Warnings last week that Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) was ready to get tougher with notorious player agents struck a chord with those who have followed Sri Lankan cricket closely.
Often, we have been left perplexed by the impunity player agents have enjoyed. It’s said, little thieves are hanged, but great ones escape.
SLC has felt that there needs to be something done as regards to player agents, albeit belatedly, and those who have taken up this crusade need to be commended and given the fullest support. But let them be forewarned.
Player agents are a deadly mafia and those who have vowed to end the player agent dominations on previous instances have failed miserably.
Take the case of Arjuna Ranatunga. When he was Chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket in 2008, in a matter of a few weeks, he realized the detrimental effect player agents were having and ambitiously attempted to end their dominance.
One particular agent, a foreigner for that matter, vowed to put an end to Ranatunga’s tenure, in return. Thanks to some senior players, corrupt politicians and a couple of bankrupt ex-cricketers, a series of setbacks hit Sri Lanka cricket. As a result, a cricket tour to England was cancelled; SLC’s telecasting rights were sold to two Indian companies for a song after Ranatunga was unceremoniously dumped. SLC is yet to recover from those setbacks.
If that player agent was able to undermine and even plot the removal of someone like Arjuna, Sri Lanka’s only World Cup winning captain, and even a ruling party MP at that time, taking on the current lot must be child’s play for him.
This is not to discourage those who have embarked on a crusade against player agents, but a mere warning of the pitfalls ahead. Those who have got themselves engaged in this cumbersome task need to be given all the encouragement, for player agents are taking our cricket down a slippery precipice.
The player agent mafia in recent times has gained recognition and prominence due to the fact that some of Sri Lanka’s leading and respected cricketers endorse them. A leading cricketer had recommended to a couple of up and coming cricketers, on the verge of their entry into the national team, to seek the services of a particular agent, if they were to prosper in the commercial world of cricket. It is also alleged that some leading cricketers are business partners with player agents.
We believe that the curse of player agents is only second to the curse of corruption in cricket. You are perturbed by recent trends as player agents even have access to the dressing room of players.
Let SLC be forewarned that the man who entangled the three Pakistani cricketers into spot fixing was an agent himself and by allowing player agents, access to changing rooms, SLC is inviting trouble.
Player agents are also creating rifts among the members of the national team. One feels sorry for that loyal servant of Sri Lankan cricket – Chaminda Vaas. In 2005 when a prominent Sri Lankan cricketer was replaced by Vaas as vice-captain of the national team, one particular player agent carried out a ruthless campaign against the country’s leading fast bowler. It was alleged that Vaas had sought political patronage to be appointed vice-captain, conveniently forgetting that by then he had put in 11 years of hard work for Sri Lanka cricket, and more importantly, had won a World Cup. The real reason for the campaign was that the player who was removed as vice-captain was being managed (or damaged?) by this particular agent.
The allegation came as a bitter blow for Vaas. His relationship with that particular player was never the same again. If SLC genuinely wants to curb player agents, they only need to talk to someone like Vaas on what a devastating effect activities of a particular player agent had on him.
Sometime back, senior cricketers were offended when a rival player agent was involved in cricket commentaries. Those powerful players forced SLC to bring in a rule that said that agents can’t do media work. The players conveniently forgot that their agent too had been a media man for several years and had used his popular cricket website to promote players managed by him, while there were several damaging reports about others who were not managed by him.
The agent then said that he was giving up being an agent to continue his passion of doing commentaries, but it’s a well known secret that he is still managing players. One senior journalist recently told him, “you can’t do commentaries behind closed doors, but you can manage players behind closed doors.”
SLC also needs to take a look at the attacks on former captain Tillekeratne Dilshan during the last two years. These attacks originated from the UK based newspaper Guardian. If they go further into the matter, they will find that the writer of the Guardian reports damaging Dilshan’s reputation and one particular agent here are business partners. That’s how deadly the agent mafia is. Anyone having aspirations to lead Sri Lanka will have to go through tough ordeals, unless they are managed by that particular agent.
In a bid to paint a different picture about them, player agents have got themselves involved in charity activities using the name of a prominent ex-cricketer and the efforts were fully endorsed by several leading current cricketers. Whether SLC is able to get players or not for whatever their activities, player agents seem to be having cricketers at their beck and call.
Player agents have aligned national cricketers to promote whatever the product ranging from mobile networks, ice-cream to milk powder. There’s the famous case of a prominent Sri Lankan cricketer whose billboards were all over the island promoting four different mobile networks at the same time. The situation has fallen to such low ebb that former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, during a court ruling, commented that the only thing cricketers don’t endorse nowadays is toilet paper. From these endorsements, player agents make 10 to 30 percent, as commissions. So, the survival of agents depends on the amount of commercials cricketers appear in.
Some player agents also take a portion from player’s national contracts. Cricketers are even signed up when they are representing the Under-19 team. Young player are given the impression that there’s no future for them without the blessings of player agents. Very soon, it will reach a point where SLC will have to get permission from player agents before selecting cricketers for national duty.
There was also this ridiculous incident during Sri Lanka’s cricket tour of the UK in 2011.
Lahiru Thirimanne had shown enough promise during his Test debut at the Rose Bowl. England had gained the upper hand and Sri Lanka were fighting hard to save the Test match. There was a rain interruption and players were forced indoors. Thirimanne’s agent was at the Rose Bowl and he in fact in a high handed act, got the player down from the dressing room to a separate enclosure where Geoffrey Boycott was giving him some batting tips.
Batting tips from Boycott are fine, but that happening during a Test match gives one an insight about the influence of player agents.
The agent had forgotten that the Manager on that tour was Anura Tennekoon, one of Sri Lanka’s finest technicians when it came to batting and that team had two players – Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, who had scored more Test runs than Boycott. On the same tour, when Thirimanne made a century in a tour game without being in the spotlight, the agent was seen nowhere near.
Whether British or Sri Lankan, player agents have done more harm to Sri Lankan cricket than good.
They should be avoided like the plague!
Article courtesy – The Island
