Former Sri Lanka cricketers Suraj Randiv and Chinthka Jayasinghe have become bus drivers in Australia. On Saturday, pictures of both the former players started circulating on social media, confirming the sad status of their after migration lives in Australia.
A right arm Off Spin Bowler, Randiv played 12 tests, 31 ODIs and 7 T2OIs for his country. Allrounder Chinthka Jayasinghe appeared in 5 T20Is for Sri Lanka.
In November 2020, Cricket Age had published that every year, hundreds of Sri Lanka domestic players migrate to Australia, to play club cricket. In Australia, there are two tiers –
1. District Cricket, with good standard
2. Club Cricket – Recreation cricket, with very low standard
It emerged that almost 99% Sri Lanka domestic players, who have migrated to Australia in last one decade, ended up playing club cricket. Obviously, with it’s dismal quality, it doesn’t offer anything significant to Sri Lanka cricket!
Cricket Age understand that out of all the players who went to Melbourne in last few years to play cricket, only Suraj Randiv managed to play district cricket. All others play substandard club cricket!
Then the big question arises. If the players knows that it won’t help their game, why they migrates to Australia. Answer is very simple – they don’t go there to play cricket. They goes their to earn money, and uses cricket as a tool for entering in Australia!
“It’s sad, but true. Actually almost 99% of these players main earning while in Australia is not playing cricket. Majority of clubs play only on Saturday. So, even for two matches, they takes an entire month. So, players have to give only four days to cricket in a month. In remaining days, most of the players don’t even go for training” A former Sri Lanka coach told Cricket Age .
Instead, these players focuses on earning, through cash in hand jobs.
“They all do cleaning, construction, driving and other jobs. That’s where, agents like Sammy Kandage becomes the ‘Messiah’ for these players” the former Sri Lanka coach added further.
Suraj Randiv, Chinthka Jayasinghe latest status once again confirms the authenticity of Cricket Age Investigation .
Though, in Suraj Randiv, Chinthka Jayasinghe case, it’s a very much respected profession working for public transport Victoria. The issue is that these cricketers don’t have degrees, so what else they can do once they migrate. In this scenario, probably making 100,000+$ for a year by these jobs and cricket on weekends is good for them” former Sri Lanka coach added.
