We the serious and consistent spectators and lovers of Cricket in India and abroad, do  endorse the “Vision of Success” adopted by the ICC that binds all Cricket playing Member States in accepting Cricket.

  As a leading global sport, Cricket will captivate and inspire people of every age, gender, background and ability while building bridges between continents, countries and communities.

 This we say, should not be left as a nice and a neat piece of ornamental literature on ICC documents. This has to be translated into reality, both on the playing field and outside, in “building bridges between continents, countries and communities.”

 The most apt and sportsman like intervention for such noble practise in sports, is to play Cricket with teams that represent truly inclusive and plural societies. We stress here, the ICC, the BCCI and all other member States should stick to and continue the principle and spirit in which it treated the “former apartheid South African regime of the exclusive Whites”, when playing Cricket, in this modern civilised world.

The Gleneagles Agreement of 1977, which stated [quote] Heads of Government reaffirmed that apartheid in sport, as in other fields, is an abomination and runs directly counter to the Declaration of Commonwealth Principles which they made at Singapore on 22 January, 1971.[unquote] is what needs to be adhered to, in selecting countries and regimes, to be sponsored and fraternised.

 With that, we raise the question, how could the ICCI, the BCCI and other member countries continue to play Cricket with Sri Lanka ?

 The Sri Lankan State and its government run parallel with the former apartheid South Africa in its treatment of Tamil people, who were decimated in a war that left well over 100,000 civilians killed, where abductions, torture and extra judicial killings were continued with impunity, where disappearance was the order of the day and over thousands are yet to be accounted for, an estimated 14,000 youth are held under detention as “hardcore LTTE combatants” without any information given out to their relations and guardians, where the PTA and the Emergency regulations are being systematically used for suppression.

 No less tormenting is the treatment still meted out to the 300,000 displaced Tamil people in the North and the Vanni who were initially kept behind barbed wire camps, with no clear and proper reconciliation and resettlement programme yet announced by the government.

 Let us not forget that this Sri Lankan regime is under tremendous pressure to face an independent international investigation for serious allegations on war crimes and crimes against humanity. The international human rights organisations and the international community keeps pressure on the Sri Lankan regime to face inquiry, for the human tragedy that was rolled out during at least the last phase of the war, in year 2009. The EU decided to withdraw its GSP “Plus” facility for all Sri Lankan apparel imports into the EU market, for not respecting Human Rights in the country.

With that let us also record the following. Muthiah Muralidaran, though a Tamil from the Indian origin plantation sector in the Central hill country, was only an “accident” and came from a well established Sinhala school in Kandy and not from a Tamil or Muslim school. While his business family could afford to sustain him financially, that was a major reason why he could promote himself into Club Cricket and as a national player with exceptional skills and talents. “Accidents” of that magnitude can not happen often and would not, for Tamil youth from the North – East and the Vanni.

Cricket in Sri Lanka is a wholly Sinhala sports

There are no functioning Cricket Clubs in any Tamil area

Tamil Union Sports Club in Colombo founded over 65 year ago is now a Sinhala dominated Club with only Muralidaran as a Tamil player

No Tamil schools, even outside the conflict areas were promoted and encouraged to play Cricket

P. Saravanamuttu, the Chanmugams, were all during the period of “Ceylon” and after the country became “Sri Lanka” in 1972, Muralidaran and Russel Arnold are the only names to mention.

Arnold too was never considered a Tamil, coming from a very respectable, Catholic School in Colombo and being more a member of the urban, English speaking middle class than Tamil.

Even Muslim players are now far in between, with Mubarak and Mahroof being the only players, again coming from very influential Colombo Sinhala schools. In fact Mubarak comes from mixed Sinhala parenthood in the elite Colombo circle.

No Muslim school is now playing serious Cricket. Not even the famous Colombo Zahira College that was long time ago, a very popular sports playing school.

"Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." - United Nation

Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka

· More than 135,000 Tamil men, women and children estimated Killed or Disappeared
· More that 35,000 Tamils estimated killed in the year 2009 alone
· 1.1 Million Tamils made to flee the country
· More than 600,000 Tamil Internal Refugees (Internally Displaced or Evicted)
· More than 20,000 Tamil orphaned children
· More than 35,000 Tamil widows
· Thousands of families (including infants) kept behind barbed wire fenced internment camps operated by Sri Lankan Military, for several months in aftermath of the war.
· Half a million Tamils kept under military rule in Jaffna peninsula (Northern Sri Lanka) that had been described as an "open prison".
· Thousands in custody – detention without trial, other widespread abuses
· Economic embargo imposed on traditional Tamil areas for more than 2 decades
· Supply of food, medicine, fuel, electricity and other essential items controlled by the Military
· Forced Starvation
· Usage of banned weapons - Cluster bombs, White phosporous. Usage of heavy weapons, artillery on densely populated civilian areas. Reported usage of chemical weapons.
· Mass Graves and systematic violations of fundamental human rights remain uninvestigated
· No International Media allowed into conflict areas
· State sponsored pogroms
· Systematic destruction of Infrastructure
· Indiscriminate and wanton air attacks on traditional Tamil areas for more than 2 decades.
· Hundreds of thousands of livelyhoods and schools, hospitals, libraries, temples, churches, houses, villages destroyed

List of Evidences:

1. CNN- Sri Lanka: Witness to Survival: the 3-minute excerpt from this video by Ms. Sara Sidner shows the uncompromising attitude of the Sri Lankan President.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzGj2hYoymo&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2010/03/remaking-sri-lanka-rajapaksa-way.html

2. France24: Tamils on Probation - Forced Democracy in Sri Lanka:

 http://www.france24.com/en/20100204-reporters-sri-lanka-tamil-tigers-civil-war-refugees-civilians-return-army-probation
 
3. Srilanka: If this isn't GENOCIDE, WAR CRIME, Then What on Earth is?
 
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/srilanka_if_this_isnt_genocide_war_crime_then_what_on_earth_is
 
4. Grisly Photos Reveal Genocide by Sri Lankan Government Against Tamil People - www.Salem-News.com 
 
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/august072010/srilanka-violence-mv.php
 
5. Srilanka Executive Video New War Crimes - Channel 4
 
http://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-execution-video-new-war-crimes-claims

1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG)

We therefore raise the question, should Sri Lanka be accommodated in regional and international Cricket tournaments ? We don't accept Sri Lanka can qualify the ICC statement “Vision of Success”. They are far more racist as a nation than most racist and suppressive regimes in the world. Keeping Sri Lanka in ICC accepted tournaments would undermine even the “Anti Racism Code” of the ICC.

 We therefore call upon all ICC member States and the BCCI in particular to boycott Sri Lanka as a venue at the forthcoming World Cup tournament and also call upon all T20 franchise Clubs/companies to refrain from including Sri Lankan players, from year 2011.

Fighting genocide is difficult, and it is painful, but it is not impossible — not if we promise ourselves that we can give life and hope to others. We can – Save Darfur Coalition