Sri Lanka beat England; SLC officials beat everyone at Asgiriya

Sri Lanka beat England; SLC officials beat everyone at Asgiriya

LakbimaNews

Ranjan Paranavithana

Sri Lanka cricketers led by Mahela Jayawardene weathered a valiant rearguard action by England to seal victory in last week’s Test match in Kandy. But from some bizarre happenings at the Asgiriya Stadium, the venue for the match, it was clear that who scored the most were Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) officials.
A roof of a temporary stand at the stadium came down during the match injuring three Englishmen. A close inspection revealed that those stands were not properly installed as a breeze was enough to bring them down causing injury and fear to spectators, a good number of foreigners among them.
Each member of the Barmy Army – English cricket’s cheer squad – had paid Rs. 1500 each to find shelter under those roofs. And they were in for a mighty shock thanks to Sri Lanka cricket authorities. Later it was learnt that those stands had been transported to the venue from Colombo. The tour organising committee of Sri Lanka Cricket was of the opinion that taking them from Colombo was less expensive than finding them from Kandy. But the insiders say that an official pocketed a huge amount as commission from the whole business.
Meanwhile, security officials at the venue arrested a person who was trying to sell cricket balls with counterfeit signatures of record breaking spinner Muttiah Muralitharan at 20 pounds each. But later they released the culprit without handing him to the police. The balls bore SLC logo and it is said the clandestine ball business had been carried out with the blessings of a SLC official.
In the meantime, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation officials refused to climb a ladder to the stand that had been erected for their duty saying it was a threat to their life. The ladder was clearly shorter than the stand and no SLBC official took the risk of climbing it and breaking their limbs attempting to reach the stand. During the match, that stand was not occupied by anyone although a good amount of money must have gone into it. The SLBC officials who challenged a SLC official to climb the ladder first did not forget to give a mouthful to SLC’s media official.
Mahela and his boys will do their best to beat England in Colombo and build country’s image but the politically appointed Cricket Interim Committee is not helping their cause.