An Ode to Sport
Everyone who follows sport has encountered this inevitable question from family and friends
at least once: What is the point of sport? The question acquires an
edge especially when one does not play the sport or in any other way benefit
from watching it. This amazing novel is a long, rambling attempt to answer this
question and as a result it is an ode to sport. It is also the great Sri Lankan novel we have
been waiting for as it intimates us with the culture and recent history of the
country and the exaggerated role Cricket plays in its life.
WG Karunasena is an alcoholic Cricket
journalist who in his heydays has written for the best journals in the country
and abroad although he is largely ignored now. He is a lover of sports who sees beauty in “free kicks, late cuts, slam dunks, tries
from halfway, and balls that turn from off to leg”. He is a drunk too and claims that alcohol has rid him of cliches and made him into a better writer and unabashedly admires the "drug refined
over the centuries by all civilizations".
But he is dying. Thanks to his prolonged drinking habit. However to make the most of
the remainder of his ever shortening life he has embarked on a quest to
discover Pradeep S. Matthew, an elusive chinaman bowler who has been
erased from the cricketing history who he considers as the greatest cricketer ever.
On this quest WG discovers startling truths about Sri Lanka, cricket and himself.
In the process he tries to answer the above mentioned question about the
significance of sport. Time is short and we as readers are not sure whether he
will manage to make it that long but he is confident as he philosophically puts it "there is
nothing as inspiring as a solid deadline".
Sri Lanka is in the middle of a
civil war, a consequence of the high-handedness of the Sinhala majority who "knew
the Tamils could out-bat, out-think, out-everything" them. Amidst this war cricket
is the only outlet for normalcy and the country is indeed blessed with a
talented bunch of cricketers one of whom is Pradeep Matthew. A Tamil, he
practices the rare art of left-arm chinaman and owner of numerous mystery
deliveries including the unearthly double-bounce ball. However he does have a reputation
for brushing the people in authority including fellow players the wrong way and
after a promising start to his career has mysteriously disappeared. But WG
knows he is a genius as he has watched him live in a match where he bamboozled
the visiting team by taking 9 wickets including his famed delivery. The match is
abandoned for some political reason and it is forgotten in everyone’s mind
except WG’s who is now inspired to discover him and write about him.
WG is aided by his friend Ari and together they embark on this quest overcoming major squabbles (‘Murali chucks or not?’) and talking to various people connected to Pradeep including his family, fellow
players and coaches. In the middle of this quest comes the 1996 world cup and to
everyone’s surprise Sri Lanka "whack the cup" and cricket becomes even more
popular in the country. Monetary rewards chase the players, even lesser known
ones become millionaires, except Pradeep that is, who stays out of it all and thereafter undergoes a slide in form and finally disappears. The rest of the
book is about if and how WG tracks Pradeep down, how he comes to term with his family
and whether he will have a happy ending to his life’s innings.
The book is remarkable about its
insight into sport as WG admits that "Of course there is little point to
sports" but hastily adds "there is little point to anything. In a thousand
years, grass will have grown over all our cities. Nothing of anything will
matter." But sport he says produces magical moments that can be remembered for
hundreds of years and that is the whole point of sports. As he puts it…
“Sport can unite worlds, tear down
walls, and transcend race, the past and all probability. Unlike life, sport
matters.”
It’s a beautiful sentiment and
one that we sport lovers can use to counter when someone inevitably questions
why we follow sport.
The novel also explores the state
of the Lankan nation and also on the Sinhala-Tamil tension. He
laments the Murphy’s law of nations which Sri Lanka seems to have followed where by the colonized country becomes a parody
of the colonizers and instead of inheriting their good traits they inherit
their bad ones. As he ruefully says "we inherit the power lust of our
conquerors but none of their vision". This I dare say is true of India too.
He says that although the British as part of
their ‘divide and conquer’ policy created a fissure between the communities, "by
the 1950s, we begin to develop our own dangerous ideas without any foreign assistance.
The idea that the nation belongs to the Sinhala or that Tamil deserve a separate
state." The novel cites the example of India which despite more diversity has
managed to create a united, peaceful state. Finally the author compares how
similar the two communities indeed are and hopes for a reconciliation in the
not too distant future.
In the end, this novel can be
described as the arrival of Sri Lankan literature in English, indeed it is the ‘Great
Sri Lankan Novel’ and all that English literature aficionados like us can do is echo that
famous quote ‘Let a thousand flowers bloom’.
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