Pakistan , a True Friend of Sri Lanka
By Neil Perera
Former Honorary Secretary BCCSL and former Manager Sri Lanka Cricket Team
The Island Online editorial of the 23rd June 2009 titled Losing to a friend is no pain, referring to Pakistan’s victory in the T-20 World Cup final,s states inter alia, Pakistan "after all, is one of the few countries that helped Sri Lanka win her war on terror."
Pakistan has been not only a true friend in war but also in sports. This fact is most evident in cricket. When we were struggling to get Full Membership at the International cricket Council in the 1970s it was that great benefactor of Sri Lanka Cricket, the late Abdul Hafeez Kardar, the then President of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), who single-handedly pioneered our proposal at the ICC meeting in July 1975. Abdul Hafeez Kardar, an Oxford Blue, who played for India before the partition and was the first captain of the Pakistan cricket team and became a cabinet minister in the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto government at the time he was President of the PCB. At that time England and Australia had veto power at the ICC, and used it to bludgeon any proposal that was not to their liking. The proposal for full membership for Sri Lanka had been thrown out earlier by England and Australia using their veto power and this was one of the main reasons that prompted Mr Kardar to pioneer the formation of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC).
The inaugural meeting of the ACC was held in Lahore in 1974, and as Honorary Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket, I attended this meeting. Mr Kardar proposed at this meeting that the application for full membership of the ICC should be submitted for consideration at the ICC meeting to be held at Lords in July 1975. The President of the Indian Cricket board was not very enthusiastic about this proposal and questioned whether Sri Lanka has adequate facilities and the finances to join the big league. However Mr Kardar was able to convince the Indian delegate to second our application.
The second meeting of the ACC was held at the Oberoi Hotel in Sri Lanka in 1975. At the end of this meeting, I had to take Mr Kardar in my car to the airport.(There were no vehicles or office or staff that belonged to the Cricket Board at that time) During this journey, Mr Kardar inquired from me as to how the PCB could help Sri Lanka Cricket. When I said that we did not have any qualified cricket coaches, he promptly suggested that we should send three of our coaches for training under Khan Mohamed, the Pakistan National Cricket Coach.
We sent three of our best coaches, namely, Abu Fuard, Anuruddha Polonowita and WAN Silva to be trained under Khan Mohamed in Lahore. Earlier Mr Kardar had arranged for Pakistan Under 19 team to tour Sri lanka for a tournament to decide the award of the Ali Bhutto Trophy.
What happened at the ICC meeting held at Lords in July 1975 was unprecedented. Mr Robert Senanayake, who attended this meeting, was full of praise for Mr Kardar who presented our case as no one else would have done. He said that there was pin drop silence when Mr Kardar stood up to speak on behalf of our proposal. He had first indicated that India and Pakistan had played against Sri Lanka for long period and were convinced that our standard of cricket more than justified our promotion to full membership and that Sri Lanka had played cricket for over 75 years. Realizing that he was not making much of an impact on the members who controlled the ICC, he had decided to drop a bombshell. He had thumped his hand on the table and in a loud and clear voice had said that if there was one reason why the ICC would not grant full membership to SriLanka it was only RACIAL DISCRIMINATION. Mr Senanayake said that after this outburst most of the white faces went red. The inevitable happened and Sri Lanka was yet again denied full membership.
Then in 1996 when several countries refused to play in Sri Lanka due to security reasons it was Pakistan together with India who joined hands to show solidarity with Sri Lanka and played a match in Colombo.
At a time when Pakistan cricket has suffered a severe blow due to ICC refusing to play any World Cup matches in Pakistan, Sri Lanka Cricket should take consolation that they had lost the T20 World Cup final to the best friend of Sri Lanka cricket.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
