JFK must be spinning in his grave

Rex Clementine in New York

There’s lot of excitement when you travel to the United States for the first time. You wonder what the free world has to offer you. New York is one of the most populated cities in the world. The city’s airport is named after former President John F. Kennedy. He was just 43 when he became President of United States beating incumbent Vice-President Richard Nixon in a closely contested election in 1960.

Kennedy is known for his charisma, compassion, optimism, efficiency and eloquence. The airport named after him is hardly anything but efficient. The flight to New York from Abu Dhabi is a long one. It takes you 15 hours. You intend to clear immigration quickly, but the queue is a long one. There are only four counters to serve passengers. One of those counters is reserved for wheelchair passengers and another one caters to passengers with young children. The rest of us have to go through the remaining two counters. It takes you a long three and half hours. Outrageous. Is it just one off? You ask locals. The answer is JFK airport is lousy. President Kennedy must be spinning in his grave.

Kennedy was a popular President. He was the first Catholic to become US President. His Presidency, however, was short lived; less than three years. His killing arouses suspicion and there are many conspiracy theories. Some believe Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was behind the assassination while some others believe a foreign government had a hand in his killing.

Many accuse Sri Lankan politicians of nepotism. But Kennedy, for all his charisma, served his family well too. He may not have appointed his brother-in-law as the Chairman of America’s national carrier, but he did appoint his brother as the Attorney General. Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) is his name. At the time of his appointment, he was only 35 and according to many, lacked experience in practicing law.

RFK himself ran for Presidency. He was on his way to receive the Democratic Party’s nomination for President after beating incumbent President Johnson in some primaries. RFK was quite popular too and would have won the election, but he was murdered in Los Angeles with just five months remaining for the election.

Currently, his son Robert F. Kennedy (jnr) is running for President as an independent candidate.

There’s a few grumblings about Sri Lanka’s travel arrangements and hotel arrangements for this World Cup. They were left stranded in Miami airport for several hours on their way to New York. The flight delay meant that their practice session prior to the game against South Africa was cancelled.

The team hotel in New York is quite a distance too. It takes one hour and 40 minutes and the players had to wake up at 5:30 so that they could be at the venue on time for the game which started at 10:30 in the morning.

Siddarth Monga, a leading cricket writer from India was upset by Sri Lanka’s plight. When Maheesh Theekshana came for the media interaction after the game he questioned about the challenges faced by the team. Theekshana shot back, ‘do you want me to be honest.’  Then he expressed the team’s disappointment. At the end of the briefing, Team Manager Mahinda Halangoda, a balanced man, was quick to tell the press, ‘Look guys, that’s not the reason why we lost.’

Some teams, however, are very lucky. Look at India. They are staying just 15 minutes away from the ground. They played their warm-up game prior to the World Cup in New York and three of their first-round games of the tournament are also in New York. That is quite a deal. India is in a position to dictate terms to the governing body of the game. The perks they enjoy at times are not just cricket. What Sri Lanka can do is to perhaps assess these itineraries when they are presented. Nothing much can be done about delayed flights, but surely, something can be done to avoid long travels on match days.

South Africa now stretched their unbeaten streak against Sri Lanka in ICC events to seven games starting from 2016.

While the loss was a bitter pill to swallow, you can not take anything away from the Proteas. Their planning was exceptional while execution of those plans were flawless.

You always admire the fast-bowling talents from South Africa. Allan Donald maybe the most decorated South Africa quick, but Sri Lankans will forever love Brett Schultz. This Anrich Nortje is another. He’s not young by any means. He’s 30-years-old and injuries have limited his opportunities in the game. But when fully fit, he’s a treat to watch. He hardly bowled a loose ball on Monday’s encounter and accounted for several big wickets. Sri Lankan batters were trying to take him on, but they were only fighting a losing battle.