Ajantha in action

I was in Sri Lanka on duty leave with a group of Italian Investors and members of an Italian Cooperative Society who built a magnificent home to house deaf and dumb and disabled children. The group ate and enjoyed the hot Sri Lankan curries.

The President of the Association had fallen in love with Sri Lanka after he spent his honeymoon there. He would not travel in any other Airline other than Air Lanka. He refuses to go anywhere for a holiday other than to Sri Lanka. But, he could hardly speak a word of English. Yet, he manages with a translator.

I found, to my surprise, that hardly anyone speaks English in Italy. But, it is one of the G7 countries. Most people in Italy are tolerant and love the Sri Lankans very much for having integrated into their society without much fuss. Most of them could hardly speak English when they came here. But most of them learnt Italian within a short time. Most have no formal education. They have not gone to a University, but learn to speak Italian without much difficulty. How is it that within a short time most migrant workers from Sri Lanka learn Italian much quicker than English. The reason is that there are no Sri Lankan Kalu Suddhas in Italy who laugh at those who cannot speak the Queen’s English. The Italians love Sri Lankans who speak their language and encourage them to speak Italian. No one laughs at them if they make mistakes. This is the legacy we inherited from the Kalu Suddhas who went to elitist schools and felt that it was a downright shame to learn the language of the Kussi Amma as they believed that learning English was one way of being superior to the Yakko natives. At Royal, the Master who taught us Sinhala was nick named ‘Gamaya’ mainly because he could not pronounce the words according to the accepted anglicized slant.

I was privileged to witness one of the greatest sporting spectacles being unfolded before my very eyes. That was the feat of Ajantha Mendis. I noted that he did not bother to speak the language which was alien to him. There was nothing he could say through words as he is not lawyer or a politician. He was a sportsman. He was the true champion of the day. Only a fool would think that if he spoke English he would do better. Thank God he did not know English as then he would try to read the coaching manuals and try to emulate the methods of orthodoxy.

I would be ashamed if anyone from the Board tries give our cricketers a crash course in English. We have a language which is older than most languages. We must be ashamed only if we cannot, like some olden day pukka sahibs, speak our mother tongue. When the great Imran Khan transformed the Pakistan Cricket team into world beaters and won the World Cup, some of his team mates could not speak or understand a word of English. When the Australian media went into raptures about a young cricketer called Inziamam Ul Haque, who virtually won the World Cup singlehandedly, the great Imran was asked what Inziamam thought about the comments in the Media on the new rising star of cricket. The great Imran interjected and said it is good that Inzi did not know a word of what was being said about him as he did not understand a word of English. "This would do a lot of good to Inziamam as he would not lose his head and could play his natural game." Later, when Inzi underwent a crash course and learnt some English, he lost his cool with the media for calling him fatty and other names. It was very common those days for the Manager of the Pakistan team to speak to the Media. Intikahb Alam not only spoke of what the man of the match thought about his innings without trying to interpret what the Man of the match said. Pakistan had a formidable cricket team. I am sure the lack of knowledge of English would have helped to find unorthodox players from the streets who played soft ball cricket. No coaching manual taught them the art of reverse swing. The whole of the English speaking cricketing world called them cheats as it was not in their manuals. I remember once the great Sanath Jayasuriya said what he hated in Cricket was when Tony Greig came behind him for an interview.

Let us accept this. Italians do not have a Newspaper, Radio Station and TV Channel in the English Language. They are proud of their language. They do not teach a second language in schools but they won the Soccer World Cup and have done so well in other fields without English. It must be said that Sinhalese is spoken only by us. In order to keep with the changes we must let our children learn English. However, if we cannot speak English, but have done exceedingly well in any field without English, there is no reason to be ashamed of it or to have crash courses in English. Let not anyone inhibit Ajantha Mendis by forcing him to learn English. He must rather concentrate on his bowling and forget about English. His achievements cannot be translated into word by anyone, as it was sheer magic combined with artistry and unorthodoxy that made him the match winner of a sport which was called the gentlemen’s game in the country where the mother tongue is English. But no one could match him as he did it without knowing a word of English.

Take a cue from great Imran, an Oxford educated scholar and cricketer.