SRI LANKA DIARY

Advantage RanatungasThe Acrimony and angst among the Sri Lankan cricketers of yesteryear in their relationship with the Board of Control fo...

Advantage Ranatungas

The Acrimony and angst among the Sri Lankan cricketers of yesteryear in their relationship with the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) is history. Today, there is a sea change in their relationship, which is built on mutual trust.

Says Dhamika Ranatunga, the Chief Executive Officer of the BCCSL: “It’s important that we are open in our dealings with the players. Honesty is an important factor in our relationship. Guys like Aravinda (de Silva), Arjuna (Ranatunga) and Sanath (Jayasuriya) can easily go and make a pile in England. But they

choose to stay back and enrich our domestic cricket.”

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The BCCSL have a pool of national cricketers who sign a contract with the Board. Remunerations vary according to seniority and merit. A player is thus guaranteed of a steady income.

It’s a measure of the harmonious relation between the players and the Board that the BCCSL came out with a full-page advertisement in a local daily with photographs of Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama, congratulating them on their record-breaking partnership in the first Test. It was again their thoughtfulness that the two players shared a reward of appreciation worth US $ 25,000.

The fact that the Lankan captain and the BCCSL CEO are brothers does help in the relationship. Advantage Ranatungas!

* It’s not often that there is a scramble for stumps in a drawn Test match. The first India-Sri Lanka Test was one of those rare exception when the stumps became prized souveniers despite the stalemate.

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Among the stump-hunters was umpire Steve Randell, who plucked one out to carry with him back to Australia. Randell, who has a nose for history, was also seen making a quick exit for the pavilion after the match and coming out with a camera to click the scoreboard which said it all at the end of the record-breaking Lankan innings. Howzatt !

* The Sri Lankan cricketers are hot property now. Everybody is chasing them with cheque books to cash in on their star value. Anshuman Gaekwad, the man tipped to take over from Madan Lal as the next Indian coach, was here to negotiate with them for his benefit match.

Also here was Brijesh Patel, favoured to replace Shivlal Yadav as the next selector from the South Zone. Patel, who came with Bharat Reddy, was successful in his parleys with the Lankans for his benefit match.

* Ravi Shastri is still a recognised figure in this part of the world. He is still being sought after by young autograph hunters. But fame can be fleeting as public memory is short. Even as he was signing the autograph books, the youngsters completely missed a much bigger name sitting and chatting with Shastri. The kids, who rushed to mob the Upul Chandanas and Dulip Liyanages, were oblivious that the gentleman chatting with Shastri answers to the name of Greg Chappell!