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The JRJ Personal and how he ran the show

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4 years ago

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by Sarath Amunugama

In the early Ceylon National Congress of which he and Dudley became joint Secretaries, JRJ was a committed rationalist while Dudley was typically less sure and a person who sometimes succumbed to his father’s admonitions. Largely to target Bandaranaike and his vacillating members of the Sinhala Maha Sabha which included Dudley and Sir John, JRJ sponsored a motion in the Ceylon National Congress that its members could not concurrently be members of other political formations.

This was opposed not only by Bandaranaike but also DS. Of all the young politicians it was only JRJ who categorically refused to join the Sinhla Maha Sabha. JRJ believed in the superiority of rationality and unflinching will. His heroes were Napoleon and Disraeli, both of whom rose to leadership because of their tactical skills and tenacity. He and his brother Harry would boast that they had read every book written about these two personalities.

Of all our Presidents it was JRJ who had a scholar’s interest in history. He had read widely and was well informed of the history of Buddhism and Sri Lanka. He once told me that he used to visit historical sites with Archeological Commissioner Senerat Paranavitana. His speeches were full of allusions to Buddhist and Sinhalese history. It is my interpretation that he looked on the Executive Presidency not only through western eyes but also as a form of leadership which had evolved through Sinhala kingship.

To him the President was the equivalent of the Sinhala ruler in his powers as well as benevolence and concern for the public good. Like the Sinhala ruler he wanted to be ‘A father to his people’ He told his listeners, including President Ronald Reagan, that he came from a long line of Sinhala rulers who wielded power for 2,500 years. It must be stated here however that this was exactly what the opposition was worried about. As NM Perera and Colvin R de Silva had said on many occasions, they could not agree to a concept of an omnipotent President, just as much as they had criticized the pre-modern social structures of feudalism and kingship.

Not surprisingly this was the same criticism levelled by French critics of the Gaullist constitution as creating “Le roi De Gaulle” – De Gaulle the King. In many ways De Gaulle and JRJ shared common characteristics. The sense of history, the idea that previous attempts at governance had failed, the need for a strong leader who was tried and tested who put the national interest above all, a leader who distanced himself from the ‘hoi poloi’ and instilled fear in his own ranks were common to both leaders.

They were both thought to be aloof but committed to the glory of a nation with a sublime history. Both said “trust me and not the institutions” which have failed. Ironically both men ran into organized oppositions which were ruthless and unsparing and had to unhappily retire to their personal homes and away from the hurly burly of politics which had been their fifes mission.

Nayaka Thuma

Political parties have evolved modes of addressing their leaders. The left called their leaders ‘comrades’ which was translated into Sinhala as `sahodarayas’ [brothers]. It led to cultural misunderstandings when sons and daughters of leaders began to address their parents as `sahodarayas’ at public meetings leading to peals of laughter of disbelief from the party faithful. Both DS and Bandaranaike were called ‘Lokka’ by their followers, usually out of their hearing. Mrs. B was universally and respectfully addressed as `Methiniya’.

But JRJ preferred to be addressed as ‘Nayaka Thuma’ which is the closest approximation to undisputed leader or ‘Der Fuhrer’. In his watch there could be only one leader and `Nayaka Thuma’ made sure that all, including the ambitious Premadasa who was a great wordsmith himself, got the message. After JRJ other UNP leaders used the same appellation but with less and less acceptance by the rank and file till under Ranil it became a word of abuse.

It was with supreme confidence that JRJ adapted Napoleon’s phrase to say that he ‘had rolled up the electoral map of Sri Lanka’. Even when he addressed President Reagan and his guests at a White House dinner, JRJ claimed that as Head of State he was in a line with an uninterrupted leadership of over 2,500 years. He did not say that USA had only just celebrated its bi-centennial.

JRJ always crafted his speeches. They were short and full of memorable phrases. He was the earliest to end his speeches with quotations from the Buddha’s teachings. Bandaranaike, like JRJ a convert to Buddhism from Anglican Christianity, never resorted to the use of Buddhist stanzas and imagery. He was at home with Western classics. Once JRJ told me that if you cannot convey your message in ten minutes, even an hour of speech time would be of no use.

He had no time for the Bandaranaike type of oratory. On several occasions when he addressed small groups, like corporation workers, he would effortlessly speak in English and I would translate it to Sinhala. He was a much better speaker in English than in Sinhala, though with his usual thoroughness he had taken Sinhala lessons early in his political career. We were amused when he continued to use Sinhala phrases of the thirties but were now out of vogue.

JRJ believed that the leader should be exemplary. Whether he believed in the concept of the Nietzschean superman or not, he elevated the role of the National leader who in his life style and political acumen dominates society He was an admirer of Gandhi and in his heroic period as Leader of the Opposition he tried to use Gandhian tactics such as Satyagraha, long marches and pujas in Temples and Kovils. But, also like Gandhi, he did not encourage obscurantism.

