The Colin Cowdrey Lecture 2011: Kumar Sangakkara

http://live.wturrell.co.uk/mp3s/2011/20110704_kumar_sangakkara_lecture.mp3

In an extraordinary address at the MCC Spirit of Cricket Lecture at Lord's, Kumar Sangakkara has launched a scathing attack on the "partisan cronies" at Sri Lanka Cricket who blight the sport in his country, and who led him to resign the captaincy after only two years in charge, in the wake of the World Cup final in April.

In an hour-long speech that earned him a standing ovation, Sangakkara charted the unique history of cricket in his country, and called on Sri Lanka Cricket to root out its corrupt practices, and recognise the huge role that the sport now needs to play in promoting reconciliation at the end of a 30-year civil war.

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Only just started listening to the speech, but props to Sanga and his courage to take on the SLCB.

So, that's Sanga out of the 4th ODI then...

Pretty much....

As I mentioned recently, I have a soft spot for the guy.

Bright (not necessarily in a selfish way - as here), thoughtful, and passionate too. Sounds more like a historian or statesman than a trained lawyer in this disquisition.

Yeah, he seems a cool guy. A cricketer's cricketer.

It was a fantastic speech - he's the kind of guy who should be running the ICC or the MCC in a few years time (but I won't hold my breath).

A few more light hearted moments too, including Piranha Sultana's ignominious start to his career, first innings = duck, second innings = run out, second test = shot.

Wow, gutsy stuff from Sanga.

And I bet he said it all in that flawless, cultivated English of his. Whenever I hear Sanga speak I always feel that Ranji, with his Cambridge background, must have sounded much the same. He must win the prize for the most articulate of current cricketers and the most thoughtful since Brearley.. Every post-match interview contains a considered analysis of the game without resort to cliche or "taking the positives".

He must be a dead cert to replace Holding as the overseas player on the Sky Commentary Team when the latter retires or is pushed off to commentate on Clydesdale Pro40 matches unless his ambition is set higher to become President of the ICC or indeed President of Sri Lanka.

They showed a documentary on TV here in Aus last night about Sri Lankan government troops murdering Tamil Citizens in cold blood during the end of the war a couple of years ago. Some really shocking footage.

Seems like the current Lankan government isn't much better than Mugabe's mob.

Aye, I saw that. Horrendous and convincing footage. Originally shown on Channel 4 a couple of years ago, with the lead journalist being one John Snow (cricket relevance).

Hopefully when they've finished with Mladic at the Hague, someone in Sri Lanka will have to answer for what happened at the tail end of the civil war.

I doubt Sanga will want anything to do with Sri Lankan politics.

Top bloke, in every way, is Kumar. I remember he was just this mouthy sh!t, giving us (rightfully) loads from behind the stumps. I thought to myself WTF is this little braggart? When I heard him interviewed and my opinion changed in seconds. Then, when I read an interview, in which he was talking about studying law whilst playing international cricket my respect grew for him instantly.

I thought the same the first time I experienced him - this is going to be one of those obnoxious weed types that bug the balls out of me.

But he turned out to be sound as a pfund.

Dello wrote:But he turned out to be sound as a pfund.

Some sort of in-joke that I'm out of?

It's German for pound.

I couldn't bring myself to actually say sound as a pound as I'm not nearly commonly vulgar enough.

I'm surprised I didn't know that, what with me doing German 40 years ago at schule <---- Awwwwww yih! See what I did there.

Sound as a pound is a little bit 'Bread'.

#Gotta get up, gotta get up. Grab the world by it's throat and shout...

Class. Just class.

great speech by sanga and it was nice reading the comments here!

lardbucket wrote:Aye, I saw that. Horrendous and convincing footage. Originally shown on Channel 4 a couple of years ago, with the lead journalist being one John Snow (cricket relevance).

Hopefully when they've finished with Mladic at the Hague, someone in Sri Lanka will have to answer for what happened at the tail end of the civil war.

I doubt Sanga will want anything to do with Sri Lankan politics.

By the way, the channel 4 documentary has been ousted as a fake. There are many reports out there, from parties that aren't just sri lankan, that prove the film & editing crew falsified their footage. I made this account to share that knowledge. As a sri lankan, I am sure civil atrocities have been shared from both the SL army and the terrorist group, but its a bit disheartening to see documentaries like that spewing lies. I just wanted to share my 2 cents. anywho, nice forum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuKfXwP0pGk

Thanks for setting the record straight, I shall watch the vid in a bit.

And welcome to the forum.

Hopefully you'll stay around for other chats and debates to be had.

It's a strange place this, but if you can take it with a pinch of salt you may find it an alright place.

If you want to read more about the Sri Lankan politics, the ridiculous decision to recall Jayasuriya and if you scroll down to the comments lots of increasingly angry pro and anti Tamil propaganda then Andy Bull wrote a good piece on the Guardian recently.....

A Sri Lankan scandal - On Saturday, England will face a direct representative of a government accused of war crimes on a horrific scale by the UN

complete kudos to this bloke...fantastic to see in a country that has been racked by division and injustice is still able to produce such great human beings..

nore sangas and less fat child beating arjunas

wow! thats an astonishing article. the fellow needs to have a good lie down and probably rethink what he just wrote

Here we go...

http://www.espncricinfo.com/srilanka/content/current/story/522074.html

The fallout begins.

But Sanga has backed them into a corner. What are they going to do? Suspend him? Lock him up? He's too widely respected and too high profile. If Sanga is suspended then I can see the likes of Mahela and Dilshan going on strike as well.

I'm listening to Sanga's speech now. He really does have a wonderful, old fashioned sounding speaking voice. Like a Sri Lankan who was educated at Oxford or Cambridge in the 1930s.

Dello wrote:Here we go...

http://www.espncricinfo.com/srilanka/content/current/story/522074.html

The fallout begins.

That is farked. One of the nation's star players stands up and speaks from the heart about what's wrong with cricket in his country, and the bargearse politicians wanna demand an enquiry into his outrageous statements. Qunts.