Fortune favours the brave

Saturday, 6 February 2021 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sa’adi Thawfeeq

There seems to be a lot of deliberation going on in picking the national cricket selection committee, and the delay could be attributed to the Sports Minister trying to take the right decision.

Being a sportsman himself, to hold this portfolio, he should have the courage to take the wise counsel and follow in his father’s footsteps bravely, and make changes which will then be his legacy, like how people talk about the late Gamini Dissanayake even today.

Minister Dissanayake brought Test status to the country and made changes for cricket. Likewise Namal Rajapaksa has a golden opportunity to make the changes so that his name will be etched in history as the one who changed cricket in this country.

What the young Minister must safeguard is people who come and whisper things in his ear, which he should not listen to.

There are moves to bring in people in spite of their proven failures when there are more capable administrators with much better track records who, for some reason or the other, have not even been considered. What they hope to achieve by doing so is anybody’s guess.

The Minister is young and inexperienced in holding a Cabinet portfolio. He should be very careful whose counsel he takes and not get misguided into taking the wrong decisions. He should have the courage to separate the good advice from the bad and make the right call because at the end of the day, he will be accountable for it.

At the end of day, what we want is the best for the country and cricket, and it doesn’t matter who comes and sits. What we want is cricket revived to a level where 22 million people of this country will get back the pleasure that they have enjoyed for years.

The Minister has the best mentor in his father, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, to follow in his giant footsteps where cricket is concerned. The PM had the best business model for cricket during his tenure as the Executive President of the country with phenomenal results to show in reaching five ICC World Cup finals.