While accommodating political forays into religion he had contempt for superstition and rituals. One of his oft related stories was about how he was sworn in as President. In 1977, he said, he took oaths as Prime Minister as soon as possible as he did not want any disruption by SLFPers and leftists. He had no time to consult astrologers. In 1983 it was different. Menikdiwela had consulted the best astrologers and he took his oaths at the appointed time. The first term was trouble free, he said, but the astrologically ordained second term was a disaster.

So much for astrology. His Buddhism, which he studied diligently, was of the intellectual type based on the translations of the Pali Text Society which some social anthropologists have called ‘Euro Buddhism’. But he is the only leader I know who had donated extensive personal properties to the Sangha [an exception is Wijepala Mendis who donated his lands to the Sangha in memory of his son who committed suicide.]

Under JR’s watch no priest was allowed to contest for seats from the UNP. When senior monks came to discuss ethnic relations with him, he asked them to mind their own business just as he did not advise them on Sangha matters. It was the concept of ‘the national leader’ that animated his drive to abolish the 1972 Constitution and establish a new Constitution with wide powers of the Executive President. The Executive Presidency had flourished ever since, in spite of the monotonous pledge of every Presidential aspirant to abolish it. The ‘Chintanaya’ introduced by him facilitating an Open Economy remains the same under different catchy phrases in the manifestos of all would be Executive Presidents. The Executive Presidency itself still remains with added powers.

Two years after his death a newspaper asked me to reminisce about JRJ’s personality. I wrote the following article entitled `Thinking of JRJ’:

“Before 1983, even the casual caller at ‘Braemar’ in Ward Place was likely to find the door being opened for him by President Jayewardene himself. Then calling his big black dog to heel he would lead you with that characteristic shuffle of his feet to a little front office with a ‘swing door’.

“The first things that struck you about JRJ was his simplicity and neatness. Everything about him was unpretentious but neatly and methodically arranged. It stood in stark contrast to the vulgar displays of many of his ‘nouveau riche’ parliamentary colleagues. There is a saying that ‘old money never shows’. This was very true of JRJ. Visitors were taken aback when JRJ after politely inquiring whether you wanted tea or a cool drink would a little later shuffle towards you to serve the drink himself From time to time he would take his confidantes out onto his spacious garden where they would be served a choice whisky or a brandy.

“As President he would invite his close friends for dinner at his table in Queen’s House and linger over brandy and cigars reminiscing about great political figures. He admired D.S. Senanayake and would regale his young devotees with stories about the Old Man’s political acumen. One of his favourite stories was about how he and the young Turks of the Ceylon National Congress including Dudley, went to issue an ultimatum to Sir Don Baron Jayatillake at his residence and was so moved by the kindly old leader and his fatherly advice that they hastily aborted their plans.

“The ‘Wap Magula’ was one of JRJ’s brain waves which he drew from his readings of the ancient lore of Sri Lanka — another of his intellectual pursuits. During Dudley Senanayake’s first premiership, he arranged a ‘Wap Magula’ at which Sir Oliver Goonetillake, who was usually dressed in Saville Row clothes, was forced to step into a paddy field with a China silk sarong tucked between his legs. This naturally caused much mirth among the poor village farmers of Akmeemana where the ceremony was held. Sir Oliver had to endure the barbs of satirists like Tarzie Vittachi for the rest of his life for his unfamiliar sartorial transformation.

“The JRJ sponsored Wap Magula’ at Panduwasnuwara in 1978 was not much better. The Agriculture Minister EL Senanayake turned up in a sarong, banian, Nike tennis shoes and Gucci sunglasses. As soon as he set foot in the paddy field he sank up to his knees. There was pandemonium as ministers jostled to appear with JRJ in the news photos. They did not have a clue about ploughing and were thrashing about. The President however confidently handled the plough even though he was warned that the buffaloes might bolt because of the huge klieg lights flashed on them by the Government Film Unit.

“A week later a documentary film made of that ceremony was screened at ‘Braemar’ for the President’s friends. JRJ was mightily pleased when all agreed that he, at 73, had the best figure among the politicians who had stripped down to their loin cloths for the ‘Wap Magula’.

“One of JRJ’s great characteristics was that he was never excited or overawed by anything. Once he made up his mind he would go to the bitter end, come what may. He used to relate how an inner clique had tried to isolate him in the Dudley Senanayake cabinet. This group would meet beforehand and plan to humiliate him at Cabinet meetings. He was stripped of some of the departments in his ministry – particularly control of the media, as someone had carried tales that he was trying to build himself up in the public eye.

