The mob that attacked ‘Yuvi’s’ house after the Cup Final boarded a ‘Hemin Air’ flight and reached ‘Atunayake’. Then the protesters started moving towards the ‘Capital’ along the Expressway. The crowds that were awaiting their heroes’ homecoming slowly joined the mob, tossing the flags and garlands in a nearby ditch. They armed themselves with gadol baga, polpithi and maduwalige. Many joined them along the way. They said they had to settle an old score with some people on behalf of the two ‘Retiring Legends’ and ‘Ape Kollo’.
At the ‘Capital’ the crowd had grown to a multitude. The masses first rounded up the ‘Wicket Administrators’. The ‘Wicket Administrators’, they said had made life extremely difficult for the ‘Ape Kollo’. Up to the ‘Cup Final’, the ‘Wicket Administrators’ had caused the ‘Ape Kollo’ much mental anguish, putting their preparations in disarray. For months they had denied the ‘Ape Kollo’ their pay; they had looked to usurp the money paid by the ‘International Wicket Council’ to ‘Ape Kollo’ for taking part in the ‘Cup Tournament’; they even had forced ‘Ape Kollo’ to sign their annual contracts and threatened to send a second-string side to the ‘Cup Tournament’ if they didn’t do so (‘Ape Kollo’ had not bowed to this demand). The ‘Wicket Administrators’ had even painted a wrong picture of the two ‘Retiring Legends’ using the ‘Baala Media’. Sometime back they even looked to ‘chastise’ ‘Slinga’ and forced him into retirement from the longer game. They said ‘Slinga’ was playing for money and termed him a traitor, who under-performed for the country and played on top of his game for a foreign league.
They even got the ‘Junior’ appointed as leader – to divide the team, silence the two ‘Retiring Legends’ and diminish their bargaining power when it comes to money matters like signing the contracts. They even planned to drop the two ‘Retiring Legends’ from the squad that would soon visit the ‘Queen’s Country’. Enough reasons to strip naked the ‘Wicket Administrators’ and flog them with maduwalige at the Galle Face green.
Then the mob turned to the ‘Select Committee’.
The head of the ‘Select Committee’ they said had criticized the two ‘Retiring Legends’ unnecessarily. This, after he had asked the media not to do anything that upsets the team during the ‘Cup Tournament’. The ‘Select Committee’ had also looked to play the ‘Minister’s Son’ for a while, hoping he would cement his place for the financially rewarding ‘Cup Tournament’. They had done so at the expense of the ‘Talented Offie’, who at the ‘Cup Final’ tied Yuvi’s bat round his waist.
Next the mob pounced on the ‘Politico Masters’ who are behind the ‘Wicket Administrators’. They have made the ‘Game of Wicket’ a highly politicized affair. The ‘Politico Masters’ had emptied the coffers of the ‘Wicket Headquarters’ by using the game to further their politico ambitions. Building of brand new grounds at phenomenal costs was such an idiotic exercise. They had said teams world around would play the game on new grounds throughout the year and the coffers at the headquarters would soon be overflowing with dollars and pounds. This has turned out to be a pipedream. The mob also found fault with the ‘Politico Masters’ who overlooked accepted procedures when granting TV rights to foreign and local companies.
The threatening mob was not prepared to let go the ‘Baala Media’ who have danced to the tune of the ‘Wicket Administrators’. At every turn these people have looked to tarnish the image of ‘Ape Kollo’. They have used their newspapers, radios and TV stations to depict a wrong picture of ‘Ape Kollo’ – portray them as a money hungry bunch who always place country behind self. These guys had wanted to give ‘Slinga’ a haircut, remove his studs, and send him back to the beaches in the south to run a barber’s shop or a laundry. They said ‘Slinga’ would be better off doing such a thing. They had not spared the two ‘Retiring Legends’ who had done yeomen service over the years. They had said that the two ‘Retiring Legends’ were the ones who always looked to upset the apple cart.
The Galle Face green was full of people who had come to witness the public flogging and stoning of the ‘Wicket Administrators’, ‘Politico Masters’, ‘Select Committee’ and ‘Baala Media’. Their roaring was so loud that I woke up from the slumber that I had fallen into while watching a repeat telecast of the ‘Cup Final’.
