World Cup, political propaganda, myths and lessons learnt

By J.C. Weliamuna

Finally, the best team of the day won. That is how any game ends. That is how World Cup 2011 ended. The credit should go to all the teams that played and in particular to the Sri Lankan team, who gave the best entertainment and a fight fully worth watching.

Sangakkara’s super leadership is displayed in his interview at the prize giving; he decently acknowledged the power of the opponent and extended his congratulations to the winner. In the final analysis, it is the game of cricket that won.

The lesson to learn is that there is a winner in sport because there is a loser and the credit should go to both sides for the exiting game and the discipline they displayed on the ground. However, this is the time to pose for a moment and reflect where we went wrong.

A herculean task

Our team achieved what one might describe a herculean task. Sri Lanka is one of the countries where all sports, whether cricket, football, boxing or any other, is totally politicised and all aspects of sports are run by favourite appointees of political masters. There is no room for sports autonomy or democratically elected sports bodies to manage any national sport in the country, to the utter disappointment of the genuine sports persons and the fans.

Decisions are taken to please the politicians who take sports as another political tool to accumulate power. Unfortunately, in Sri Lanka, the politicians do believe that it is because of them that sun rises and flowers blossom!

Evidence is emerging that there was intolerable political interference with the cricket administration. It is in that context that we need to appreciate the remarkable achievements of this great cricket team that managed to minimise the adverse effects of political interferences, at least at the game level.

Match fixing allegation

When our team lost to Pakistan at the league matches, the State media accused Mahela and Thilan of match fixing – a serious allegation that no one can ignore. However, behind this accusation was a specialist in the Government’s political propaganda unit (also an Editor of a State media institution), who is known for mudslinging with impunity – probably the best favoured sport of the politicians in power. Interesting to note how the Government tackled it and how Mahela handled it.

The Government, like any other instances of shame, resorted to its trump card, suggesting that the accusation of match fixing was a conspiracy of the opposition! It never wanted to admit that it was its propaganda unit which made the accusation against the players; nor did it, understandably, take any convincing steps against its own maestro of the propaganda unit of the Government. On the other hand, Mahela in the sportiest way answered the Government propaganda unit with a superb knock of 100 at the final.

A matter of faith

Culturally, Sri Lankans are great believers of religious faiths. When ever in trouble or for any important occasion, we turn to God or blessings from our own religions. Naturally people pray for victory of a team, which is not limited to Sri Lanka.

This time, temples were full of those cricket fans. There were organised poojas at famous temples invoking blessings on the team, most of which were covered. Unfortunately, in some of those events, the known thuggish politicians were seen more than the cricket fans on TV.

Surely for them, unlike the innocent people, who do believe in a faith, did not have any reason to invoke blessing on the team, except to politically capitalise on the occasion. According to the media, in India too, millions of cricket fans have had blessings for their team, but rarely was a political leader seen in those programmes on TV.

Astrology

Whenever astrologers are seen on Sri Lankan TV, it is for either election propaganda work or a regular programme of reading horoscopes. This time, mainly State media (and media promoting the regime) had several programmes on the World Cup final match. Most of those sudden programmes took place around 1 April. One wonders whether they were April Fool’s Day programmes, but not to be so.

Main astrological advisors of the regime came out strongly in favour of the Sri Lankan team. One said repeatedly that there was a change of a star around 11 a.m. on 2 April which would definitely bring in victory for the Sri Lankan team. Some even tried to connect the star of the leader of the country to that of the captain of the team! We know that in Sri Lanka, many vital decisions are taken by the Government on astrological advice and are we to decide the fate of a country on such advice?

Political agenda

The Government propaganda machinery and the regime undoubtedly had a plan to politically capitalise on the possible victory of the Sri Lankan team. That is probably not objectionable in a country where everything is madly politicised.

The Head of State and his entourage took wing to Mumbai, not to mention the country-fed Ministers and political appointees. There is no evidence of any of them purchasing their tickets out of their own funds; on the contrary, in general we the tax payers meet their expenditure.

The preparation for the victory celebration was obvious and understandable. No country will miss such a glorious victory. The difference was that in Sri Lanka the political power almost grabbed the victory for their survival and to downplay the cost of living and other problems in the country, including the huge scale of corruption.

I would have imagined the Government’s unstoppable media unit lining up programmes and programmes thanking the Government for the victory, had we won the final. The trophy would then be brought by a politician who would kiss the motherland on arrival to the country, as if it was his own victory and impress on the country that the luck is not that of the team but of his own!

Corruption

Corruption in sports is a much-debated topic today world over. Match fixing to drug usage of sportsmen is quite common. Cricket is, however, a game with so many safeguards against corruption in the game itself.

There is a concept of neutral umpires, TV replay and a third umpire and a match referee. All that guarantees the integrity of the play in the ground, but a sport needs to be beyond even suspicion of corruption. However, behind the curtain, there are much wider opportunities for corruption for the sports administrators. Let me briefly outline a few such instances:

Construction

If funds are available from the World Cup organisers to build or refurbish a cricket stadium, then the cricket governing body should be independently evaluate the situation and conduct an acceptable needs assessment. To say the least, an objective needs assessment is a must. The decision where such investment is made must be objective.

If a politician to dictate the terms to sports administrative body and decide on a construction of a venue in his or her hometown, such a decision is undoubtedly a questionable decision, to say the least. You know then that there is an ulterior motive involved in it.

Then how does the construction take place? Is there a competitive bidding? Should the Government engage itself in constructions, depriving the construction industry of the country of such massive constructions? They all matter for integrity of the future of the game.

Ticket sales

Then take the case of ticket sales. Probably this world cup was the worst ever ticket sales in India, Bangladesh and in Sri Lanka. No tickets were available for the public and we see many empty seats.

The car parks and VVIP convoys seen at the match venues raises the question whether the matches were played for the VVIPs or the public. How did they get their tickets when thousands of fans were deprived of tickets? Was there any transparency in ticket management? They have forgotten that cricket is the game of the common person in Sri Lanka.

The media reported that large a number of tickets were sold on the black market and that many Police units are on alert to catch those who are selling the tickets in that manner. How did the bulk of the tickets go to the black market? What was the ticket selling plan of the Cricket Board?

My conclusion is that corruption of such high magnitude cannot happen without the blessings or involvement of key political masters in this country and that no institution is capable of investigating into this corruption.  Knowing the track record of the Government and law enforcement authorities of Sri Lanka, we cannot logically expect a credible investigation into the malpractices in the game of cricket in the recent past.

Plea for the public

To conclude this writing, I have a plea for the public. We must congratulate Sangakkara’s team for the brilliant performance. We must also urge the Government and political layer of the President to keep away from sports.

We need to realise that not all games are as bad as politics and some games cannot be won on propaganda or by having the backing of the Government. The best that the President and the Government can do for sports is to allow the autonomy of the sports bodies in the country. Let us hope we learnt the lessons.