“Unperturbed JRJ had taken the ‘Time’ magazine to cabinet and was busy reading it while his ministerial colleagues waited in vain for him to speak, to begin their attack. When Lalith and Gamini left the Premadasa Cabinet he recalled this episode and advised them to remain within the government. They ignored his advice and faced many difficulties later.

“After the historic signing of the Indo – Sri Lanka Accord JRJ shuffled up to the microphone and looking Rajiv Gandhi straight in the eye said “We can forgive but we cannot forget”. But the trust that was soon built up between the two leaders was so strong that Rajiv threw caution to the winds and came to JRJ’s rescue by inducting Indian troops to the North and East thereby releasing Sri Lankan security forces to fight the JVP in the South.

“It is one of the supreme ironies of modern times in our country that had Rajiv not come to Sri Lanka and had he not been subjected to an attack by a JVP indoctrinated naval rating, India may not have intervened, and certainly not so swiftly, and thereby caught the JVP on the wrong foot. The JVP rating made a costly mistake. The JVP by turning to violence opened the door to Indian intervention which JRJ meant to be only an action of the last resort. A section of the UNP that stabbed JRJ in the back, after the Indo-lanka agreement was signed were also responsible for encouraging the JVP. During those days the President was at his stubborn best resolutely refusing to yield to communalism and going back on a pledge given to a neighboring country.

“Coming from a distinguished legal family one of his failings was that he looked on most problems in legal terms. This is a common failing of lawyers in Parliaments all over the world. Since they spend a lifetime preparing, presenting, and defending bits and pieces of legislation they think that changes and additions to the statute book solves all problems.

“Life is rarely like that. But the over dependence on the law and cynical interpretations of legal provisions led JRJ and his supporters to many undemocratic acts and to violations of human rights. Amendments to the constitution to solve parochial political issues led to the debasement of the Constitution and the Presidency. The cynical manipulation of power to harass Vijaya Kumaratunga and his hypocritical persecution of the left, including the JVP after the April disturbances, were examples of the abuse of executive authority. He also condoned the abuses of the army under ‘Bull’ Weeratunga in the north against the Tamil youth which hastened the militarization of the conflict and added to the bitterness of the combatants.

“One always sensed that ‘Papa knows best’ type of feeling when JRJ discussed constitutional issues. He knew that so called legal eagles and human rights activists who confronted him were his intellectual inferiors. ‘This was one aspect of his ego which was assiduously massaged by acolytes like Lalith and Gamini. This legal ambience in the cabinet was galling to Premadasa who was a realist brought up in the school of hard knocks. He too then went about saying “I also know the law”, since he was brought up in Hulftsdorp. Later he gave free rein to the military and para-military formations who battled the LTTE and the JVP.

“President Jayewardene’s death removes from the scene a dominant personality of post-independence Sri Lanka. He was a political giant in every way”.

Cabinet

It would be fair to say that JRJ had the most competent Cabinet of Ministers of modern times. As usual the new Prime Minster had been very thorough in his decision making. He first accommodated all the seniors who were Cabinet ministers in previous UNP governments. Premadasa, M.D.H. Jayawardene, Monty Jayawickreme, E.L. Senanayake, Mohamed and Hurulle were all thus accommodated. He also brought in party seniors who had helped him like Mathew, Hameed, Festus Perera, Jayasuriya and Wijetunga.

Having secured that flank he chose two technocrats Ronnie de Mel and Nissanka Wijeratne, both ex-CCS, to man key ministries-Finance for de Mel and Education for Wijeyaratne. Last, he inducted two young stars of the party, Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali. They too were given plum portfolios. Everybody could see the logic of the leader’s decisions and there was little of the heartburn that usually follows the selection of cabinet ministers.

Another key factor was that JRJ was clearly ‘Primus inter pares’. While he acknowledged that the victory was a combined effort, ministers knew that he was supreme, having brought the UNP to a historic and unprecedented win which would have been unthinkable under the Senanayakes. He also made it known that he would not brook any underhand maneuvering which had been a regular feature of Sri Lankan party politics.

Later on, we will see that there was some dissatisfaction among his senior colleagues -M.D.H. Jayawardana, Gamini Jayasuriya and E.L. Senanayake. JRJ showed no mercy to them in asking for their resignation from their ministerial positions when disagreements came to the surface. But both sides stuck to the rules and the transitions took place in a civilized manner with JRJ writing to them to thank them for services rendered.

While the cabinet ministers were able and willing, several of them were highly ambitious and had no doubts about their fitness to succeed the Old Man who in his own words had “climbed to the top of the greasy pole” at the ripe age of 72. He was fighting fit and unfailingly followed every morning, a rigorous exercise regime tailored for the Canadian Air Force, but that did not prevent several of his Ministers nursing ambitions of succeeding him one day.

