Shenali D Waduge

 

There is much written on intellectual property rights accompanied by the premise that justice must be seen to be done. In both cases, Senaka Weeraratna is fighting a lone battle against colonial racism together with an attitude of jealousy or better versed as eerisiyawa” that denies acknowledgement for coming up with a mechanism that forever resolved the problem of the hora umpire”. Senaka Weeraratna’s DRS has erased the hora umpire” from sports vocabulary.

President Ranil Wickremasinghe & Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena both being, avid cricket enthusiasts themselves are classmates of Senaka Weeraratna and belong to the 1960 Royal College Old Boys batch.

Gaining recognition for the DRS will be a feather in the cap for Senaka Weeraratna at a personal level but to their alma mater Royal College & in particular the 1960 Batchmates & Sri Lanka as a whole.

Therefore, we appeal to President Ranil Wickremasinghe & PM Dinesh who as President & Prime Minister must take up this case at an official & personal level and if need be secure the support of Asia & in particular India & PM Narendra Modi given the cricket enthusiasts in India will also be proud of an Asian being acknowledged in Crickets Hall of Fame.

There have been enough of articles and appeals made on behalf of Senaka Weeraratna. All these appeals seem to have fallen on deaf years over the years with many lavishly giving reasons not to even consider the appeal & reluctant to look at his case empathetically.

The DRS Technology as Idea: Senaka Weeraratna’s Inventive Mind

The simple fact remains that the idea of using a player referral system did not fall from the sky. Someone had to have thought of the idea – if it is not Senaka Weeraratna, who? No one so far has come forward to present claim. That leaves only Senaka Weeraratne, who in 1997 wrote to an Australian newspaper giving his proposal. The DRS is being applied worldwide but everyone is mum about its author. A song has to be written though it can be sung by many. We are trying to determine the song-writer & in this case the author of the player referral system.

If the color of Senaka Weeraratna’s skin is preventing the stiff upper-lipped Brits from acknowledging Senaka Weeraratna, we consider it is in bad taste and completely demolishes all the fanfare about non-discrimination & non-racial standards. While ICC is being questioned over its supremacist racism, Sri Lankan Cricket authorities are equally guilty including the much hyped former cricket captains who love to make eloquent speeches about equality but have failed to even speak one word on behalf of Senaka Weeraratna. We attribute this to nothing short of eerisiyawa”, only wanting to blow one’s own trumpet but inconsiderate for justice to others.

It’s been a good 27years that Senaka Weeraratna has been fighting a lone battle to get the recognition he rightly deserves.

Now that his classmates Ranil Wickremasinghe is the President of Sri Lanka & Dinesh Gunawardena is the Prime Minister, we sincerely hope that they would together with Royal College & the 1960 Batch make a strong appeal to the ICC & obtain the recognition for the authorship of the DRS/UDRS.

Senaka Weeraratna should be felicitated as the inventor of the DRS system – it is a prestige to the cricket world, to all other sports, to Royal College and Asia as well.

Royal College,– let’s see the boys get into action & win this international accolade.

It will be a feather in the cap for the Alma Mater!