{"id":5232,"date":"2012-03-02T20:11:52","date_gmt":"2012-03-02T20:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/?p=5232"},"modified":"2012-03-29T20:44:57","modified_gmt":"2012-03-29T20:44:57","slug":"wikileaks-cricket-is-like-a-religion-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-cricket-is-like-a-religion-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"WikiLeaks: Cricket Is Like A Religion In Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5235\" style=\"width: 458px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/monks-cricket-colombotelegraph.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5235\" class=\" wp-image-5235 \" title=\"Monks cricket colombotelegraph\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/monks-cricket-colombotelegraph.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"448\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/monks-cricket-colombotelegraph.jpg 560w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/monks-cricket-colombotelegraph-300x226.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5235\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Child Buddhist Monks Play Cricket<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/\">By Colombo Telegraph<\/a><\/strong> &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cWe are not sure exactly why, but cricket is like a religion here.\u201d the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Colombo Telegraph found the leaked cable from the WikiLeak database. The cable is classified as \u201cCONFIDENTIAL\u201d and written on September 13, 2002 by the Charge D\u2019Affaires \u00a0W. Lewis Amselem.<\/p>\n<p>Under the subheading \u201cBIG CRICKET TOURNAMENT\u201d Amselem wrote \u00a0\u201cJust want to flag that there is a huge cricket tournament taking place in Colombo that began yesterday and will go on for the next ten days. (Note: We are not sure exactly why, but cricket is like a religion here.) All the world&#8217;s best teams are in town (Australia, India, South Africa, etc.). Sri Lanka clobbered Pakistan last night. The fact that such a big tourney is taking place in SL is being taken by many Sri Lankans as another sign that their isolation and self-marginalization because of the war is gradually abating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In another cable he wrote; <strong>\u201cThe fact that a major cricket tournament is taking place in Sri Lanka at all is a pleasant surprise to many here. Sri Lankans had grown used to their cricket-mad country being overlooked as a host for major events because of the conflict and the danger of terrorism.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>See;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-sri-lanka-is-a-cricket-mad-country\/\">WikiLeaks: Sri Lanka is a cricket-mad\u00a0country<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Below we give\u00a0the relevant part of the confidential cable;<\/p>\n<pre>C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 001699\r\n\r\nSIPDIS\r\n\r\nOFFICIAL INFORMAL\r\n\r\nDEPT FOR SA\/INS FROM THE CHARGE\r\n\r\nE.O. 12958:   DECL:  09\/13\/12\r\nTAGS: <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/AMGT_0.html\">AMGT<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/CE_0.html\">CE<\/a>\r\nSUBJECT:  OFFICIAL INFORMAL NUMBER 129 (09-13-02)\r\n\r\nCLASSIFIED BY CHARGE LEWIS AMSELEM.  REASONS 1.5 B, D.\r\n\r\nCONTENTS:  REACTION TO THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH\r\n           TAYLOR\/GOOD VISIT\r\n           ATTEMPTED HIJACKING INVESTIGATION\r\n           CBK'S HARSH LETTER\r\n           ICC ARTICLE 98\r\n           BIG CRICKET TOURNAMENT\r\nBIG CRICKET TOURNAMENT\r\n----------------------\r\n<a id=\"par6\" href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/cable\/2002\/09\/02COLOMBO1699.html#par6\">\u00b6<\/a>6.  (U) Just want to flag that there is a huge cricket\r\ntournament taking place in Colombo that began yesterday\r\nand will go on for the next ten days.  (Note:  We are not\r\nsure exactly why, but cricket is like a religion here.)\r\nAll the world's best teams are in town (Australia, India,\r\nSouth Africa, etc.).  Sri Lanka clobbered Pakistan last\r\nnight.  The fact that such a big tourney is taking place\r\nin SL is being taken by many Sri Lankans as another sign\r\nthat their isolation and self-marginalization because of\r\nthe war is gradually abating.  (POL)\r\n\r\nAMSELEM<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":5235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,68,72,27],"tags":[2088,2089,2090,1679,1263],"class_list":["post-5232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","category-religion","category-sports","category-wikileaks","tag-child-buddhist-monks","tag-cricket-and-religion","tag-cricket-mad-countries","tag-sri-lanka-cricket","tag-us-embassy-cables-on-sri-lanka"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>WikiLeaks: Cricket Is Like A Religion In Sri Lanka - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-cricket-is-like-a-religion-in-sri-lanka\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WikiLeaks: Cricket Is Like A Religion In Sri Lanka - 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