearly stole their most cherished cultural heritage: the island’s own version of the quaint English game of cricket. They are trying to discern sinister motives behind the short-lived ban on all fun and merry-making at ICC World Cup cricket matches currently being played in Sri Lanka. The most ardent fans have even launched a nationwide search to identify the originators of ‘Dharmista Cricket’ — a heavily sanitised version of the game that was very nearly forced on 20 million cricket crazy fans. “We are hugely relieved that diabolical attempts to ruin our cricket have been defeated,” said L B W Bolawardana, spokesman for Save Sri Lanka Cricket (SSLC), a people’s protest movement that sprang overnight via Facebook and Twitter. “But we have to remain vigilant. We believe there…

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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