It is a double whammy for Sri Lankan cricketers playing in the Indian Premier League. They have invited the wrath of a section of Buddhist monks back in Sri Lanka even as they are barred from playing in Tamil Nadu by a Chief Ministerial diktat to which even the BCCI meekly submitted a few days ago.
A new Buddhist outfit called Ravana Balaya (Ravana’s Force) has threatened to throw rotten eggs at the Lankan players concerned for “shamelessly pocketing insults and prostituting themselves for money.”
On Wednesday, about 200 monks and laymen belonging to Ravana Balayademonstrated before the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) office in Colombo. They said that the Sri Lankan players should have boycotted the whole of the IPL rather than compromising. Five monks were allowed to hold discussions with SLC Secretary Nishantha Ranatunga.
“Nishantha was aggressive, but we can be more aggressive. We have a good medicine for aggression. The day will soon arrive when the very same hands that applauded the cricketers are used to throw rotten eggs at them,” Ravana Balaya’s Secretary, Ven Iththakande Saddathissa Thero, told a group of media persons.
‘No Indian Imports’
On Tuesday, a Colombo port workers’ union affiliated to the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) demonstrated before the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) office demanding boycott of cargo from South India. Handling of containers from India was affected for some time.
Earlier, Sinhalese nationalist lawyer, S L Ganasekara, suggested in a article that the import of Marutis, the most popular small-car in SL, be suspended.
Udaya Gammanpilla of the JHU, a partner in the Rajapaksa government, wrote in Daily Mirror on Wednesday that in the last 2600 years, India and SL fought many times and that fighting India was not a new experience.