Back in the mid-1940s, which is years before many of your parents were courting, there was a cinematic character called Joe McDokes. He was the guy who hid behind the 8 ball.

Now the 8 ball is a variation of several pocket billiards type sports and which requires some concentration, while not quite chess, it needs a lot of skill.

The McDokes series was quite an entertaining ten-minute spoof on matters of daily life, one of them was about being a security guard. As Joe McDokes would explain, as in most of our daily lives, there are a series of "do’s" and there are a series of "dont" – especially when it comes to the matter of security. Behaviour and politeness is all important.

Sri Lankan cricketer Tharanga Paranavitana acknowledges the crowd after scoring his maiden half century in the first cricket Test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, in Galle, Sri Lanka, Saturday, July 4, 2009. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)

Last Monday, as an example, attempting to attend the media conference at a popular Galle Face Green hotel, security was so tight and harassment so unnecessary it reminded me of the evil days of apartheid in South Africa. It showed just how paranoid Sri Lanka Cricket officials have become when all someone wanted to do is listen to the views of Kumar Sangakkara and Younis Khan on the Pakistan tour of the island and scribble a few lines for a website in India.

It has to be understood and appreciated, how there is still a need for security, but the way these guys behaved with their gung-ho in the face attitude is not appreciated. Consequently, it is felt that if this is the way SLC plan to treat the tour and print media, it isn’t worth attending the conference. It is better to head for home.

As for the games, it’s far more comfortable to switch on the cable channel and watch the action that way. This is never as good as being at the venue, but it helps, despite even the intrusion of the occasional ads.

Yet the type of ‘ring of steel’ security on show last Monday is not the sort of image Sri Lanka wants to show visitors, even as the nation recovers from the brutality of a civil war that left many bereft of loved ones, kith and kin.

Last year, when part of the India tour coincided with the SAARC conference in Colombo, the security people were polite and helpful, nothing as bad as that experienced last Monday, when you wondered just what criminal act you had committed and what the interim committee are trying to achieve.

You can also guarantee that New Zealand cricket journalists planning to cover the tour of the island next month will not take kindly at all to such strong-arm style tactics. Already, there has been an enquiry about last Monday’s excessive display of security, whether there are indeed Taliban militants in the country ready to cause Lahore style 3/3 mayhem.

A friend in the hotel and catering trade in the cultural triangle, is lamenting the lack of tourists this year. His complaint is how a year ago he was busy as foreign visitors filled his establishment and that of a friend near Unawatuna Bay. This year, there are less than half the numbers.

It has been hard to forgo the pleasure of missing a Test in Galle, my favourite corner of the island. But once the choice was made, it meant missing first hand the batting skills of Tharanga Paranavithana, whose plight was mentioned in these files two months ago, when commenting on the young man’s fight for recognition and another injured in the horrendous Lahore incident.

That led to an accusation of having a "hidden agenda" when questioning the appointment of Chandika Haturusinghe as a so-called "shadow coach" title and seeking an answer to what the title means. It drew an obtuse response from a sycophant Haturusinghe supporter and which explained nothing at all regarding the title.

It was pointed out at the time how Haturusinghe had rejected Paranavithana’s credentials for reasons he failed to explain. But as you discover in Sri Lanka, they don’t clearly explain decisions. Not as Bob Woolmer would, or as have Mike Procter, Ray Jennings and Mickey Arthur as well: it is a transparency issue, not a behind closed doors event.

What is known is that it was at Ashantha de Mel’s insistence that the left-hander was selected and how events surrounding the argument involving Paranavithana’s inclusion in the A team squad were exposed. It is why watching him in action on Saturday, after Sri Lanka were invited to bats first, became an interesting exercise.

They were in trouble in the first six overs with Malinda Warnapura and Sangakkara early victims of Mohammad Aamer and it was left to Paranavithana and Mahela Jayawardene to repair the damage. Jayawardene was fortunate that clumsy glovework by Kamran Akmal allowed him to escape when he was still to put a run on the board.

