Ceylon Today Editorial

SLC needs to renew thinking

22 October 2016

Once again it is contract renewal time at Sri Lanka Cricket and they have not been able to surprise the cricket enthusiasts of the country with offers made to their heroes yet. The only surprise is how their offer is going to stimulate the Sri Lankan cricketers to better their performances without adequate mojo.

While the race for salaries of the top three Asian cricket playing nations is led by India with the richest cricket board, with Pakistan running a close second, Sri Lanka has taken number three position. The payments are higher for those others like Australia, England and South Africa who have been in the cricketing arena before those Asian countries.

If you take countries that are more cricket-oriented you might get a proper cross section of how the game has grown. The heavier they lean on the game monetarily, the more they view the potential it has to uplift the public's interest to suit the growth of the game. It all began with that now famous series in the early 1960s between Australia and West Indies.

With the then situation of the game growing in proportion with the fast pace brought into it by the Windies the game turned around 180 degrees. By the 1970s South Africans soon took over the mantle of the game and the stage was set for cricket's new adventure to begin. With these changes saw more with potential to be involved in its pioneering. With this new outlook Australian entrepreneurs were seen looking for an opening to introduce this new brand to the world.

This took them to make the game soon outgrow the old fashioned ways to seek a newer brand of cricket that had the potential to be taken through the new, more popular live network to TV viewers. The answer was the short version that was first brought in with sixty overs per side. By the year 1975 and going through much debate and even legal work that justified its ownership the ICC began the first World Cup sponsored by the Prudential Insurance Company.

This was seen in the country with the biggest cricket fan populace, India, where they had the biggest advantage to sow the seeds of the IPL successfully. This not only did benefit their cricket, it also gave their cricketers the potential to become some of the richest cricketers in the world. The changes, that took place between the 1970s when the first World Cricket Cup was introduced and modern times much has taken place. From five day cricket, today, within the next four decades it has got reduced to almost a game that ends within three hours.

Although Sri Lanka had the fortune to be involved in these modern episodes that have been rolling since, and more importantly being able to become holders of that famous cup in 1996 they have failed to be in the forefront although having the potential to do so. From being occasional players to change into become professional cricketers seems to be the spoke in the wheel.

Winning the 1996 ICC World Cup not only changed cricket's future and even turning the player attitudes to be more professional, it also brought in a new breed of administrators to run cricket in the country. They began with trying to run cricket as a business upholding the more important part of the game played by the cricketer. The whole thing was woven around the importance of the institute that ran the game and its people.

The player interest was thought of as only secondly important in the list of matters at hand. They were more interested in the infrastructure than the cricketers to drive the game on. Today there is enormous spending that has gone into the building of infrastructure without a look into its profitability. The fact is that it has become the white elephant preventing the rightful salary structure important to the growth of cricket, as we saw earlier with India's case. The administrators have failed to walk the correct path to take the game to its rightful position.

The two instances the country has been able to gain World Cups are not achievements due to correct administration. They have come with the determination of players who performed to make it happen. Whether they have been appreciated enough is seen from the way SLC struggles to negotiate their contracts favourable to not the players but the administrators running the business.

The cricketers still have to earn their keep by performance, but a fielder getting five catches or two or three run outs or two batters putting on a 100 run stand, get nothing, although they go to become match winning feats.