Cricket cited as model of inter-ethnoreligious unity in war-torn Sri Lanka

Ecumenical News International reports Cricket held up as alternative to sectarianism in Sri Lanka (Apr12,2k7).

Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo says his island nation, bleeding from deep ethnic divisions, should emulate the cohesion of the successful Sri Lankan cricket team currently in the Cricket World Cup - writes Anto Akkara.

"At this time of World Cup fervour, we can do well to remember it is not just the prowess of our team that is noteworthy. Its visible unity in ethno-religious diversity, which enhances its performance, is also remarkable," Bishop de Chickera noted in his recent Easter message.

The national cricket team comprises members of the ethnic minority Tamils and majority Sinhalase. It has players from the Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Muslim faiths. Bishop de Chickera noted it "should spur our nation towards a similar goal of unity in diversity".

Sri Lanka is one of the top contenders for a semi-final berth in the ongoing World Cup cricket in the West Indies after beating strong teams like India and England.

"The players of different ethnic and religious background have knit together so well and play as a team. This raises hopes not only for Sri Lankan cricket, but also for the future of our island," Bishop de Chickera told Ecumenical News International on 10 April from Jaffna – the Tamil heartland in the far north. "If our nation of different ethnic backgrounds can bat together as a team, certainly there can be lasting peace."

Around 40 civilians were killed during Holy Week alone at the beginning of April in bomb blasts, indiscriminate shelling and sporadic shootings.

The latest of bloodshed occurred on 7 April when a pastor, Yesu Kumar, from the Assemblies of God Church in Vankalai perished along with six others in a bus bomb blast while more than 20 people were injured.

The defence ministry has said more than 4000 people had died due to violence between December 2005 and the first week of March 2007. This includes 675 civilians and 1040 security personnel in the latest upsurge of fighting. The Tamil Tigers have waged a 35-year campaign for independence in a conflict that has claimed nearly 65,000 lives on the island.

It's great to hear how a sport can model competitive good sportsmanship without racial or sectarian religious markers, teams crossing the larger societal divides, especially in an area of civil war. But, since the pastor mentioned was Assemblies of God, there should be mentioned here that fanatical Buddhists and fantantical Hindus have turned violently on missionary Christian faiths, like that of the Assemblies of God. There's a difference between seeking converts, or becoming a convert to a different religion (both non-violent but unpalatable to many families and communities which are threatened by lack of uniformity), and religious harassment / violence which seeks to enforce uniformity. Cricket can only help overcome barriers to a certain extent, but to whatever extent it's certainly welcome. The main thing for cricketeers is to play a top-notch game.

UPDATE:

Amnesty International delivers a politically-correct slap at Sri Lankan bishop who cited inter-ethnocreligious cooperation among cricket players [Le journal chretien (Apr14,2k7).

Sports: Collegiate: Meditation on diversity of sports, based on sports discourse reporting a collegiate basketball game

I was meditating on what concepts may unpack from the (Eng-lang) lingual expression "Sports Diverse," diverse sports, diversity and diversity in sports (where the latter often is assumed to mean only the politically correct notion of racial, ethnic, gender, sexuality--together composing the "rainbow" of today's political correctness. If forgotten from the list (for whatever the List may be worth), the idea of disabliity and challenge in physically visible ways, for instance, can't help but tp come to mind separately, distinctly, and yet relatedly because of the semantic resonance of visible physical disability and the organized athletic movement that has emerged consequently to create the metaphor of the Special Olympics to stand for an entire movement within the diversity of sports as sports.

Thus, political correctness is not the center of my meditations on the diversity of sport. Then, I happen upon a copyr+ted piece by Frank J. Matthews, "Georgetown Basketball Celebrates 100 Years" (Feb10,2k7), Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

Georgetown celebrated their 100th Anniversary of basketball with a win over Marquette.

The Georgetown University Men's basketball program won one of their biggest games of the season on Saturday by knocking off 12th ranked Marquette University 76/58. What made the victory even more special was that Georgetown honored their best players from the past 100 years at halftime. Patrick Ewing received a thunderous ovation as he was called out to center court to join the other honorees.

