It was mid-March 2005 when the then kindly media manager of Sri Lanka Cricket, the late Ray Illangakoon, called and suggested joining him and other selected media members in a planned visit to Kilinochchi.

The visit to the then Tamil Tiger territory was courtesy of SLC’s ambitious but now long defunct Cricket Aid programme as part of the board’s efforts to rehabilitate the tsunami displaced. Not only was the invitation a surprise, the thought of moving into a region governed by a terrorist organisation caused some concern.

Aravinda de Silva

Having once spent an hour on the floor of a bus in Cyprus in 1963 as members of the Greek terror organisation EOKA strafed the vehicle, thinking it was full of Turkish Cypriots on their way to the airport, being mistaken again for someone else was a worry. Around me at the time were dead Italian and German tourists along with a handful of us who by some miracle, escaped.

It is why, when the Sri Lankan players were attacked in Lahore by that lunatic fringe terrorist group on March 3, who are still at large, you wonder how safe is safe from terrorists. In this you feel deeply also for the families of the victims of the bombs planted in buses or crowded markets in this country. There are just too many fatalities of innocent people, while families bereft of loved ones in this country are in need of succour.

Those who have died in such a way did not deserve to be treated like sivpavu (four-legged mongrels). That sadly is the mind of a terrorist.

Having lived through such unlikely events as the Prague Spring of 1968, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, as well as observed with great relief the demise of the iniquitous apartheid system, the bloodied downfall of Eelam is a welcome moment in democratic history of a small nation.

When Ray called with the invitation that Tuesday, the surprise was because of a highly critical column appearing the day before about how Sri Lanka Cricket had treated players training for the New Zealand tour with the team’s management request for balls being denied. Marvan Atapattu’s team had been caught in the cross-fire of politics as rumours circulated about the elected board of Mohan de Silva being replaced by an interim committee.

My complaint was of how the players were the unfortunate bystanders of petty politics and at a time when there was a need for support, as it is no way for a board to react to such simple requests. At the time, my suggestion had been that such thinking belonged to such chandiyas who happily littered the streets with garbage.

On the outskirts of Kilinochchi that Saturday, we were shown an area where a planned cricket village for the displaced would be built. That night we were entertained in a hotel and someone known as Daya Master, doing his public relations act, addressed us in Tamil and which was translated.

He even apologised for the crude accommodation, saying that on our next visit we would get beds. This time it was a matter of sleeping on loose mattresses placed on a concrete floor in a gymnasium of an ‘international’ school. Across the road was another school, some of it pockmarked with holes from shelling and reminded you of scenes from a war-ravaged Sarajevo a decade before.

Sure, at the time it was a leafy, calm town and policewomen in the blue uniforms smiling while children rode bicycles; the mad rush of reckless bus drivers in Colombo a distant memory. Even the handing out to children of the tsunami displace in the northern regions under LTTE control items such as school exercise books and writing materials along with bank cards had its poignant moments.

Memory is of one little girl in white proudly walking down the side of the hall with her books clutched in her hands and a tall woman shedding grateful tears behind her; the girl, from the Mullativu area, was a tsunami orphan and the woman an aunt. Watching scenes of the fleeing Tamil civilians made me wonder if that small child and her aunt and others in that hall, had been among the many thousand that safely escaped.

What brought home the total futility of such a war, its death and destruction, had been the visit near the town to a cemetery where they had buried LTTE cadres. At that moment, a chilling wind blew up and revived memories of an afternoon spent inspecting the Nazi concentration camp Dachau, near Munich. It was a moment when you realised of the many living in a fool’s paradise.

Now, with the end of hostilities, there are opportunities where, with well organised infrastructures, for the SLC to play an important role in the re-awakening of the island’s northern region in the true unification of this country; if they are prepared to accept such a challenge.

It is barely two months since the Aravinda De Silva Cricket Foundation conducted a cricket camp in Jaffna, where, with the help of the Sri Lankan Army, Aravinda headed the project and took a group of coaches to Jaffna to look at the cricket talent available within the school system.

This should serve as an example for other sports, but without their dysfunctional administration systems and help the youth in the northern part of Sri Lanka to think and dream beyond the local boundaries, as they have been restricted to for most of their young lives.

Aravinda’s presence in Jaffna was a moment most of the young cricketers are unlikely to forget. They had chance to meet a national hero, a century maker in the 1996 World Cup final, itself a moment in history when the country was united in elation and celebration, as Sri Lanka stood alone on top of the cricket world as champions.

Before 1996, and since, Sri Lanka has been divided along racial lines. The 1996 World Cup win, however briefly, united the country and gave all a glimpse of what is possible with sport as a unifying factor. With a fierce conflict raging in the north and uncertainty in the south, so many sporting ambitions of perhaps three generations have had to be discarded.

Arjuna Ranatunga’s 1996 team could have and should have, inspired at least three generations, but because of the conflict this has not been possible. Now it is time that we get back to that 1996 feeling when everyone stood together watching a television, wherever they could, as Sri Lankans. There were no Sinhalese, no Tamils, no Muslims, no Burghers, only Sri Lankans.

When the national team takes the field it should not be a question of race, creed or language, only that he is a Sri Lankan. Muttiah Muralitharan or Russel Arnold are not referred to as Tamils; Tillekeratne Dilshan and Faveez Maharoof are not called Muslims; and Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara have not been referred to as Sinhalese.

In this it would be interesting to know how many Aravinda’s and Arjuna’s have missed their chance of being able to play cricket, and take part in other sports. So much talent has left the country for a safer life, forfeiting any ambition of pursuing a career in sport, thus laying waste to some wonderfully gifted and naturally talented athlete’s, the equal of any in the world.

Aravinda’s trip to Jaffna was a three day event and could not have been an easy decision for the military, with all the uncertainty and risk involved, to agree to helping host the clinic at such a fractious time. It is important to note that he did take the risk and made the trip possible; it explains just who he is: not only a national hero but one who is a credit to the game, and gratitude to the Sri Lankan Army for taking those concerned to Jaffna and returning them safely.

Sport can do so much to attract the imagination of young minds and should be encouraged. This means engaging youth in the pursuit of sporting excellence and thus a form of self determination for all the right reasons, giving Sri Lanka a more powerful voice at home and on the international stage.

President Mahinda Rajapaske has opened the doors to a brave new world for all in Sri Lanka. Yet, Aravinda and Arjuna have been lone voices on the sporting front; let us hope that the broader sporting community joins in and takes advantage of the opportunities available for the future development of this country.

This brings me to a headline in last Tuesday’s sports pages of ‘The Island’. It is about the lack of the Duckworth/Lewis facility at venues around the country for games other than international matches.

What kind of dysfunctional logic is this? It explains why the national schools Under-19 coaching system is a mess. Those administrators in charge of the game at national schools level need to take responsibility for such stupid culpable logistical failures and not having a system in place that works. It displays poor administration skills, which for a nation with a proud Test and ODI record is a disgrace and those running SLC need to take a serious look at where the sport is failing at such an important level.

Blaming the tools is a poor excuse by those who cannot produce better players. It is why Aravinda has had to be drafted in yet again at a late stage to try and help extricate those who look on, because they have failed, yet flash fancy coaching certificates. It makes you wonder from what garbage heap in Maitland Place they found them.