Their hopes were raised even before the 1977 election when JRJ, with no warning, held a straw poll to form a 10-man committee to manage the election campaign. Premadasa came first by a small margin. The surprise was Gamini Dissanayake’s performance coming a strong second, thus fueling his already vaulting ambition. Ronnie de Mel and Lalith Athulathmudali also made it to the group. It sent a clear signal to Premadasa and the party seniors that they would not have a cakewalk to the top. It also created a sense of competition among the front runners which simmered right through JRJ’s two terms and blew the party apart after Premadasa donned the mantle.

While this competition helped in running an efficient administration it must be recognized that it exacerbated tensions among the front runners. JRJ gave ear to them all and while not discouraging them did not overtly back any one of them either. He was a master at giving each of them hope, while not showing his hand in any way. To complicate matters there were two others outside this ring who believed that they had JRJ’s blessings to go to the top. One was Anandatissa de Alwis, a party grandee who managed both the political and personal entanglements of Sir John Kotelawala.

He was the kingpin of the UNP youth league in the early days and had been recruited by JRJ as his Permanent Secretary in the 1965 Dudley led administration. They were close friends and the leader’s unilateral decision to make him Speaker of the House did not please Ananda who wanted to be a Minister, preferably in charge of the old ministry in which he was Permanent Secretary. The other was Upali Wijewardene, JRJ’s cousin who had emerged as a clever and ambitious business magnate.

He wrapped himself in the mantle of a hero of the south because his mother and the source of his wealth came from a prominent family in the southern heartland. This was a direct affront to Ronnie de Mel, who also was burnishing his southern credentials as the representative for Devinuwara, the abode of Vishnu- the guardian god of the South. Vishnu is believed to be the only god who did not run away when the Buddha was threatened-by Mara.


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Features

Oil prices rise like rockets, fall like feathers (if you’re lucky)

Published

20 hours ago

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2026/05/13

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Crude oil is the lifeblood of the global industrial economy, yet the journey from a subterranean reservoir to a litre of petrol at the forecourt involves a cascade of physical transformations, commercial transactions, and fiscal interventions that profoundly shape who bears the cost, and how much. A sudden shift in the world market price of crude, whether triggered by OPEC+ supply discipline, geopolitical disruption, or a demand shock, does not translate uniformly into consumer prices across the globe. The consequences are systematically different, depending on a country’s tax policy, exchange rate, efficiencies in refining processes, distribution processes and dependence on energy imports.

The Refining Process: From Crude to Finished Products

Crude oil is a naturally occurring mixture of hydrocarbons and its chemical composition varies by field: Heavy sour crudes from Venezuela, or Saudi Arabia, require additional processing, raising refining costs by USD 2–5 per barrel. One standard barrel contains approximately 159 litres.

Crude oil is preheated to approximately 370–400°C and the operating principle exploits differences in boiling points. The resulting fractions, collected from top to bottom, include: light petroleum gases (LPG) boiling below 40°C; naphtha and gasoline fractions in the 40–205°C range; kerosene and jet fuel between 175°C and 275°C; diesel and gas oil from 250°C to 350°C; and atmospheric residue above 350°C which is then processed in a vacuum distillation unit to recover further distillates, including lubricating oil base stocks.

Primary distillation alone is insufficient to meet market demand. Gasoline demand far exceeds the natural yield of the distillation cut. A modern complex refinery achieves the following approximate product yields from a light sweet crude: petrol/gasoline ~45%; diesel/gasoil ~25%; kerosene/jet fuel ~10%; LPG ~5%; heavy fuel oil ~10%; and other by-products ~5%. These ratios shift with crude quality and refinery configuration, and response differently to crude price changes.

The Crude Truth: How Oil Prices Punish the Poor Twice

An accounting perspective reveals a waterfall of costs, each layer added by a distinct economic actor and subject to a distinct set of market forces and regulatory interventions. A companion of the approximate cost structure for a litre of petrol at the retail level, assuming a crude oil price of USD 70 per barrel (approximately USD 0.44 per litre of crude equivalent), between advanced and emerging economies, can be explained in four layers:

Layer 1 — Crude Oil Cost (~51% of Retail Price)

The foundation of every fuel product is the crude oil acquisition cost. At USD 70/barrel, the raw material cost embedded in one litre of refined petrol is approximately USD 0.44. This figure includes wellhead lifting costs, field operating expenses, royalties, and sovereign resource taxes paid to the producing country, as well as freight and insurance for ocean tanker shipment.

For emerging economies, without domestic refining capacity, or with currencies that are not freely convertible, this layer is doubly exposed: a crude price increase is compounded by any simultaneous depreciation of the local currency.

