Chilaw Marians win should open eyes

The inter-club Premier League cricket tournament came to an end last week with Chilaw Marians winning the crown for the first time. Chilaw Marians in addition became runners-up in the limited overs tournament and clinched the women’s tournament too. It was a great achievement for the outstation club although all its players are not drawn from that area. A club may do well in lower divisions with outstation talent but when it comes to top divisions a club needs to employ talented cricketers from the metropolis.
However, Chilaw Marians’ achievements this season are special for a number of reasons. The Colombo based elite clubs have the advantage of a ground of their own, practice and centre wickets, other facilities like a gym and the assistance of a sponsor. Chilaw Marians don’t have a ground to be called theirs; they practice at Thurstan College ground and hire it. The wickets there always cannot be called good ones and when it rains the players have to go everywhere in search of indoor facilities. Often they don’t find them. Not only Chilaw Marians a number of other clubs too face this problem. Ragama CC and Baduraliya CC are two examples. For a number of years these clubs have survived without facilities. Although Ragama CC have gone down in the recent premier tournament Baduraliya CC have advanced a lot. It has improved from last year’s poor showing to finish fifth this year. It was just .4 points behind Colombo’s elite SSC in the final analysis.
Lankan CC, another club which struggles to meet the ends, came first in Premier League Tier ‘B’. And Wattala Antonians were crowned Sara champions.

Guts and determination

The players of all those not so affluent clubs need special mentioning. They showed a lot of guts and determination in playing for those clubs. The coaches in different squads selected and coaches working for the cricket board always advise players to play for elite clubs if they want to play for the country one day. They point out that it’s only those clubs which have all the necessary facilities and backing up. But the players we are talking about took a challenge to play for non-elite clubs and have done well.
The board pays the same amount to these clubs that it pays to the elite clubs. The board which talks high of inter-provincial cricket needs to understand their predicament, and the selectors too need to look at the players produced by these clubs. Look at the replacement players for the national team during the recent India tournament – Tissara Perera (Colts), Suraj Randiv (Bloomfield) and Muthumudalige Pushpakumara (Tamil Union). They won selection because of their top performance in the Premier League not in the inter-provincial tournament. So Sri Lanka Cricket cannot devalue the club tournament.
Sri Lanka Cricket should also recognize and help clubs which produce players to the national team. If it helps less affluent clubs like Chilaw Marians, Ragama CC and Baduraliya CC they can produce good cricketers. Take the case of Mahela Udawatta. He came out of Nalanda College, joined Chilaw Marians and played for Sri Lanka. This time around he captained the team to premier League glory.
Our plea to Sri Lanka Cricket is please don’t spend millions on international cricket grounds in outstations where matches will be sparsely played, instead help poor clubs and schools so they can produce more talented cricketers.