by Rex Clementine

One of our formators Rev. Fr. Irwin Morais (OMI) used to remind us that ‘end doesn’t justify the means’. Former cricket great Aravinda de Silva echoed similar sentiments discussing Lanka Premier League with Sunday Island. What does a religious who has taken the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience and a cricketer who loves cars and women (usually fast ones) have in common you may wonder. Well, they are both men who believe in excellence in everything they do and encourage lesser mortals like us to follow suit.

Lanka Premier League (LPL) last season was a grand success. Players, board, team owners, television companies, Anil Mohan and everyone made money (except media). But the system had some flaws. Aravinda may have been retired for nearly 20 years now but his cricketing brain is like that of Kerry Packer, streets ahead of others and certainly ahead of times. Meticulously he pointed some burning issues that is affecting the game.

“In most countries where franchise cricket is successful like in India, Australia or UK, the board runs the show. They work closely with franchises, keep renewing depending on how franchises fare. These franchises have been built over a period of time. One thing that is very clear in these countries is that there is transparency and cricketing policies are very clear. Transparency has to be a must moving forward. You can not have new owners popping up every time like mushrooms,” elaborated Aravinda.

Aravinda entered cricket administration barely weeks after his retirement as Vice-President to Thilanga Sumathipala in 2003. He put up a vibrant domestic structure, a provincial cricket tournament that former greats like Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene have claimed was the best they have played in. Not just the quality of cricket, but that tournament ensured that cricket was decentralized to provinces. It was a ten year plan, but there was some opposition from stakeholders like member clubs. The franchise tournament was mooted by Aravinda five years before Board of Control for Cricket for India had thought of the IPL.

“In a franchise tournament, the most important thing is transparency. We need to build up a credible tournament. The board should take control of things. While the owners build up their franchises, they need to ensure that the game develops as well. That’s the priority. We need to get our priorities right. Along with players, we need to develop our umpires, curators and everyone. Most importantly, the governing body needs to make decisions in the interest of cricket,” Aravinda noted. Basically he seems to be not a big believer in the idea that a third party should be making policy decisions.

Most agree with Aravinda’s theory of transparency. The draft that was held lead up to the second edition was flawed and a farce. Not only were several seniors snubbed, even the ones who had excelled in the recent World Cup did not get a look in. Instead, several players who were not big names even in domestic cricket got a break. Many eyebrows were raised! After a storm of protest, SLC stepped in to ensure there was fair-play.

“The selections need to be done in a proper manner. The process has to be clear. We have to have icon players. There should be a criteria to include international players. We can not have a system where owners can buy their sons to their franchises. That’s wrong. That should not happen. What’s the point of the board having the rights and approval from the ICC. You have to have credible people running the tournament. Otherwise how are we going to develop the game? The guidelines need to be clear and they need to be implemented. The governing body needs to give approvals for these moves. There should be approvals for player managers as well.”

In the IPL, all franchise owners are well known. There’s Mukesh Ambani owning Mumbai Indians, N. Srinivasan owns Chennai Super Kings while Kalanithi Maran is the key man at Sunrisers Hyderabad. But in LPL, barring a few, most owners are unknown. Their interaction with the media is little. Even SLC has complained saying that they can not reach certain team owners.

“There should be a screening process. Are you trying to play some fun cricket or you want to a build a platform where the system is credible, where quality cricket is played and it will help our cricket to move forward. Or do you want to have a carnival atmosphere. This is not a place for people to have fun. Our future cricket depends on this and we have to have a good foundation. If we do not have these, we will be going backwards,” Aravinda pointed out.

Aravinda is of the view that if the product called Lanka Premier League is marketed properly, you don’t have to go overseas to find owners. Big corporates like Maharajas, John Keells, Softlogic, Aitken Spence, HNB and Janashakthi will show interest. “I don’t think you have to depend on overseas owners. If you market this properly, give a product that is credible, if it has a good business proposition and if it is a win win situation for the cricket board and companies, I am sure people will come in. If you speak to leading firms, there’s lot of interest. This will help to develop the whole system,” Aravinda concluded.