Sri Lanka’s celebrity cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan calls for leaders to prioritise poverty
Posted by AlexT - 24/10/09 at 12:10 pm
Muttiah ‘Murali’ Muralitharan is the leading wicket-taker in Test cricket history and Sri Lanka’s greatest player of all time. He is also a dedicated humanitarian and philanthropist, serving as a trustee of the Foundation of Goodness, which seeks to help Sri Lanka’s rural poor.
In this exclusive interview for the Commonwealth Conversation, he talks about the power of sport to unite people irrespective of race and religion and what the Commonwealth could do to help Sri Lanka build a better future.
Transcript:
What does the Commonwealth mean to you?
It’s about uniting people and getting together countries; there are so many issues that so many countries have. Sports- wise, we get together through sports, I can remember in Malaysia [the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, 1998], as cricketers we got together as athletes normally do in the Commonwealth Games, cricket was also a part in Malaysia, it happened once, and it was nice.
How does cricket, and sport more generally, unite people from different countries and backgrounds across the Commonwealth?
Cricket is a sport, and sport always unites people because people are interested to see some kind of activities going on in each of the countries, sports can unite like that, and another thing is sport doesn’t have any religion or any caste or anything, it’s all one common thing, winning and losing, and participating, and that makes people happier, makes spectators happier, so that makes us more united than anything else.
As a humanitarian, what do you think international organisations like the Commonwealth can do to help the people of developing countries like Sri Lanka?
Oh, they can do a lot of things, developing countries need a lot, especially in Sri Lanka after the war, the North and East are struggling more through that, and so many issues are there, so they can talk to the leaders of our country and come and help them. There are a lot of houses to build, a lot of people need education, so many things they can do, and that would be the ideal thing for Sri Lanka for the next few years.
53 Commonwealth leaders will be meeting in Trinidad in November for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. If you could tell them to focus on one international issue of importance in the coming years, what would that be?
Mainly poverty, especially for food and for the children and people who can’t afford it, because food- every house needs food, and if people don’t eat properly the mind doesn’t work, and if the mind doesn’t work, so many problems can be created in that environment. So if on food shortages they can concentrate, and mind development will be more, so people will see the easing of their life and everything will go more smoothly in those countries.
Category : Education, Health, Peace & Conflict, Sport, homepage items
Tags: Sri Lanka
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November 4th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Very good interview. thanx
November 5th, 2009 at 6:55 am
A country that was prospering six decades ago is in a despicable state now. Why? Wrong governance – oppression of a section of people, even spending billions of dollars on military oppression of a people instead of having good governance by giving reasonable devolution of power. Unless ALL citizens enjoy their basic human rights, equality and freedom, you cannot tackle poverty. Poverty will be continuously created by conflict. Therefore first priority should be finding a political solution for the 61-year conflict.
November 5th, 2009 at 7:28 am
Murali is talking about food for the Northeast. Fifty years ago Northeast was exporting rice and fish to the rest of the country. The same fishermen and farmers have been starving in camps over the last years and decades.
Naturally we need a political solution first.
November 6th, 2009 at 2:34 am
Mr Murali is absolutely right. No doubt that poverty is one of the biggest challenges in many developing countries especially in South Asia. The points raised by Punitham and Lito may be applicable in Bangladesh perspective too. Thanks for raising the good point.
In my view, poverty not only deprives individuals from fullfilling their goals, but it also remains one of the major factors that lead to cause multiple problems in our personal, family and social lives such as depression, family breakdown and most notably crimes in our socities (irrespective of small or large). It’s been reported many times that most of the petty crimes (Larceny, Robbary etc)
are deemed to be commited by the young people as they face sirious unemployment problems in Bangladesh. It is not just because they are young or illetarate or bad, but the only reason (most probably) is that they can not afford food, they can not afford education or other basic needs. Therefore they cannot prepare themselves to be able to apply for a job.
If anyone walk down on the streets of just dhaka or chittagong he/she will notice that the fun they (some poor kids) have out of playing sports is not less than the fun of watching a live cricket match sitting on the gallery by relatively rich kids (Please do not get me wrong here as I do not intend to criticise any group of people.
These kids who play on the streets most of the time do not even have any or adequate equipments to use.
Although this in one sense indicates that there is a common ground that they all love and love to play sports, but in practical only those who can afford adequate equipments or training are able to fullfill their dreams of becoming a sports star or likewise. And those who cant afford that have to bury their dreams in their very immature age. but they still love sports as you will see the crowds in the shop, in the restaurant, in the shopping mall etc when there any cricket match on tv. I saw some day labourere in my village while they were working in the field or bush, some who can afford radio they carry it with them to listen the latest score of the match!! it may sound funny or harsh but thats the reality!
I thank Mr Murali for his great humanitarian effot to help the Srilankan people in building a better future. I hope to see
more celebrity cricketers come up to help
those helpless people.
November 13th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Good interview with Muttiah ‘Murali’ Muralitharan. It is also important to address economic and social well being on a sustainable basis.
December 1st, 2009 at 2:05 pm
In this interview and the responses I see the call for a political solution. Why is it when we face problems we do not try to see whether it began with the individuals first. What about the Religious bodies and faith-based organisations? How much are they doing to combat this evil? Are there any solutions to solve the problem of poverty? Who benefits? This is the root problem we can search for solutions then gradually allow the social and political dimension to resolve itself. The need for a human heart is imperative in the solution for poverty elimination.