“I will be appointing a management and advisory board tomorrow. We will then review the present constitution and voting system. And then have the Annual General Meeting (AGM) as soon as possible,” said Dr. Maiya Gunasekera who was appointed as the Interim Committee Chairman of rugby by Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge following the resignation of President Nimal Lewke.

Gunasekera was given the hot seat along with business magnate Kiran Attapattu to run the affairs of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) until the AGM which was initially scheduled for February 21 and now postponed indefinitely – could take place.

Dr. Maiya Gunasekera

Sri Lanka has been invited to play in the annual Hong Kong Sevens and the Asian Division One Championships is scheduled to take place in the first week of April. Thus with the administration in limbo so to speak, The Sunday Times caught with Gunasekera and asked what could be done.

He said; “If this seat is hot I plan on making it cold. The management and advisory board I mentioned will consist of people like Chandrishan Perera, Saman Jayasinghe, Michael Jayasekera, Daya Jayasundera, Nalin de Silva, Ajith Abeyrathne, Lasitha Gunaratne, Priyantha Ekanayake and Iswan Omar to name just a few. Practically all the people I mentioned have played, captained and even coached Sri Lanka. They have been through the mill and know what it is like.”

He added; “What we will first do is to appoint a Selection Committee which will also consist of ex Sri Lankan ruggerites to pick a pool of players, coaches and managers. Equal priority will be given to both tournaments. We need to show Hong Kong that we deserve to be invited again and I firmly believe with the right players and coaches we can both qualify for the Asian Five Nations and stay in the top bracket.”Gunasekera described his cadre as the “Dream Team” and added; “Attapattu (Kiran) has won numerous awards from the time he started his company. He will be both Secretary and treasurer and there will be a lot more transparency. As you know all this came about following the complaint made by Lasitha (Gunaratne) and subsequent inquiries by Indra De Silva Dr. Thuriarajah and National Olympic Committee Chairman (NOC) Hemasiri Fernando, revealed that more that a couple of people in the now dissolved council were not qualified to hold office under the constitution. The constitution also mentions both major and minor tournaments when it comes to the voting criteria. Thus we have to check what the major tournaments are and then review the voting system accordingly.”“As far as our international commitments go, you could say that what has transpired is a blessing in disguise. Since ex Sri Lankan players will be selecting the pool, even the players will have no complaints. Thus for a change we will have player unity. Obviously even the coaches will be carefully selected. I do not want ‘yes men’ on my team. None of the people I mentioned are ‘yes men’. Therefore as far as decisions go we will be getting the best input prior to making them.”Despite the two tournaments being close together, Gunasekera was confident of Sri Lanka’s chances. He said in conclusion; “In sevens rugby it is all about defense. We tend to get drawn with some of the top teams at the HK Sevens. The main thing is to give all opponents a good fight and the key to doing that is to have wing three quarters who even play as props. We do have guys like that and even though both tournaments are close together, I believe that we have enough talent in this country to do well in both forms of the game as long as all the players are available. And that is not likely to be a problem this year.”