"What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such…That is, the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government."

As a nation, we don’t further need cricket for any broad social necessity. Those days look to be over. Cricket for achieving broader, decisive social goals, is a project belongs only to the past. After the 1996 World Cup triumph and nearly a decade after that has seen the island nation reaching all possible heights in this fantastic Englishman’s game. Now they play handsomely in the IPL and the people are watching it. My friends, amidst the ‘real’ battles waged in Vellamullivaikkal, in the North of Sri Lanka, and its surroundings are watching it.

Nobody calls some Sri Lanka cricketing minnows nowadays. Those days are over. The period belongs to the pre-World Cup win. Now they are always on par with any superpower in world cricket, like Australia, South Africa or India. The beauty of the underprivileged taking on the privileged cricketing giants in the world arena and coming home victorious no longer brings us ecstasy as it was nearly a decade or so ago. The glamour of cricket has faded and it has entered into a different spectrum, a totally commercial sphere.

"After the (Wills) World Cup win, I wanted to make Sri Lanka a constantly winning Test side," said Aravinda de Silva, who played a major part in the country’s 1996 World Cup win. At least for some time, during the decade that followed, de Silva could have seen the National team achieving such feats. A brilliant effort! What more to get? Maybe ‘another’ World Cup or to sustain further, the standards ‘we’ have already achieved.

Selfish projects

After virtually everything has been achieved by the National cricket team, what’s left more for our cricketers? It seems it boils down to personal goals and nothing else.

Cementing one’s place in the side, establishing yourself as professional cricketer, buying a personal vehicle, building a luxurious mansion in Colombo or in its suburbs, marrying a nice-looking, posh middle-class girl who would probably be an ardent cricket fan, elevation in the social class that would have been quite impossible if not for this grand gentleman’s game, etc.; these could be the not-so-sporty, yet realistic, objectives of a cricketer at National level now, since the day they had achieved the highest possible accolades as a National team under that ‘war veteran’ named Arjuna Ranatunga.

Though it may not have been academically or scientifically substantiated, India too should have faced a similar scenario after their National team, under that ‘Haryana Hurricane’ Kapil Dev, won them the prestigious Prudential World Cup beating the invincible West Indies, led by non other Clive Lloyd in 1983 at Lord’s. History repeats itself. The game changed for the better, or for the worst, after these grand shows that pumped up an entire nation as if they had won a ‘real’ war against a ‘real’ enemy in a ‘real’ battlefield (like Vellamull-ivaikkal).

It is no wonder that during these days of the IPL, nothing significant, politically important or novel could be expressed by any one one other that Ranatunga. Every single cricketer, including present National captain Kumar Sangakkara — no matter how giant their commercial or iconic figures maybe — has been submerged quite woefully in the present commercial quagmire. A pathetic show. They apparently have no idea as to where they are going.

Other Nations

Australia has to keep their ratings high in the game of cricket. They always have to compete with other top domestic games like the Footsie. English cricket has to compete with soccer. Pakistan has to prove their capabilities in the playing field in one of the most volatile stages of their political history. In the midst of all this, ‘we’ have noting to prove. Let’s earn my chum, when the sun shines so bright. It’s the end of history for ‘us.’ No great social endeavour to be engaged in with regard to Sri Lanka’s cricket.

As a result, ‘we’ will always contribute wholeheartedly to any baffling commercial hullabaloo like the IPL, masterminded by the Indian tradesmen not sportsmen, at any given time. No other country would do so. The Aussies, the Paks and the Englishmen had their reservations but none of ‘our’ champions, like Sangakkara or Mahela Jayawardene. They would always go for it sans second thoughts, even at the expense of a Test played at Lord’s!

After War

The social consciousness is a much broader phenomenon. It is bigger than a mere sport. The same people watch the IPL cricket on the Rupavahini Eye channel and will switch back to ITN to watch the battles waged in Vellamullivaikkla or Karaiyamullivaikkal. In a post Elam war situation, the way such a social conscience would treat cricket will always be interesting. The heart and warmth will no longer be there for a battle waged in the field of cricket. It will be a different order, for certain.

Professionalism needed