The degenerating racquet art
View(s):They have brought in Suraj Dandeniya, a total stranger to lift the game, says Chinthaka Fernando
By Naushad Amit
Chinthaka Fernando an independent freedom fighter of badminton in Sri Lanka blames former national players and its stakeholders for leading the shuttle sport to its current status. He made this remark after the controversial election of Sri Lanka Badminton Association (SLBA) held on Tuesday which gave Suraj Dandeniya, the much criticised former Director of the ICC World Cup 2011 Secretariat, the top position uncontested.
“Badminton has reached its death point today not only because of those who ran the sport. According to my observations former players also should take the blame for residing in different factions when badminton needed their salvation. They should have shed their differences and flocked together in the name of badminton. By not doing so they have given the corrupt a free hand to dance on at their own free will,” he charged.
The concluded election of SLBA was postponed after several incidents including a complaint lodged at the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and following a series of dramas. In addition according observers say even the Ministry of Sports has depicted two faces to help a certain faction to come to power while ignoring appeals made by experts of the game. With an unfit set of officials the SLBA had ran into greater dilemma after its former officials for three years failed to submit its annual audit reports.
Moreover the Ministry of Sports in one of their official communiqués issued on November 26, 2012 has stated that the SLBA is the only sports governing body in Sri Lanka to receive most number of complaints. To make things worse the SLBA selection committee headed by a former national player too stepped down in September 2012 citing the amount of malpractices taking place. The selectors have made it a point to report their observations to the Ministry of Sports officials who in return promised an impartial investigation and action against those involved if found guilty. But to the dismay of many these pledges have remained as mere statements to date, with the alleged roaming freely.
‘The intention of SLBA officials are unclear’ - Chinthaka Fernando. - Pic by Amila Gamage
According to revelations some of the accusations that came against officials of SLBA who ran office during the past three years were – lack of a system in organising foreign trips, lack of a proper selection criteria to pick players for such tours, lack of management of funds and grants such as kits and playing gears received from the world governing body, not submitting reports on foreign tours, not being able to submit audited statements of accounts, not appointing a selection committee after the former set of selectors resigned seven months ago, letting parents of players and outsiders to interfere in player selections and collecting funds from players without official approval.
“Despite all these allegations which remain unanswered, SLBA officials continue to carry on with their malpractices freely and unchallenged. If you take the newly elected officials, the same set remain besides the president. The new president says that he has a strong plan on paper. We’ll have to wait and see what will take place. The saddest part is, a certain faction drags this sport into the depths and they bring in a total stranger to lift it up when the experts and experienced are being sidelined for reasons better known to them. Only the captain has changed, the ship, crew and the sea remains the same so the fraternity cannot expect anything positive,” Fernando grieved.
The hullabaloo came to light when the Ministry of Sports gave the power to hold the elections on April 23 to the former officials of SLBA, 23 days after their tenure expired. Experts cry foul of the elections after the Ministry of Sports failed to appoint a representative to oversee the happenings. Prior to this, the nominations of two of the former national players and officials Professor Ranjith de Silva and L.R. Ariyananda for the posts of president and secretary were rejected by the SLBA officials. Later de Silva and Ariyananda lodged a complain at the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka who gave a verdict in favour of the duo prompting the SLBA elections to be postponed from March 31 to April 23.
On the day of elections the outgoing SLBA officials who were in charge of it had made strange amendments to the existing policies by barring two of the active provinces from voting rights while allowing two inactive provinces to vote.
Tensions then brewed to an extent that voting representatives from six associations namely the Mercantile, Northern Province, Eastern Province, Western Province, Government Services and Nationalized Services badminton associations had walked out in protest of what happened inside the SLBA auditorium. It is also reported that the eventual winner of the presidency position Suraj Dandeniya, had almost manhandled Ariyananda threatening him rudely.
“We clearly witnessed that there were total outsiders, who had no connection to the election, in the premises. It is clear that these individuals were brought in by those who created the fiasco.
I can evidently say that Suraj Dandeniya tried to manhandle me, not even considering my age and physical status. If you count the tally of the six associations that walked out, it will give a clear majority to Professor Ranjith (de Silva) and knowing this fact these people deliberately created this unwanted scene, through thuggery and corruption. Taking everything into note we decided to walk out and let the problem settle there. We made a complaint to the Director General of Ministry of Sports who promised us that they will look into the matter. But we know that there is no point in complaining as we don’t have faith in the system. How can you expect to those who openly violate their own rules. If nothing happens we will have to inform the world governing body, the BWF,” a furious Ariyananda revealed.
According to experts highly affected from the catastrophe were the Northern and Eastern provinces that were denied of their voting rights after a long wait of three decades.
According to one of the officials from the Northern association the SLBA has sent them an official letter stating that Uva province will not be allowed to vote at elections as they were inactive for some time, but on Tuesday morning they had reverted the decision.
In addition the voting rights of the North and East were reduced from four to three. The official also charged that the SLBA has violated its own constitution by granting voting rights to the North Western province, who too were categorised as inactive. In contrast the Northern association has worked commendably by holding at least 10 tournaments annually.
“If you have been to a fish market, the election of SLBA bares no difference. The situation was so pathetic and shameful. This was the first time that North and East provinces got to vote after over 30 years due to the war and we were forced to dance to their tune.
Actually speaking the SLBA has not granted any help even by a cent to us in the North and East during the past three years. We appealed to the SLBA to give us affiliated status during this period but until last year they did not bother to notice our progress. We came to Colombo with lots of hopes.
The truth is these people did not disappoint us but hundreds of keen youngsters back in the North and East,” Muraliltharan, of the Northern Province association stated depicting the sorry state of badminton.
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