Cricket Satire: Bad Taste All Round

I know and love Feroze Kamardeen. He’s a pioneer in the theatre field and has done some ground-breaking stuff. He has also done Pusswedilla, which people love. I don’t, and he knows that, but that won’t be the first time I’ve not liked things that ‘people’ love. 

As political satire it was – in its original form – new, fresh and brave. But then it had several incarnations which flogged the horse long after it was dead. This is partly due to the fact that our politicians don’t really do anything new and outrageous, but stick to the mouldy corruption and ego sating stuff. It’s not really a joke a minute like it is for Jay Leno or Jon Stewart. So in that sense I sympathise. Similarly, you can’t blame Feroze and his franchise for exploiting the enormous crowds that lap it up with gusto. In all my years, I’ve never ever seen a ticket line pouring out of the Wendt, and as a ‘theatre person’ I am ecstatic that one of our ilk has managed to take theatre to the masses. 

The fact that juxtaposed to this A Streetcar Named Desire played to almost empty houses (regardless of how average the play may have been) is a sure sign that this country is run by, and inhabited by, Philistines. But I digress.

As a result of its overwhelming – and deserved – popularity, The Honourable Chaminda Pusswedilla was summoned to the Dialog Cricket Awards this year and turned out a performance which has caused some chagrin. Apart from the obvious brickbats at the administration, there seemed to be some targetting of Sanath Jayasuriya via a character named Hit Wicket. The skit made fun of Sanath’s batting rituals before he takes strike, his Bollywood dancing foray, and the infamous “‘pus’ is coming out” comment.

Now let’s get one thing clear. Sanath and I have had our differences. He wasn’t very pleased when I called for him to be dropped a good 18 months before he actually was (nobody listens to me but that’s another story). But as a selector he hasn’t done TOO much wrong. The selectors can’t really fix the dearth of talent. As commentator, even though his English is not Oxfordian, he can make a point and is actually far more insightful than several other native English speakers. I’d go so far as to say alongside Russel Arnold, he is the next most educational commentator we have. Regardless of the delivery. I always learn something when I’m listening to him, about strategy, field placing, imminent bowling changes and such. And for me – despite being the English Nazi that I am – that’s more important than the delivery.

Bearing in mind where Sanath came from in his heyday, and the fact that his English language learning was fast tracked and done ‘on the job’ so to speak, it’s pretty creditable for him to even be on some of these panels. I know for a fact, that I certainly won’t be as competent in a Sinhala panel, than Sanath is in English. 

So while the batting stance joke made it pretty unambiguous who was being imitated, and the Bollywood joke was par for the course, the ‘pus’ joke was taking things too far. Especially when you know the guy is going to be in the audience. It’s a little different from the Mind Your Language stereotypes that were so hilarious, and I personally think several other SL commentators deserve far more vilification for their vacuousness than Sanath. 

He’s obviously going to get pissed off, and a pissed off Sanath is not a good thing. His Excellency may take Pusswedilla in good spirit, because it’s satire and has been billed as such, but the ambushing of Sanath at an award ceremony was in bad taste. The Chairman of Selectors has demanded a probe, and it’s very likely that the ball will be passed down the line to the script writer. I hope there’s no fall out, but once again SLC have faux pas-ed spectacularly.

You don’t invite people for stuff and insult them dude. It’s just good manners.