Comments on Sanjiva Weerawarana's Blog: Sri Lanka cricket: an example of what we can do to...

Awesome writing ,good job Ba...

2009-12-19T04:30:46.557+05:30

Dilshan beleived he won't stand a chance of pl...

2009-06-25T12:17:46.639+05:30

Dilshan beleived he won't stand a chance of playing for Sri Lanka if he didn't change his malay moslem name from Tuan Mohammad Dilshan to Tillekeratne Dilshan.

In Pakistan Yousaf Youhanna had done the reverse and become a moslem (now known as Mohammad Yousaf) so that he'd have a chance to Captain Pakistan.

Before, and sometimes after, every tour the cricket team participates in a pirith ceremony. Devout catholics like Vaas and Dilhara have no option but to grab the chord and pay homage like the rest of 'em. They don't have a choice but to be Sinhala Buddhist. Ask Murali...

I can not agree more. To add my two cents, in my o...

2009-06-21T08:17:28.288+05:30

I can not agree more. To add my two cents, in my opinion, a part of the problem is that we---Sri Lankans---have lost faith on each other. This faith, the belief that others would not exploit although one has lower his own guard is a great thing, and it always yields a team, which is greater than a sum of it's parts.
One of the example of this trust the history can offer is Phalanx formation practised by Greeks (and later by Swiss) to great effect. One of the key features of the formation is that each man is protected not by his own shield, but by the one hold by the guys in the right, which gave each guy maximum freedom on the battlefield. Then, each man literally have put their life in the guy in the right, and trust them to carry out the job. Result was a formidable formation---for instance, Aleksandr the Great used this to its full effect---which was legendry until after decades later Roman's out maneuver them in Battle of Magnesia through the flank (topic of interest, but not relevant to our discussion).
However, it is so easy to preach, and very hard to carry it out, because the trust is mutual. In game theory, Prisoner's dilemma shows how hard (probabilistically) for two untrusting guys to trust each other. For example, with the traffic in the Kandy road, it takes close to 2 hours to drive from Flower road to Gampaha---28km---which says we drive about 14km/hour. I am sure if we all can drive with order, we can get to the destination much faster---I mean how can you drive slower than 15km/h? However, none of us (including me who soon learnt the hard way that no quarter is given there) trust others to not to exploit it if we drive nicely.
So my concluding remark is that trust is such a great thing. Each of us by ourselves can only do so much, and it takes teams to make difference. The trust---or should I say faith, which assures each guy to play his own role, is the key in a great team. But, trust is mutual where it is so hard to keep and easy to break. Every time someone exploit someone else, he contributes to this inertia of untrust by making victim's heart bit more untrustful, and the society (or the team) as a whole takes a step back. You do it over a long time, we get where we are.

Hi, We have just added your latest post "Sri...

2009-06-20T19:19:21.300+05:30

Hi,

We have just added your latest post "Sri Lanka cricket: an example of what we can do together " to our Directory of Sports. You can check the inclusion of the post here . We are delighted to invite you to submit all your future posts to the directory and get a huge base of visitors to your website.

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Sanjiva, I cannot agree with you more. It's my...

2009-06-20T19:18:54.886+05:30

Sanjiva, I cannot agree with you more. It's my firm belief that we as Sri Lankans can achieve unimaginable feats, if we really put our hearts and minds to it. Cricket is a classic example where we have tasted tremendous success. I'm confident we can do the same in any other field and become a country such as Singapore or Hongkong in the near future. However, it will be important for us to make that progress while retaining and preserving the rich cultures that set us apart from the rest of the world. One can question this notion to say this is impossible in an open economy. However unrealistic it may sound, I stand by my opinion for two reasons. Firstly, If we can set all these trends in cricket, and a number of other fields we should be able to do the same in the economy front too. Secondly, and most importantly someone somewhere has to set a precedent for others to follow. We Sri lankans are quite capable of that and are well poised to accomplish that task. I must say I'm very proud of people like Sanjiva, who had worked so hard to realize their dreams and taste the success they richly deserve. More than anything else I really admire the fact that these people care about the country to write something about it and do whatever possible to the best of their ability. It's my earnest wish that all the sri lankans would follow the same suit and bring the glory and the success in all their respective areas to the country we love so much.

I would like to end my two cents worth of comments with this quote from the Rabindranath Tagore, the great poet, who always believed that noble achievements are within one's reach.

"Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake"

Sanjiva, I cannot agree with you more. It's my...

2009-06-20T19:18:33.385+05:30

Well, I read this to find what makes you to write ...

2009-06-20T12:40:26.806+05:30

Well, I read this to find what makes you to write about the semifinal cricket match, but read an much more interesting post.

I completely agree with you. At the same time I think we need think in terms of the country. Most of the people think in terms of themselves only... The war against the terrors brings back the thought of the country to ourselves and now it is up to our selves to make the use of it and develop the country... To me it is not politicians who is wrong but most of the people who are waiting for the government to do the things for the country and also for themselves. Well, politicians are also part of us, so it is the same mindset issue of thinking about themselves rather than the country causes the issue with politicians as well.

As you said, this is the final chance for us to get rid of these mindsets and get together as a Sri Lankan family to develop this nice country for it to not only be the perl in the Indian ocean but in the whole world just like our cricket team.