Kumar Sangakara's MCC Spirit of Cricket Lecture : Dissecting the lecture to bring out the contradictions Part 1.

There is a lot of stirr and buzz created by Sir Kumara Sangakara's spirit of crickt lecture in MCC this Sunday. There have been few cricket writers who have hailed this speech as most remarkable in the cricket history. Just becos he has launched an attack on corrupt SLC, he has been hailed throughout the world. Now lets just dissect his speech in detail (courtesy: cricinfo.com).

"Cricket in Sri Lanka is no longer just a sport: it is a shared passion that is a source of fun and a force for unity. It is a treasured sport that occupies a celebrated place in our society. "

He contradicts himself, his colleague and many of his fans who repeatedly urge in every forum that cricket is just a sport in their country and they dont attach too much beyond the sport to it. This basically is their argument when it comes to comparison with India and repeatedly they point out the unfortunate events of 2007 world cup when some bigots vandalized some of the houses and burnt effigies. But they were very miniscule and to generalise that with the entire country is moron argument. MJ and himself have said it often that they dont value cricket more than a sport and in case of a crushing defeat, they are cool with it. Life doesnt stop for the Lankans even if their team suffers a defeat. But the world cup finals losses in 2007 and 2011 suggest altogether a different belief to the external parties. There have been too many conspiracy theories propogated around to suggest why India or Australia won and why Sri Lanka lost. Squash balls, Indian brothers appeasement and crap.

He talks of force for unity. Really? Cricket is a force for unity in Sri Lanka? Since when ? Suddenly after the end of 30 years civil war, they feel that cricket is a force for unity in Lanka. When the innocent Tamil people were murdered in those dying years of civil war what happened to that unity? On what basis does KS term cricket as uniting force? Did 1996 win saw a reduction in the incidents of Tamil massacre by government forces and killing of Sinhalese people by LTTE? Does he have a proof for that fact conclusion or he is just making a statement in the air?

It is remarkable that in a very short period an alien game has become our national obsession, played and followed with almost fanatical passion and love. A game that brings the nation to a standstill; a sport so powerful it is capable of transcending war and politics. I therefore decided that tonight I would like to talk about the Spirit of Sri Lanka's cricket

Again here he is contradicting his own stand of the past and his colleagues' stand on the level of passion the cricket game evokes in the Lanka land. Focus on the word "fanatical". Thats the difference for me. What he actually tries to portray SL cricket to be and what actually the cricket is in his country. He is talking of spirit of SL's cricket. The history of their cricket is full of:

• SLingers
• Cheats who bowl based on some crazy tweak by the ICC (15 degree rule) and have taken 800 odd wickets in Tests and 534 in ODIs
• Individual records
• Selfish batting thus killing spirits of cricket
• Negative approach to the game when they couldnt win anything, their captain Arjuna Ranatunga suggested them to go and make all sorts of records. And then 952 evolved, 374 evolved, 576, 624 evolved, 443 and 260 evolved in subsequent years.
• Dead batting tracks where the home batsmen and bowlers enjoy unprecedented advantage over touring teams making them grind in the dry, torrid, hot weather of Lanka, sap them of energy and fluids and kill the remaining morale by batting days in and out. And then throw their slingers on the deflated, depressed batsmen of the opposition team.
• Political interference from men who are guilty of heinous war crimes and who take moral high stands based on their fractured knowledge of the history of their own country and of course of the region their country lies in.
• Cheaters who constantly appeal for catches which aint, who ask deliberately to ball a no ball to deny opposition batsmen of worthy 100.
• Captains who pretend to have said nothing in the sea of men in a world cup final during the toss and then have a 2nd toss to have it work for them to their advantage and yet lose the world cup final 2 times in row.

How can such a country be claimed to be the one who has won spirits of cricket award from ICC?

He further says

Ladies and Gentleman, the history of my country extends over 2500 years. A beautiful island situated in an advantageously strategic position in the Indian Ocean has long attracted the attentions of the world at times to both our disadvantage and at times to our advantage.

Sri Lanka is land rich in natural beauty and resources augmented by a wonderfully resilient and vibrant and hospitable people whose attitude to life has been shaped by volatile politics both internal and from without.

In our history you will find periods of glorious peace and prosperity and times of great strife, war and violence. Sri Lankans have been hardened by experience and have shown themselves to be a resilient and proud society celebrating at all times our zest for life and living.

Sri Lankans are a close knit community. The strength of the family unit reflects the spirit of our communities. We are an inquisitive and fun-loving people, smiling defiantly in the face of hardship and raucously celebrating times of prosperity.

In the modern history of South Asia, no other country than Sri Lanka has seen a civil war lasting for 30 years, no other country has seen minority speaking community being massacred cruelly and brutally on the name of culling the civil war, no other country has seen such heinous war crimes than Sri Lanka, no other country has killed its own countrymen for 30 years. No other country has forced minority speaking community to lift weapons against its own state, country and government. No other country has seen forces operating in the mainland to conspire to kill the prime minister of other country. Such a country cannot be called close knit community, such a country cannot be allowed to take advantage of war crimes and killing of humanity on the name of suppression of civil war. You'd not find any other country in the world or the area which is termed as dangerous to be working for the journalists. When you have so many odds stacked against your country you cannot just go around and say this kinda things in honnourable forum as important as MCC.

Over four hundred years of colonization by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British has failed to crush or temper our indomitable spirit. And yet in this context the influence upon our recent history and society by the introduced sport of cricket is surprising and noteworthy. Sri Lankans for centuries have fiercely resisted the Westernisation of our society, at times summarily dismissing western tradition and influence as evil and detrimental.

Yet cricket, somehow, managed to slip through the crack in our anti-Western defences and has now become the most precious heirloom of our British Colonial inheritance. Maybe it is a result of our simple sense of hospitality where a guest is treated to all that we have and at times even to what we don't have

If they are so alien to the western influence and bothers to preserve the culture of Sri Lanka which emanates zillions of years back to the demonic kingdom of Ravana, then let them give up the game of cricket, for the world of cricket would be cleaned up by huge amount. No cheaters, no war criminals would be around in the sacred game of cricket. Civil war of 30 years negates every morally high statements this guy has made out in the lines above.