Georgetown's Roy Hibbert stepped his game up and had 23 points and 11 rebounds. That combined with Jeff Green's 24 points proved to be too much for the Golden Eagles to handle. This was Georgetown's seventh straight win and improves their record to 8-2 in the Big East [Conference] which means they are almost a lock for NCAA National [Basketball] Tournament. [NCAA = National Collegiate Athletic Associaton, of course. - S]

After the game in the media room John Thompson III joked with the press about the win saying "It makes the event we're having tonight a lot easier to show up to."

© Copyright 2006 by DiverseEducation.com

This led me on to the concept of sports diversity by age, the concept of sports diversity by religion (institutionally-speaking a propos the game reported about the men's basketball teams of two fine Catholic universities--maybe both of them Jesuit-founded, as well), the concept of kinds of sports-diversity discourses as exemplified by precise sports-discourse genre and sports-discourse rhetoric of the Matthews piece itself.

Sports: Horse Races: World's best assemble in Dubai for leading sports event

This afternoon on the nationwide American TV channel ABC, I watched the Dubai World Cup, which consisted of several events of magnificent horses racing, jockeys astride seeking the large purses offered. Quite stirring to see the great beasts in top condition going for it, of course prodded by their masters.

As a viewing experience, I was disappointed that the zoom-in lenses weren't used more often; also pre-race and post-race close-ups, still-standing and promenades would have been greatly appreciated. Maybe in the future, as the local TV arrangements fine-tune they camera work for the events of what promises to become, if not already, the premier location of world horce-racing sports.

Sports > Horse Racing, by Sportikos

By the way, Dubai is a Gulf State emirate and as a Muslim-ruled country, it does not allow betting within the country. Dubai is in a major buidling boom, both on land and in the Gulf where islands have been created. One is a sea-surrounded hotel, approached underwater, I believe; that facility uses its helicopter-roof as a major tennis tournament.

Reporting on the key event of the day, Associated Press' Jim Krane gives us a glimpse of the competion:

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Call it sibling rivalry at its most lucrative.

Dubai ruler Sheik Mohammed watched as his unbeaten horse Discreet Cat finished last in the world's richest horse race Saturday, while his brother's horse Invasor ran off with the $6 million Dubai World Cup.

Invasor, the 2006 Horse of the Year, avenged his only previous defeat and ran a thrilling duel with Premium Tap, a horse owned by Saudi King Abdullah.

Trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, who spent nearly 10 years as a trainer in Dubai for the ruling Maktoum family, Invasor took charge down the stretch and won by about two lengths.

“It's an awful good year in one night to win in a $6 million race,” a grinning McLaughlin said after capturing the showcase event on the $21.25 million card, the richest in the sport.

Even tho the competitive racing of horses, at least at Dubai, did not have the visual razzamatazz that accompanies a NASCAR race, a viewer at the track or on TV enters another dimension with live beasts, even given the go-faster prods, than one experiences in the mechanical boxes on wheels. I think I enjoy viewing the horses even more than human athletes racing to the finish line. Can't say why exactly, but I discovered that sports preference in myself during today's telecast from Dubai.

Cross-posted to refWrite Backpage by by refcolumnist Sportikos.

Sports: Diverse kinds: Some opening thawts

Sports Diverse is a blog of wide sports interests, and international--on athletics, sportsmen, sportswomen, sports kids, and games and teams of all sorts. But the author, Sportikos, can only catch-as-catch-can events (mostly on TV), sports news, and shorts vidclips like those on YouTube. I'm not getting to live games much these days, perhaps that will change. Some friends give my clues and hints on what to watch and what's coming up next. Hat Tips in advance to all of 'em.

I'm also interested in the philosophy of sports, athletics (to play on the word) as an intellectual discipline and therefore potentially interactive with reformational Christian philosophy an international movement of thinkers who are in principle pro-sports. As such, Sports Diverse will occasionally take on sports perverse with critical remarks on those drastic deviations from what is good and normative about amateur, collegiate, olympic, and professional sporting life in its many aspects. And that includes the ethical aspect in relation to a reformational philosophical ethics of sports.