Layer 2 — Refining Margin (~20% of Retail Price)

The gross refining margin, measured by the industry’s standard 3-2-1 crack spread;

Crack Spread (gross refining margin) = (2×Gasoline Price) + (1×Diesel Price) − (3×Crude Price)

Critically, this gross figure must not be confused with profit. A refinery typically uses 6–8% of its own crude input as process fuel, and significant variable operating costs. This gross refining margin, the difference between the value of products produced and the cost of crude, varies considerably with market conditions.

In advanced economies with large, integrated refinery systems, these margins are moderated by competition and long-term supply contracts. In emerging economies, dependent on a single import refinery or on product imports rather than crude, refining costs are effectively set by the international product market, leaving little domestic control over this cost layer.

Layer 3 — Distribution and Marketing (~11% of Retail Price)

Refined products must travel from the refinery gate to the consumer through a distribution network involving primary pipelines or product tankers, regional storage terminals, secondary truck distribution, and retail fuel stations. In advanced economies, this infrastructure is mature, privately operated, and highly efficient, contributing a relatively stable USD 0.05–0.10 per litre to the retail price. In many emerging economies, the distribution infrastructure is fragmented, underdeveloped, or state-controlled, introducing additional costs, quality inconsistencies, and opportunities for rent-seeking. In Sri Lanka, for instance, the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has historically cross-subsidised distribution costs, masking the true economic cost until subsidy withdrawal forced rapid price adjustments in 2022.

Rent-Seeking is extracting value without creating value; essentially corruption and inefficiency

Licensing corruption:Limited fuel station licenses create artificial scarcity; Licenses sold/traded at premiums; Political connections needed to obtain licenses

Quality adulteration: Consumers pay for “petrol” but get lower-quality mix

Quota manipulation:Subsidised kerosene (meant for poor households) diverted to diesel mixing; Creates black markets during shortages

Phantom costs:

Layer 4 — Taxation (18–60% of Retail Price)

Taxation is the most variable, politically sensitive, and analytically important layer in the cost structure. In advanced economies a high tax bases serve a dual purpose: generating substantial fiscal revenue and acting as an automatic price stabiliser. When crude rises, the absolute tax component remains constant, so the percentage of the price attributable to crude increases less than proportionately at the retail level.

In contrast, emerging economies historically imposed low fuel taxes or active subsidies, particularly for diesel, LPG, and kerosene used by low-income households. Sri Lanka’s fuel tax component, prior to the 2022 crisis, was, they claim, effectively negative in real terms due to administered pricing below cost.

The Impact of a Crude Price Increase: Advanced vs. Emerging Economies

For example, if crude oil rises from USD 70 to USD 85 per barrel, an increase of approximately 21.4%. The mechanisms by which this shock is transmitted to consumers, and the capacity of economies to absorb or redistribute it, diverge dramatically along the advanced/emerging economy divide (Table 1).

Absorb shocks through tax relief

Advanced economies possess well-established fiscal frameworks that enable them to absorb temporary commodity shocks through tax relief, targeted transfers, or direct subsidies without compromising fiscal sustainability. Research by the Center for Global Development (2026) estimates the median fiscal cost of shielding consumers from the crude price increase of USD 15 scenario at approximately manageable cost of 0.4% of GDP for advanced economies.

Emerging economies face median fiscal costs of approximately 0.9% of GDP — effectively double. For Sri Lanka, entering the 2022 energy crisis with near-zero foreign reserves, even a temporary subsidy was fiscally impossible, forcing an immediate and politically destabilising pass-through of the full price increase to consumers. The lesson is stark: the ability to smooth out a commodity price shock across time is itself a function of prior fiscal strength, making the poor more vulnerable precisely because their governments are already under strain.

Inflation Pass-Through and Monetary Policy Credibility

The second transmission mechanism operates through the consumer price index and central bank behaviour. In advanced economies, fuel typically represents 3–5% of the CPI basket, and central banks enjoy high credibility in anchoring inflation expectations.

In emerging economies, fuel and food together often constitute 40–60% of CPI baskets, and central banks have historically struggled to maintain credible inflation targets. A 21% crude price increase translates into a far larger initial CPI shock. Worse, the loss of inflation credibility means that workers and businesses adjust wages and prices preemptively, generating persistent second-round inflation (> Double). To defend its inflation target, the emerging economy central bank must raise interest rates aggressively, simultaneously raising the cost of borrowing for businesses and governments, a painful policy dilemma in an economy already under stress.

Structural Current Account Vulnerability

The third and perhaps most structurally significant difference lies in the current account and foreign exchange dynamics. The advanced economies hold large reserve currencies and deep financial markets that allow them to finance import cost increases without immediate exchange rate pressure.

