By Revatha S. Silva
The owners of the mega league have so far failed to pay their fees! Who fools whom, ask the beholders. He will pay before the start, the officials who matter will tell us. Why take such a risk that can lose you several hundreds of millions of rupees? Is there no way the said owners might default?
[caption id="attachment_105136" align="alignright" width="300"]
SLC Vice President and LPL Director Ravin Wickramaratne, SLC Secretary Mohan de Silva, and SLC President Shammi Silva[/caption]
Is there any secret as to why the key sport's higher-ups tend to take such fancy risks? On the other hand, why is he not paying still? Does he think this is a non-starting league? Or does he actually not have money to pay that fee?
This could be the rub.
At the same time of the hectic preparation for the mega league, there is a selling of TV rights of a main series for next year also on. Oh, what a coincidence!
Now an assumption. The ownership of those TV rights too can go to the mega event owners. He'll grab it and quickly resell it to the country that is to visit next year and get those monies to quickly cover the mega league fees. Hey presto! There can be something out of nothing!
[caption id="attachment_105137" align="alignright" width="300"]
LPL event rights holder IPG's Chairman Anil Mohan[/caption]
A plot is uncovered! You grease the palms of a few, wait a while, and then have the gold mine. You will be happy and your colleagues too will be happy.
[caption id="attachment_105135" align="alignleft" width="182"]
Still from popular tele serial Koombiyo [/caption]
We see this kind of smart tactic gain quick bucks nowadays in TV serials... with Koombiyo here in Sri Lanka, featuring the “chic trickster” Jehan Fernando, being an example.
Now we could see the actual Jehan Fernandos of our time burning the midnight oil at Maitland Place hoping to fruitfully end their masterful operation.
SLC Vice President and LPL Director Ravin Wickramaratne, SLC Secretary Mohan de Silva, and SLC President Shammi Silva[/caption]
Is there any secret as to why the key sport's higher-ups tend to take such fancy risks? On the other hand, why is he not paying still? Does he think this is a non-starting league? Or does he actually not have money to pay that fee?
This could be the rub.
At the same time of the hectic preparation for the mega league, there is a selling of TV rights of a main series for next year also on. Oh, what a coincidence!
Now an assumption. The ownership of those TV rights too can go to the mega event owners. He'll grab it and quickly resell it to the country that is to visit next year and get those monies to quickly cover the mega league fees. Hey presto! There can be something out of nothing!
[caption id="attachment_105137" align="alignright" width="300"] LPL event rights holder IPG's Chairman Anil Mohan[/caption]
A plot is uncovered! You grease the palms of a few, wait a while, and then have the gold mine. You will be happy and your colleagues too will be happy.
[caption id="attachment_105135" align="alignleft" width="182"] Still from popular tele serial Koombiyo [/caption]
We see this kind of smart tactic gain quick bucks nowadays in TV serials... with Koombiyo here in Sri Lanka, featuring the “chic trickster” Jehan Fernando, being an example.
Now we could see the actual Jehan Fernandos of our time burning the midnight oil at Maitland Place hoping to fruitfully end their masterful operation.
- Here are some of the issues the public as well as the officials need to observe with regard to the Lanka Premier League (LPL), which is to begin at Hambantota on 26 November.
- Are the players, both local and foreign, plus the support staff, the massive grounds staff, the TV crew, and so many technicians coming from abroad, particularly India, undergoing the Health Ministry-stipulated quarantine measures after reaching Sri Lanka?
- Some support staff members are arriving in Sri Lanka only this weekend.
- It is true that the LPL’s venue, the Hambantota Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium, is said to have about 10 pitches in the middle but can they survive the battering of 23 matches played within just 21 days?
- Training for a 22-member national squad began in Kandy on Friday (13). The training is being held for 10 days until Sunday (22).
- Then the players who are participating in the LPL will leave straight to Hambantota whilst the rest return to Colombo.
- If they are to undergo 14 days of quarantine in the Hambantota bio-secure bubble, it will be on 5 December that they are supposed to come out of quarantine. But the LPL is scheduled to start on 26 November. In that case, they can actually quarantine for only five days.
- If their bio-secure bubble began operating from 13 November, then they can only be ready to play the LPL exactly on the day their 14-day quarantine is over; 26 November.
- The LPL is to go on till 16 December. The Sri Lanka national Test team is to leave for South Africa on 17 December for two Tests starting on 26 December (Boxing Day) at Centurion and 3 January 2021 at Johannesburg.
- After three full weeks of T20 league cricket, their only means of preparation for Test cricket is the three-day game they will play against South Africa for the South African Invitation XI from 20-22 December at Benoni.
- On a positive note, though, the LPL could raise the spirit of local cricket fans and mark the much-needed start of international cricketing action in the country.
- But the urgency of the LPL organisers Sri Lanka Cricket and its event rights holders Innovative Production Group (IPG) looks precariously ill timed and reckless too.
- For, it yields all its participants to obey rigorous health restrictions during a second wave of the pandemic here while exposing them to an overtly unnecessary danger of being infected by the coronavirus.
- At the same time, it has a possibility of hampering proper Test cricket training for Sri Lanka before a rare and historic series in South Africa. It is not the franchise league cricket that sustains the cricketing image of the country; it is international Test cricket that does.
- LPL will bring a lot of money into the country and it can form a symbolic start in our post-Covid-19 sports, one can argue. But, is the flow of that money directed towards any long-term betterment of the sport or to line the pockets of a few top-brass officials involved in that?
- Who wants the LPL so badly in this hour; the country or some selfish individuals?
- If it is held for the latter reason, our young and agile Sports Minister will have to rethink whether this kind of event can support his long-term objective of establishing a strong sports industry in Sri Lanka.
- Is it for overall development or to create a leeway for corruption?
- If the Minister errs in his judgement, he too will inevitably be considered part of those who will be responsible in the whole process in the end.