Ajantha Mendis may have won the hearts and minds of the cricket loving public, but his promotion to rank of Second Lieutenant overnight for capturing 6 wickets for 13 runs in the Asia Cup Final against India recently is definitely a massive demoraliser to those on the battlefront fighting the LTTE.

These men are risking their lives 24 hours of the day and their kith an kin are on needles till they return home.

I am in no way detracting from the great potential Ajantha Mendis has as a bowler.

The Army Commander having taken into account the promotion procedure in the army had decided to promote Ajantha Mendis to the rank of sergeant. The rank and file would have thought it a fitting reward for his remarkable performance on the cricket field.

However, it is being suggested that the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces saw it fit to promote him to rank of Second Lieutenant purely to get political mileage.

There thousands of our armed forces doing battle against the enemy, not on the sports field, but the raw battlefield. Many of them have acted heroically, according to fellow troops, but the Armed Forces High Command has been singularly silent on rewarding such bravery. They are our unsung and unheard heroes. They will, of course, be rewarded posthumously, as is the general rule.

Surely this unthinking act by the C-in-C of the Sri Lanka’s armed forces will cause total demoralization at all levels of the Sri Lanka military. This not so wise act of the President is going to simmer in the minds of our armed forces for a long time. They are many whose brave acts have not elicited an encouraging response.

As a corollary to this inane act, Sri Lanka may be the only country in the world where the Minister of Sport poses with a national cricket team. Sports should be the exclusive preserve of those associated with sports in a big way, but should be out of bounds for ruling politicians. The fiasco of the swimmers trials for the Beijing Olympics is a classic example why politicians who know next to nothing about sports be kept out of it.

So was an actor politician predecessor who fouled up the works earlier, in style.