Sri Lanka, by contrast, allocated approximately 23% of its total import bill to petroleum products. A USD 15/barrel price increase instantly widens the current account deficit of these economies, depleting foreign exchange reserves. As reserves fall, currency markets anticipate further depreciation, precipitating speculative selling of the domestic currency. The resulting exchange rate depreciation, potentially 5–15% in a shock scenario, multiplies the cost of crude imports in local currency terms. A 21% USD price increase thus becomes a 28–39% local currency price increase at the refinery gate, before any refining, distribution, or tax component is added. This vicious cycle; crude price rise → reserve depletion → currency depreciation → amplified import cost → further reserve depletion, is a hallmark of emerging economy energy crises, and Sri Lanka’s 2022 experience illustrated it in extreme form.

Double bind when crude rises and subsidised

Countries that have historically subsidised fuel face a double bind when crude rises: the subsidy bill expands sharply (as the gap between subsidised price and market cost widens), while fiscal space contracts. The International Monetary Fund has consistently recommended subsidy reform, allowing fuel prices to reflect market cost while protecting the poor through direct cash transfers, as the fiscally sustainable path. Sri Lanka’s forced price liberalisation in 2022 (under IMF programme conditions) illustrate both the political difficulty and the macroeconomic necessity of this adjustment.

The Asymmetry of Oil Price Responses: Advanced vs. Emerging Economies

Advanced economies enjoy bidirectional flexibility in responding to oil price volatility; prices rise and fall with crude markets, leaving fiscal positions largely neutral. Emerging economies, by contrast, face a structural trap: when crude rises, subsidy bills explode, draining public finances; when crude falls, governments retain windfall savings to offset accumulated deficits rather than passing relief to consumers. Sri Lanka’s cycle from collapse to liberalisation to renewed subsidies illustrates this vividly. Underlying this is a political economy ratchet, price hikes are unavoidable, but reductions are politically captured, making permanent reform structurally elusive.

(The writer, a senior Chartered
Accountant and professional banker,
is a professor at SLIIT, Malabe. Views expressed in this article are personal.)

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Eshan Malinga keeps getting them in the second half

Published

1 day ago

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2026/05/12

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Malinga took 4 for 32 against Delhi Capitals, his best bowling figures of the season so far [BCCI]

Life keeps throwing hurdles in his way, but Eshan Malinga keeps vaulting over them. Take his February from hell. For several months, Malinga had been building up to his first ever World Cup, a dream for pretty much anyone who ever picks up a cricket ball. But a week before that World Cup, Malinga dislocated his non bowling shoulder while bowling, which the team’s medical staff have since described as a freak injury they had never seen before.

“I was devastated,” Malinga says. “On top of it being my first World Cup, it was also at home and I didn’t know when I would get that chance again. There were a few days there where I did absolutely nothing.”

And yet in mid-May, here he is grinning from atop a pile of 16 IPL wickets,  having developed a serious reputation as a reverse-swing operator. Sunrisers  Hyderabad’s  explosive batters may have seized the spotlight in this frenetic IPL, but on the bowling front, no SRH bowler has neared Malinga’s wicket haul, which is fifth best in the season overall.  In a year in which they have not had Pat Cummins for seven of their 11 matches, it is Malinga who has held down the fort,  particularly in the second half of the innings.

But trading difficulty for success is just what Malinga does. What he has long been doing. Go back eight years and Malinga had never played a hard-ball cricket match. On top of which his home district of Ratnapura – at the base of Sri Lanka’s central hills – was better known for its gems and waterfalls than cricket, never having produced a men’s international. Malinga, additionally, was not even actively trying to be a cricketer. He had moved from his first school in a village called Opanayake to Ratnapura’s Sivali Central College due to strong academic results, and found, almost by accident, that his new school had a hard-ball cricket team.

But what Malinga knew at that point was that he could bowl fast. That much had been obvious growing up in Opanayaka, where despite his mother’s occasional misgivings, Malinga was highly sought after by the organisers of the village softball team (Sri Lanka has a thriving village-level softball cricket ecosystem). And as had been the case with the better-known Malinga, this one was also aware he possessed a killer yorker – a prized asset in every form of cricket, with any kind of ball.

If he’d been on track to be a softball legend, Malinga found his horizons began to expand at a spectacular rate the moment he got a hard ball in his hands. First, his yorker and his pace began to reap big wickets in the Division Three schools competition for Sivali Central, whose coach had immediately hoisted him into the team upon seeing Malinga bowl at practice one day. Then in mid-2019, about a year into playing hard-ball cricket, came the day he still reflects on as the one that changed his cricketing life. Having missed a fast-bowling competition in Ratnapura because he had been playing for his school that day, Malinga travelled to the hill town of Badulla to bowl in the competition there, and clocked 127kph on the gun, which was enough to win him first place.

