The title to this blog is from a quotation by Neville Cardus about a very special cricketing nation: Sri Lanka.
The words were quoted by Kumar Sangakkara in his recent MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey lecture: one of the few phrases in the speech that didn’t draw surprise.
As Sangakkara said, his audience was probably expecting a lecture on any of today’s hot cricket topics:
“the role of technology, the governance of the game, the future of Test cricket, and the curse of corruption, especially spot-fixing”
Instead they received a no holds barred account of Sri Lankan Cricket since independence, but most particularly from the mid-1990s.
They have been a dazzling few decades:
“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.”
Moreover what Sangakkara speech showed was how closely interconnected sport and politics are becoming.
He spoke for instance of how the nation came together over a single issue, when Muralitharan was no balled for alleged “chucking” on Boxing Day in Melbourne 1995.
“The decision to no ball Murali in Melbourne was, for all Sri Lankans, an insult that would not be allowed to pass unavenged. It was the catalyst that spurred the Sri Lankan team on to do the unthinkable, become World Champions just 14 years after obtaining full ICC status.”
What could be more powerful politically than being able to unite a whole nation with a single instance of injustice?
In fact this event brought nation and cricketers together with such intensity that in 1996 Sri Lanka achieved the unthinkable – its cricketers won the World Cup. However as Sangakkara observed:
“With the victory in 1996 came money and power to the board and players. Players from within the team itself became involved in power games within the board. Officials elected to power in this way in turn manipulated player loyalty to achieve their own ends. At times board politics would spill over in to the team causing rift, ill feeling and distrust.”
Just as in the world of politics money corrupts. Indeed it seems that Sri Lanka is still coming to terms with this legacy.
And then there were Sangakkara’s descriptions of two huge events through the prism of cricket – first the tsunami. In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami Sangakkara and other Sri Lankan team members played an important part in focusing relief efforts and raising morale.
“The role the cricketers played in their personal capacities for post tsunami relief and re building was worthy of the trust the people of a nation had in them. Murali again stands out. His Seenigama project with his manager Kushil Gunasekera, which I know the MCC has |supported, which included the rebuilding of over 1000 homes, was amazing.”
And second, the most chilling anecdote of the speech, the attack on the team coach by terrorists in Lahore:
“Then the bullets started to hit. It was like rain on a tin roof. The bus was at a standstill, an easy target for the gunmen. As bullets started bursting through the bus all we could do was stay still and quiet, hoping and praying to avoid death or injury.”
The whole of this account is delivered by Sangakkara in graphic details combined with that somewhat dreamlike quality associated with such events.
“Thaana Paranvithana, on his debut tour, is also next to me. He stands up, bullets flying all around him, shouting “I have been hit” as he holds his blood-soaked chest. He collapsed onto his seat, apparently unconscious.
I see him and I think: “Oh my God, you were out first ball, run out the next innings and now you have been shot. What a terrible first tour.”
The terrorist attack is the ultimate convergence of sport and politics. Where the team becomes the nation (just as when the umpire in the Melbourne match insulted a nation by calling its favourite cricketer a cheat).
All of this may be interesting, but none of it is exactly new. So why did Sangakkara make this speech? Why did he deviate from the expected topics?
To make some political points of course But in fact he goes further . By aligning the development of a nation to the growth of cricket Sangakarra gave this speech a new and game-changing message:
Sport is a political statement.
