da pinnacle： Sri Lanka Cricketers’ Association (SCA) is still in its infancy, but hasstarted well, have plenty of encouraging plans and look to be moving in theright direction
Rex Clementine16-Jul-2001Sri Lanka Cricketers’ Association (SCA) is still in its infancy, but hasstarted well, have plenty of encouraging plans and look to be moving in theright direction. Their formation is clearly good news for national, club andpast players alike.Other Test nations established player associations long ago, but Sri Lanka’sonly started last December. Former Sri Lankan batsman Roshan Mahanama,Secretary of the SCA, admits that this has been a long overdue development.”Ravi Ratnayake, the former Sri Lankan fast bowler, was the one who firststressed on the importance of having an association for the cricketers. Thiswas about 15 years ago. He had all the documents details and everything, butunfortunately it didn’t come through as Ravi had to migrate to Australia,”said Mahanama.When asked as to the need for such an association’s, he answers: “We formedthis to look after the welfare of the cricketers. If you look at the majorcommercial bodies in the country they all have associations. Cricket is oneof the top five earners of foreign exchange, so we should have anassociation of our own.”Mahanama feels the welfare of the cricketers is not sufficiently catered tooat present: “I played for Colombo Cricket Club (CCC) in the one-daytournament last year and I realised none of our players were getting paid.”Now the English Players Association gets 300,000 pounds sterling from theECB and the Australian Cricketers’ Association gets 750,000 dollars fromtheir board, but we don’t get a single cent from the Board,” he says.He is, however, hopeful that the players will be offered greater incentivesin the future: “They are in the process of recognising us. I hope and praythey will. I am keeping my fingers crossed. But I must tell you that theSports Minister was kind enough to grant us SLR 100,000 through the SportsFund.”The CEO of the Cricketres’ Association, Don Anurasiri, the former Sri Lankanspinner, agrees with Mahanama that the players’ financial situation has toimprove.”The board pays some money to the clubs, but this money is not spent on thecricketers. Whereas in other counties this is not the case,” remarked Don.”So we would like to see some of the money given out by the Board going tothe cricketers, rather than for the development of the club”.Mahanama has ambitious plans for the future: “We want the clubs to get about15-20 players contracted and pay them a share of what they get from theBoard. Then we want to have an insurance scheme for the players andprogrammes like career guidance”In fact, the SCA envisages a time when they too will contribute to the wagesof club cricketers. In three years time Anurasiri hopes that: “We would beable to pay every club depending on their capabilities. We would be able topay some sort of money to the contracted players.”And for those that have had to retire from the game: “Many past cricketerswonder what they are going to do with themselves after they have retired. Ifthey are in trouble and need medical help or financial support, we want tobe there to assist them.”The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) has yet to recognisethe SCA, but members feel that it’ll happen sooner than later: “When we hada meeting a couple of months ago they said they can’t recognise us straightaway. They said they wanted to see what we are doing.”The SCA is keen to foster a progressive relationship with the board.According to Mahanama: “We have told them that we have to go hand in hand.We didn’t form the association to fight with the cricket board.The SCA has already made efforts to popularise the game in outstation areas.They played a six-side tournament in Matara recently that involved over 50past and present Sri Lankan cricketers. Last week they played a one-day gameagainst the Matale District Cricket Association in Matale. Both the effortsattracted large crowds and were considered a great success.A body that can represent Sri Lankan cricketers is long overdue in SriLanka. One only has to look at similar associations in the UK and Australiato see the immense contribution they can make towards player welfare. Theformation of the SCA is therefore a very significant development thatdeserves the support of all those connected with the game.