‘The Business of Sports’: A long overdue commentary!

A word about ‘The Business of Sport’ column that appears in the Daily FT, which I have deeply enjoyed.

Here is a series of articles that touched the ‘inner depth’ of Sri Lanka’s popular sport arenas. It is a pity that the sport enthusiasts in Sri Lanka are denied of modern trends in sports literature.  

Our sports page contents and most of the other connected writings are still focusing on age-old formula; match results, player profiles, oral history of the game (most of such writings are far away from the actual history), sport gossip and mild and friendly criticisms. It is a fact that we are far behind the global trend of modern sports writing, sports reporting and in general – sports media and communication. How sad!

As Dr. Sasanka Perera, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Colombo University, pointed out: “Sri Lanka hardly has an academic publishing industry to speak of in which context critical scholarly texts exploring sports from a sociological, political, economic, historical or cultural analysis perspective do not exist.  Within this scenario, it is not an exaggeration to suggest that sports have not been academically contextualised or theoretically interrogated in any serious fashion in Sri Lanka.” (‘Contextualising Sports in Sri Lanka,’ Colombo, 2007)

‘The Business of Sport’ column is certainly an exception. This series of articles explores the commercial aspect of sport within its boundaries thus highlighting major issues connected thereto and its challenges.  It exposes exploitation of marketing aspect in sport. This type of writing is long overdue in the field of island’s sports literature.

With the introduction of the liberalised economy, excessive commercialism gradually crept into the sports sphere. This resulted in ‘professionalism’ which went hand in hand with ‘sponsors’. As a result of this new acquaintance, which was visible in most glamour sports in the country,  Player-governing body relationship expanded further thus bringing a new third party – corporate sponsors, to the scene.

Unfortunately, this significant socio-historical change was almost overlooked by the general histories of sport.

Against such a backdrop ‘The Business of Sport’ column is most welcome read for Sri Lanka’s sports enthusiasts. The contents of each article are straightforward, exciting, thought-provoking and interesting. That is why I have been a keen follower of ‘The Business of Sport’ column.

Neil Wijeratne