Whether Kandy SC could host this year’s Club sevens tournament has become a real problem to the hill capital club. “We have asked the Union for Rs 1.5 million to conduct the sevens tournament here. We need over Rs. 800,000 to accommodate the eleven teams.
And that is just on a half board basis. Then we have to provide food for the players, officials, referees etc. We also have to provide lots of water,” said Iswan Omar of Kandy SC.

Dr. Maiya Gunasekera

He was responding to a question by The Sunday Times on whether the Kandy leg of the sevens would be held. Omar added; “CR and FC may be able to find sponsors. There are 3684 companies in Colombo and only 72 in Kandy. With recession rampant it is not fair to ask us to find a sponsor.

As it is we find sponsors for the Kandy International Sevens. The Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) should have made a budget allocation for their sevens tournament. When we come to Colombo more often than not we pay for our accommodation. However, if the Colombo clubs can manage their accommodation, we are willing to conduct the sevens tournament.”

Rugby’s Interim Committee Chairman Dr. Maiya Gunasekera when contacted said; “We plan on going ahead with the Kandy leg of the sevens. Lasitha Guneratne is working on it. I will inform the clubs in Colombo that they will have to pay for their accommodation tomorrow. We are trying to see if we can find money for two or three clubs who are not from the ‘A’ Division. But that’s about it. With the audit going on we cannot pull out funds from the SLRFU account. In fact I spoke to both the Minister of Sports and the President and told them that we had two firm international commitments – one for the Kong Sevens and the other for the Asian Division One tournament in Dubai.”

He added; “We need to find sponsors for both these tournaments as well. I have already appointed former national coach Ajith Abeyratne to look in to the coaching aspect. It is too early to mention any names yet because as you know Abeyratne was appointed only last week.”