At least Akmal made up for the blemish with five dismissals - four catches and a stumping that ended off the Sri Lanka innings - not a bad haul at all.

Yet, as the Sri Lanka top-order crumbled to the spicy swing and pace on a troublesome pitch against the Pakistan bowlers, headed by 17-year-old left-arm debutant Aamer, Paranavithana held the innings together. It is the sort of pitch where batsmen were rarely in command. His batting was as solid as the dependable Galle Fort wall, whose battlements held any number of spectators during the day.

Dropped early on and given a reprieve when on 60, off an inside edge by Australian Umpire Daryl Harper, Paranavithana absorbed all the early pressure and displayed class, technique and talent that had been unfairly questioned. In the process, he put together his highest Test innings and first half-century, notable for its driving in front of the wicket. It makes you wonder why there are those who are out to damage the career of such a talented player.

Maybe his escape off the inside edge catch will have those who are advocating the referral system demand its immediate reintroduction instead of waiting until October. But being Sri Lankans, maybe not.

Yet you would have also thought that by now, Sri Lanka’s selectors would have sorted out their story over the Chaminda Vaas ‘retirement/snub’ issue. And at the start of a Test series as well. All this amid the backdrop of the Galle Fort and which left the island’s national selectors struggling to keep some vestiges of credibility. It is all quite embarrassing taking the edge off a good day’s cricket.

But following the example of some of the island’s characteristically serendipitous image, it seems there are crossed wires as well as some mischiefmaking going on in SLC circles. Just who is at fault with the Vaas story has yet to be sorted out - if it ever will.

Convener of selectors De Mel says one thing, Vaas gives his side of the story, which refutes De Mel’s version and Kumar Sangakkara offers another view. De Mel claims Vaas told him his ‘Test playing days are over.’

"Not so,’ says the left arm tidy swing and seam bowler with 110 Test caps and 354 wickets. As the accusations fly, he says that he didn’t speak to De Mel. Sangakkara chips on with the comment of how he talked to Vaas on a ‘one to one’ basis before last month’s ICC World Twenty/20 in England.

Yet while Vaas is adamant, despite his Test career possibly winding down after 15 years, he wants to be around to play in the next World Cup when he will be 37, but would also like to be considered as a Test bowler.

Watching all the action on day one of the Test has been the International Cricket Council’s director of umpires, Vintcent van der Bijl, the amiable giant and former Natal, Transvaal (before it became Gauteng) and Middlesex bowler. Because of South Africa’s isolation (banned from 1971 to 1991), he is regarded as the best bowler not to play at international level, yet for some became a surprise inclusion in John Woodcock’s list of 100 great players of all time.

Known as ‘Big Vince’, he is about 205.74 metres tall (or 6ft 7½ inches), and his 767 first-class wickets at an average of 16.54 in 156 games, is testimony of his impressive accuracy and probing penetration. Former England captain, Mike Brearley said he was the biggest influence in Middlesex winning the 1980 county championship title with 85 wickets at a remarkable 14.72.

Brearley once recalled when asked for a comment on Van de Bijl’s ability as a bowler, how he remembers when standing at first slip that 1980 summer, the big man bowling possibly only a half-dozen half volleys the whole season. Remarkable, when you consider someone such as Glenn McGrath delivered as many in a single Test innings.

Just as impressive is the family’s record, with his father, Pieter van der Bijl, scoring 125 and 97 in what became known as the ‘timeless’ Test in Durban in March 1939. A Rhodes Scholar and Oxford blue, he was perhaps considered a little slow on his feet, yet managed to score 460 runs and a plus 51.00 average in that series.

Finally, apart from welcoming old pal Brian Thomas as the new senior media manager, where he has had to swap his rugby cleats and microphone for another more demanding role, there is also a matter of a set of twins born to a former close colleague Nirgunan Tiruchelvam. Now five weeks old are brothers Antak and Vegav, jokingly referred to as Ponsford and Woodfull. email: lbwbambrose@gmail.com