This was when he first became a blip, however faint and distant, on Sri Lanka Cricket’s radar. Visions of a cricketing life began to appear as wisps of opportunity began to materialise. The next few years, Covid-riddled though they were, became a crash course into the sport for Malinga. There were coaching camps in Colombo in which the best of the rural talent was trained up and funnelled into a programme at the next level up. There were trials for first-class teams, and eventually a fledgling domestic career.

“I don’t know how many times I came to Colombo from Ratnapura during those times,” he laughs now. “It was a lot! I would leave home at about 3am, and the bus journey to Colombo took about three-and-a-half hours. Then I’d train or play the match, and the bus back home always took longer because of traffic. So every day, I was on the road for more than seven hours.”

The Malinga who made these exhausting daily commutes was, as far as the Sri Lankan cricket system was concerned, a bowler of decent rather than blinding promise. His pace had propelled him to the top of the regional pool, but at the first-class level he was still adapting his yorker and slower ball (another weapon he had developed in his softball days). If he needed another gear, Malinga found it – again almost by accident – sometime in 2022.

“I was playing an Under-23 three-day tournament, and I remember that being the first time I really started reverse-swinging the ball,” he says. “Coaches had anyway told me that with my action and my pace, it should be possible. But it started almost automatically. It’s not something I had to learn.

“But it wasn’t that easy, because it was a long process to learn how to control it. To get reverse swing, you have to release the ball at a different point than a straight ball, because you want it to still hit the stumps when it is swinging. So I scuffed up a lot of balls and trained hard to get that line right.”

And so, the Malinga that emerged at the end of 2022 had sharp enough pace, an excellent yorker, a developing slower ball, mountains of homespun tenacity, and had also discovered that he can naturally reverse-swing the ball earlier in an innings than most. You could have seen where this is going, right? All the ingredients of an ace white-ball bowler were there. And Malinga was already a master of turning wisps of opportunities into tangible advances. Over the next three years, he’d land a spot in the national fast-bowling academy, use that as a trampoline to impress in an Emerging Teams three-dayer against Bangladesh, and from there bounce into a stint at the MRF Pace Academy in 2024, before on the franchise side of things parlaying a trial at Rajasthan Royals at Kumar Sangakkara’s invitation into a decent run at the SA20 for Paarl Royals.

Having leapt up to the fringes of the Sri Lanka team over the past 18 months, Malinga has at this IPL now seized another unusual chance. The square at SRH’s home stadium is among the barest and most abrasive in the league, and Malinga’s reverse swing has prospered upon it. Of his 16 wickets this season, 11 have come at home. In the second half of the innings, when the ball is most likely to reverse, Malinga’s economy rate is 8.37 at a venue where runs have been scored at 9.38 in that period this season.

Malinga had put in a robust 2025 season for SRH as well, so there is a body of work emerging there. Perhaps this is why this year, SRH’s bowling plans have tended to follow the contours of Malinga’s own game.

“After six overs the ball gets damaged here, so we needed to make use of that. When I bowled at practice, the ball reversed, so I think a plan emerged where we were going to use the scuffed up ball and take advantage of that.

“In the first powerplay the ball comes on to the bat nicely here. After that we try to get the advantage of having an older ball. We’ve got bowlers who bowl 140kph-plus, and we have Pat Cummins, who also reverses the ball. So we make sure to look after the ball in a way that will give us reverse.”

At 25, eight years into a serious cricket career, Malinga sees himself as a work in progress. He wants to work on his powerplay bowling. His variations, he thinks, still need some work. He’d like to play Tests, where his reverse swing could really stretch its legs. And, oh, he is still waiting to play that first World Cup.

Even here, his keen nose for opportunity leads him. He points out through the course of our conversation that where the three previous World Cups had been played with a new ball at either end being used right through the innings, the next World Cup, in 2027, will feature rules that seem at least partially designed to enhance reverse swing, an older ball more suited to the craft now available towards the end of the innings.

He isn’t even a sure-fire pick in Sri Lanka’s ODI XI just yet, so this is just a flicker of an opportunity for now. But having made the journey from the village of Opanayaka to the most raucous cricketing showpiece on the planet, Malinga knows just what to do with those.

[Cricinfo]

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Features

High Stakes in Pursuing corruption cases

Published

2 days ago

on

2026/05/12

By

Kapila Chandrasena

The death of the most important suspect in the Sri Lankan Airlines Airbus deal has drawn intense public speculation. Kapila Chandrasena the former CEO of the heavily loss-making national airline was found dead under circumstances that the police are still investigating.

He had recently been arrested by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption in connection with the controversial Airbus aircraft purchase agreement signed in 2013. Police investigations are continuing into the cause of death and whether or not he committed suicide. The unresolved death brings to light the high stakes involved in accountability efforts of this nature.

