Ranil You Can Take Guard & Get Ready To Play A Long Innings
Nishthar Idroos
A sense of deja-vu is gripping the resplendent island of Sri Lanka. It’s the eve of another General Election, the many held every five years in the island nation with a nascent democracy. Campaigning is at its peak, so is the level of violence. All projections indicate to one inevitable conclusion. A United National Party led alliance win. It won’t be that monumental landslide of 1977 under JR Jayewardene but good enough to form a government according to latest polls.
A Ranil led government seems just hours away. This portends good for the country and to its overhaul health. Recently master-blaster cricketer turned politician Sanath Jayasuriya handed over a cricket bat to one of the candidates in Southern Sri Lanka just after his now infamous pole-vault. It would have been more appropriate if it was presented to the UNP leaderRanil Wickremesinghe. He surely may need more bats to deliver on the many promises he had made thus far. The nation knows that he will deliver on all his promises and lets wish him well.
Mr Wickremesinghe, you can take guard and get ready to play a long innings while the nation goes through the motions. You have finally got the opportunity to play that much awaited yet deprived innings. People of Sri Lanka had waited long enough to see you in action. The time has arrived and you’re welcome to summon all skills necessary for a glorious knock. Take your time, strategize well and bat with a straight bat. Dispatch the red cherry to all parts of the ground with elegance. Drive ‘em, hook ‘em, loft ‘em, glide ‘em and sweep ‘em with good timing you’re known for. Play the game best way you know fit.
Ignore the ovation and overlook the accolades. You have a mission to accomplish, no one needs to spell it out for you. The environment is dire, your indispensability palpable. Acknowledge your role and extend the required leadership. Remember you won’t go far sans support from your fellow legislators. You need them. Don’t repeat the mistakes of those who got totally and completely intoxicated when they held the chair. Inspire your team and instill in them true values and deliver to the innocent, wearied and abundantly cheated people true dividends of post-war Sri Lanka. They need it, they badly need it. You look good, get cracking. The nation is behind you.
