by Rex Clementine
Most cricketers reaching 70 these days prefer the comforts of their homes, their holiday spots or spending time with their kids looking after their grandchildren. Even before reaching 70, Ian Botham is tasting wine and relaxing in Ravensworth in Yorkshire. Viv Richards is in Antigua sipping rum while Imran Khan is contemplating his political future. They have got nothing to do with cricket and even the other septuagenarians who have some interest in cricket like Sunil Gavaskar or Michael Holding, they prefer the air conditioned comforts of the commentary box. Only those who have the insatiable appetite for excellence in cricket take up coaching at the age of 70. They are a different breed. Duleep Mendis belongs to that category. In fact when it comes to cricket, he’s a different beast. He leaves nothing for chance, isn’t afraid to tread on the roads less travelled and moves about with a single-mindedness as if history is there to be created.
Duleep’s association with Oman cricket had not only seen the emergence of a new regional powerhouse of the sport but a cricketing nation that’s ever improving and increasing its stakes in big events. From a little known entity in world cricket, under Duleep, Oman have gone onto receive T20 and ODI International status. The country also had qualified for the ICC T20 World Cup and earlier this week reached the qualifiers of this year’s 50 overs World Cup which will be played in Zimbabwe.
Cricket has been Duleep’s life and in the last 50 years he has been in the limelight first as a player, having played a pivotal role in Sri Lanka’s journey to Test status and then skippered the nation for their inaugural Test win. Post playing career he dedicated another 20 years for the game as coach, manager and Chairman of Selectors and his contributions were vital during every milestone of our cricket.
A lot of people think that what makes Dulla special is his ability to put people in their places. While that maybe true, his speciality is his ability to read the game. He is also not afraid to make tough decisions and his single-mindedness has often helped Sri Lankan teams to come out of tricky situations.
The Sri Lankan team benefited immensely during his direct involvement with the them for two decades and it is these expertise that is helping Oman currently on their march towards being a strong cricket force. What Duleep has achieved in such a short span has marveled everyone for Arabs are not much into cricket in Oman and it’s the Indian and Pakistani communities employed in Oman that is keeping cricket at a good standard.
Duleep during his Sri Lanka days was at one point dragged out of the national team and was handed bigger responsibilities. As Director Cricket Operations he took the game to grassroots and currently if outstations are feeding more players to the national team than established centers like Colombo, Kandy and Galle it is due to Duleep’s visionary thinking in putting up practice facilities, providing turf wickets and investing on provincial and district coaches.
It is as CEO, Duleep dazzled most. That he was the head of the board never occurred to him. He mingled with all employees of the board without maintaining distance and that’s why he’s popular even to this date. That doesn’t mean that he tried to please everyone. Sometimes he warned his elected bosses of consequences of certain ill advised decisions. He was firm during certain pay disputes and encouraged mechanisms to look after retired players although they never bore fruit due to some men with vested interests. Duleep could be ruthless when it came to negotiations. The South Africans were in town in 2006 and were hammered in the Test series. This was the same series where Sanga and MJ put on the World Record partnership. A few days later there was a bomb blast half a kilometer from the team hotel and the South Africans wanted to go home without playing the limited overs leg.
The CEO, the Board President and the IGP Chandra Fernando met the South African team management at the Cinnamon Grand. Even after being offered security provided to heads of states, the tourists didn’t change their stance. They wanted to go home. Duleep warned the South Africans of dire consequences. With the series called off, the press asked the Board President for a comment. He played it down diplomatically. But Duleep didn’t mince his words. He said, ‘I have a headline for you.’ So what was the headline ‘Proteas chicken-out’.