The uncertainty surrounding Chandrasena’s death has revived public memories of other mysterious deaths linked to corruption investigations and public scandals. Among them is the death of Rajeewa Jayaweera, a former SriLankan Airlines executive and outspoken critic of the Airbus transaction. He was following in the tradition of his father, the late foreign service officer and public servant Stanley Jayaweera who mentored the younger generation in good governance practices and formed the group “Avadhi Lanka” along with icons such as Prof Siri Hettige. Rajeewa had written a series of articles exposing irregularities in the deal before he was found dead near Independence Square in Colombo in 2020. The CCTV cameras in that high security area were turned off. Questions raised at that time whether or not he had committed suicide were not satisfactorily resolved.

The controversy about the cause of Chandrasena’s death is diverting attention away from the massive damage done to the country by the SriLankan Airlines deal itself. The value of the aircraft agreement was close to the size of the International Monetary Fund bailout package that Sri Lanka desperately needed by 2023 in order to stabilise the economy after bankruptcy. Sri Lanka’s IMF Extended Fund Facility amounted to about USD 3 billion spread over four years. The comparison shows the scale of the losses and liabilities that irresponsible and corrupt decisions have imposed on the country and which must never happen again.

Wider Pattern

The corruption linked to the Airbus transaction came fully into the open only because of investigations conducted outside Sri Lanka. In 2020 Airbus agreed to pay record penalties of more than EUR 3.6 billion to authorities in Britain, France and the United States to settle global corruption investigations. Sri Lanka was identified as one of the countries where bribes had allegedly been paid in order to secure contracts. The Airbus deal involved the purchase of six A330 aircraft and four A350 aircraft valued at approximately USD 2.3 billion. Investigations showed that Airbus paid bribes amounting to nearly USD 16 million in order to secure the contract. According to court submissions, at least part of this money amounting to USD 2 million was transferred through a shell company registered in Brunei and routed through Singapore bank accounts linked to the late airline CEO and his wife.

The commissions involved in this deal may seem comparatively small compared to the overall value of the contracts but devastating in their consequences. But they also show that a few million dollars paid secretly to decision makers could lead to the country assuming liabilities worth hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars over decades. This is why corruption is not simply a moral issue. It is a direct economic assault on the living standards of ordinary people. Money lost through corruption is money unavailable for schools, hospitals, rural development and job creation. In the end the burden falls on ordinary citizens who are left to repay debts incurred in their name without receiving commensurate benefits in return.

The SriLankan Airlines transaction gives an indication of the wider pattern of corruption and misuse of national resources that has taken place over many years. This was not an isolated incident. There were numerous large scale infrastructure and procurement projects that imposed heavy debts on the country while enriching politically connected individuals and their associates. Other projects such as the Colombo Port City, Hambantota Harbour and highway construction reveal a similar pattern.

Less publicised but equally damaging scandals have involved fertiliser medicine and energy contracts. Investigations into medicine procurement in recent years uncovered allegations that substandard pharmaceuticals had been imported at inflated prices causing both financial losses and risks to public health.

Moral Renewal

The present government appears determined to investigate major corruption cases in a manner that no previous government has attempted. Those who ransacked and bankrupted the treasury need to be dealt with according to the law. There is considerable public support for efforts to recover stolen assets and ensure accountability.

In his May Day speech President Anura Kumara Dissanayake stated that around 14 corruption cases were nearing completion in the courts this very month and called upon the public to applaud when verdicts are delivered. Political opponents of the government claim that such comments could place pressure on the judiciary and blur the separation between political leadership and the courts. But the deeper public frustration that underlies the president’s remarks also needs to be understood.

The challenge facing Sri Lanka is twofold. The country must ensure that justice is done through due process and independent institutions. If anti corruption campaigns become politicised they can lose legitimacy. But if corruption and abuse of power continue without consequences the country will remain trapped in a cycle of economic decline and moral decay. Sri Lanka also needs to confront past abuses linked to the war period. There are allegations of kidnapping, extortion, disappearances and criminal activity in which members of the security forces have been implicated. Vulnerable sections of the population suffered greatly during those years. If political leaders turned a blind eye or actively connived in such crimes they too need to be held accountable under the law. Selective justice will not heal the country. Accountability must apply across the board regardless of political position, ethnicity or institutional power.

Sri Lanka has paid a very heavy price for corruption and impunity. The economic collapse of 2022 did not occur overnight. It was the result of years of bad governance, reckless decision making, abuse of power and the misuse of public wealth. If the country is to move forward the focus cannot be diverted by sensational speculation alone. Suspicious deaths and political intrigue may dominate headlines for a few days. But the larger issue is the system that enabled corruption to flourish without accountability for so long. The real national task is to end that system. Sri Lanka cannot build a prosperous future on a foundation of corruption and impunity. Unless those who looted public wealth are held accountable and the systems that enabled them are dismantled, the country risks repeating the same cycle again.

Jehan Perera

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