CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Marvan Atapattu Has Spoken Out Bravely!

Top Spin By Suni ~ For LankaWeb Cricket - Date: Sun.11th Nov 2007

Marvan Atapattu's panel interview during the 4th days intermission at the Sri Lanka Vs Australia 1st Test match where he lashed out at the Sri Lankan selectors has vindicated many prestigious players who have been slighted by their decisions their hands in recent times. It has obviously irked the wrath of the Sri Lanka selectors, some contemplating punitive action depite maintaining a stiff upperlip approach to the issue while they seems quite deserving of the criticism meted out by Atapattu and it needs to be mentioned that it is not without justification given the circumstances.

Perhaps the analogical phraseology in ridiculing the selectors as "muppets with a joker in charge" did not impress the Sri Lankan Selectors particularly the Chairman of Selectors where it probably needs an add on highlighting their CEO with a love for the bottle who more often than not is rumored to be inebriated at top decision making times albeit besides the point in question but certainly needing 'honorable mention' if the gist of it were true!

Never has the Sri Lankan Selection Committee been at such a low ebb where the confusions and bunglings of their direction stick out in the manner of a sore thumb and the criticism can be deemed very deserving, Atapattu being a very injured party has every right to his opinion! However should the Selectors retaliate to it by deposing Marvan Atapatttu from the tour and sending him back they would surely be shooting themselves in the foot as the Sri Lankans could ill afford to lose him.

However, should the SL Selection Committee resort to this action which many think Draconian and retaliatory if it transpires they might be well advised to consider Tillekeratne Dilshan as the obvious choice as replacement albeit said tongue in cheek!

That the Selection Committe is so full of faults and weak links has fast become obvious in recent times by way of example involving the Upul Chandana affair, the exclusion of Tillekeratne Dilshan one of the finest players Sri Lanka has been gifted with in recent times and the manner in which Marvan Atapattu was slighted shamefully during the World Cup and other prestigious players given the cold shoulder at times deserving while also giving unwarranted preferential treatment to undeserving passengers whose inclusion in the team at the expense of great performers at the highest level at best seems mind boggling! so its little wonder that Marvan Atapattu has not minced his words and has spoken out bravely at a time perhaps when it seems very appropriate!

The following item certainly endorses it!

Sri Lanka's Marvan Attapatu a breath of fresh air

Article from:
Robert Craddock
November 12, 2007 12:00am

HATS off to Marvan Atapattu, a sportsman bold enough to challenge our politically correct world and tell us what he really thinks.Maybe he did go a trifle far in branding the Sri Lankan selectors "muppets with a joker in charge" after Saturday night's play but it was trying to make the point that Sri Lanka must plan better.

Brash, abrasive remarks – even when they are as over the top as the muppet taunt – can often prove important agents for change.John Buchanan's relationship with Shane Warne never recovered from him publicly attacking him for being overweight on the 2001 tour of India – but it did drive Warne to get fit. He needed that burr on his saddle.

It was a joy to hear Atapattu speak out because sportsman around the globe over have found themselves completely shackled by the dos and don'ts of our sanitised lives. And I'm still not convinced it makes the world a better place.

In fact, a pet theory as to why international umpiring standards are so poor is that they have become a protected species.Captains are ordered not to criticise them publicly and there are so few umpires on the international panel they barely ever get dropped.

It's not a bad life – you don't get dropped and you don't get bagged. No wonder standards have stagnated.Cricket needs the occasional maverick just as much as it need political correctness.
The game is already missing Warne.

Had Warne played in the first Test against Sri Lanka you could have put an extra 5000 on the aggregate gate – and not just due to his masterful bowling skills.

Warne, for all his foibles, was effectively a one-man promotional arm for the game. It just wasn't Test week without Warne firing up over something or another.

Last year he arrived in Brisbane for the Ashes series and promptly declared England had made major tactical errors by picking Ashley Giles and Geraint Jones (he was later proved right).
New Zealand captain Steve Fleming, overseas at the time, saw Warne's words on the Internet and chuckled.

"I thought only Warnie would be brave enough to bag a rival teams selection policies before they have even bowled a ball in the series," Fleming said.

It is three years since the death of outspoken David Hookes and the game is still missing his outspoken, irreverant views which created so much interest in Australian cricket.
Hookes was simply a one-off. He not only had an opinion on sensitive issues he even conjured up sensitive issues of his own.

I remember once seeing him at an airport and he said how his theme for preview day of South Australia match against Queensland the next week would be a generally baiting of Queensland as a state, in particular its iconic tourist attraction, the Big Pineapple.

"It just really annoys me the way Queenslanders worship the Big Pineapple as if its the Eiffel Tower. Have you ever seen the joint . . . fair dinkum," Hookes said.
Hookes asked whether that statement would ruffle feathers and when I said it would he said "good, we'll run with it."

Hookes loved making statements that triggered outrage on talkback radio. He was often wrong but never in doubt and barely ever took a backward step.
Some of his targets were his close mates – Allan Border and David Boon among them – yet somehow he got away with it and these two men were among those most distressed by his death.

The more politically correct the world is becoming the more people are enjoying those brave enough to run against the tide.AFL's Jason Akermanis is not everyone's favourite son but he has a cult following of people who enjoy his left-field observations.But being bold isn't easy.Golfer Mark Hensby copped six months of bad publicity for giving Greg Norman a pull through several years ago.

South African golfer Rory Sabbatini was ridiculed for the same amount of time for having the temerity to suggest in May that Tiger Woods was "more beatable than ever."
Interestingly, when Queensland golfer Rodney Pampling, a friend and practice partner of Woods, returned home to Australia recently he actually agreed with Sabbatini that, at the time the comment was made, Woods was not at his best.But it took a brave man to say it.Which is why we think that Marvellous Marvin can hold his head high this morning. Even if he never plays for Sri Lanka again.

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