Cricket: Landmine tour delivers a reality check

Joe Root dons protective gear before seeing an area being cleared of mines in Sri Lanka. Photo / Getty Images

In a bamboo shack surrounded by papaya trees in remote north-east Sri Lanka sit four England cricketers listening intently to a young woman waving a stick at a coloured map.

Joe Root, Keaton Jennings, Jonny Bairstow and Olly Stone, showing admirable curiosity on his first tour, have been flown by the Sri Lankan Air Force in a helicopter from Kandy, just hours after winning the second test, to territory once held by the Tamil Tigers, to learn about a side of this island few tourists ever experience.

Accompanied by the British High Commissioner and invited media, the players are told that beyond the trees, just a few steps from where they are sitting, lies buried the lethal legacy of 25 years of civil war.

The Mine Advisory Group (MAG) has been working in Sri Lanka for 16 years. Its job is to clear the 1.6 million landmines put down by both sides during the war. Munnar lies in the most heavily mined area.

The mines were laid to defend territory. The soldiers have gone, the fighting is over, but landmines can maim for 25 years after being planted and the shocking statistic is that 50 per cent of victims are children playing in the jungle and fields.

MAG links its work back to cricket. Since April, in the nearby village of Periyamadu, it has found 2584 mines, clearing an area 59 times the size of a cricket oval, allowing locals to move back on to agricultural pastures and rebuild lost lives and economy. The players don protective clothes as they are taken to a demonstration of how a minefield is cleared by hand, using metal detectors and spades.

Sri Lanka aims to be free of landmines by 2020 and 10,800 were made safe last year. There are few detailed maps left behind from the war, so it is the local community who provide intelligence, and former Tamil Tiger soldiers who are sometimes paid to help.

It is dangerous. Two workers for MAG have been killed this year in the Middle East, but there have been no casualties in Sri Lanka, a result of the planning and intensive safety features the players are told about during their lecture.

"Having high-profile England players visit a minefield in a country where they are playing a test series is invaluable in raising the profile of the issue and for telling the story about what landmines do to lives, particularly connecting the impact they have on children running about and playing sport like they do anywhere in the world. To have high-profile sportsmen lend their support is like gold dust," said MAG chief executive Jane Cocking.

The players are shown a rogues' gallery of defused mines. Some are as small as a saucer, and not much bigger than a batting glove.

Cricketers live in a protected world on tours, particularly in Asia, where they enjoy five-star luxury. The Cricket Australia report into the ball-tampering scandal described wealthy and privileged players existing in a "gilded bubble". Visiting a minefield will not stop players trying to scuff up a cricket ball under pressure but the hope is players realise that in the wider world, actions have consequences, and a cricketer's public profile comes with a responsibility.

"These experiences come home in pressure moments," said Root. "You are not putting your life in danger, you are playing cricket, and this is a handy reminder. To have the realisation it is not easy for people in the places we play does hit home. It is good to come and experience this and find out the hard work that goes into it. The de-mining looks very arduous. I wouldn't want to trade jobs."

●To support MAG's work, go to donate.maginternational.org