What he said:
“What has been happening was the player trying to be the ruler. If the player becomes the ruler we can’t play a game."
Sri Lankan sports minister, Upali Dharmadasa, is less than pleased with Kumara Sangakkara’s speech at the Marylebone Cricket Club exposing the shenanigans within the Sri Lankan Cricket Board.
What he really meant:
“We politicians can’t play cricket, can we? But neither can he (Sangakkara), if he’s administrating. Does he want a party ticket?”
What he definitely didn’t:
“By the players, for the players, of the players.”

India, as a cricketing nation, is insular.
In the great ‘club versus country’ debate, Indian fans did not blink an eye when Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard figuratively gave the West Indian Cricket Board (WICB) the finger and plonked themselves at the IPL in the furnace-like heat of an Indian summer.
David Lloyd, in the Independent, remarked thus: “England’s first series since the Ashes euphoria of four months ago may feel more like a ‘come as you are’ street party than a suited-and-booted city pageant.”
The comment was directed at the up-coming tour of England by Sri Lanka.
Bumble was, of course, referring to the current state of unrest in Sri Lankan cricket; a change of captain and vice-captain, the resignation of the selection committee, the retirement of Lasith Malinga from Test cricket and the lure of the IPL putting paid to plans of a training camp before the team embarked on the series.
The English team would be well-advised to welcome the tourists with this Nirvana song, penned by Kurt Cobain.
In a surprise move, Farveez Maharoof and Dimitri Mascarenhas have been named in the Sri Lankan squad that plays Middlesex at Uxbridge from May 14-16, 2011 in the first warm-up game of the tour.
While Maharoof is currently contracted out to Lancashire, the naming of Mascarenhas has come like a ‘bolt out of the blue’.
The fallout of the condemnatory reaction to the no- ball incident has been swift in its dénouement.
Suraj Randiv has been suspended for the next game and fined 100% of his match fee.
Tillekaratne Dilshan has forfeited his entire match fee as well.
Image via Wikipedia
Kumara Sangakarra gets off with just a slap on the wrist – not even a perfunctory rap on the knuckles.
The Sri Lankan cricket board was quick to react and ordered an enquiry into the unsavory affair.
The Sri Lankan board comes out smelling like roses; it has been commended by the ICC for its speedy resolution of the controversy. The Spirit Of The Game has been enforced.
The same cannot be said of the other protagonists in L’affaire No Ball.
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