Sri Lanka’s famed cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan has always been a controversial figure. With tens of thousands around the globe airing their discontent over a Kollywood biopic to be made on the athlete, he has once more been pushed into the spotlight and sparked larger conversations over his legacy, Sri Lankan identity, and how sports and politics on the island are intrinsically entwined.

As an athlete, Muralitharan broke several records. His unusual bowling action, which brought him fans as well as detractors, made him an international sensation. He toured the world, shrugging off the ‘chucker’ chants and abuse, to become the most successful bowler in test history. Despite his impressive record, he was never appointed captain of the national team - a fact simply accepted by many as simply part of the immovable everyday racism that all Tamils in Sri Lanka have to endure. Regardless, the fact that he was a Malayaga Tamil on a Sri Lankan team dominated by Sinhalese, won him fans. And though there was a small sense of pride that Muralitharan was the Sri Lankan cricket team’s lead wicket-taker, for many Eelam Tamils his rise to fame was coupled with a deep discomfort.

A landmark judgement from Britain’s Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission found that the Home Office decision to keep the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) proscribed as a terrorist organisation was “flawed” and unlawful, and paves the way for the organisation to possibly being legalised in the United Kingdom.

This is only the second time in the Commission’s history that such an appeal has been heard in the past twenty years.

The families of the disappeared in the North-East have urged Vijay Sethupathi to not play the biopic of Muttiah Muralitharan as he is “someone who lacks compassion and does not have empathy” whilst also stressing that he “belittled the protests by the mothers of the disappeared.”

The 8 district representatives of the Association of Families of the Disappeared in the North-East met the media in Jaffna on Monday, where they voiced their request.

Former Sri Lankan minister Rishad Bathiudeen was arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department during a raid on Dehiwela on Monday morning, with 7 others for reportedly assisting the politician evade arrest. 

Two of the 7 alleged accomplices are females, including one female doctor, and all will be charged with harbouring a suspect and produced in court, stated Sri Lanka Police spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana. At least 6 police teams were involved in the operation, he added.

The bail application of two men that attacked Tamil journalists from the Mullaitivu District last week was rejected by the Mullaitivu Magistrate Court Judge on Friday. 

Kanapathipillai Kumanan and Shanmugan Thavaseelan, two Tamil Guardian correspondents who went to collect information regarding illegal logging and timber smuggling in the Murippu forest reserve in Mullaitivu, were beaten with metal rods and injured on 12^th October 2020. 

Tamil journalist, Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, was remembered today across the North-East on the 20th anniversary of his assassination. 

Nimalarajan, a senior journalist who contributed to the BBC Tamil and Sinhala services, the Tamil daily Virakesari and Sinhala weekly Ravaya, was murdered on October 19, 2000. 

The Committee to Protect Journalists stated shortly after his death: 

Tamil actor Vijay Sethupathi has seemingly announced that he will no longer play controversial Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan in a biopic, by posting a letter from Muralitharan himself asking him to withdraw.

Sri Lanka’s Force Protection Company (SLFP-Coy), a military unit serving under the United Nations’ Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) conducted jointed military exercises with the Lebanese army despite human right concerns relating to Sri Lanka’s military.

Sri Lankan troops are currently deployed in UN missions based in Lebanon, South Sudan, Mali and the Western Sahara. This deployment follows a ban of all “non-essential” Sri Lankan troops deployed on peacekeeping missions, in response to the appointment of accused war criminal Shavendra Silva as head of the country’s military.

Sri Lanka’s military has been accused of a litany human rights abuses both within Sri Lanka as well as abroad during peacekeeping operations.