Should a sport be reserved only for a few good old friends?
View(s):It was with deep concern that I read an article in the Sports page 24 of the Sunday Times of June 30, 2013 under the caption “Time is ripe to go back to the good old friendlies” by former Rugby Referee Vimal Perera.
It appears that he has made a mountain out of a molehill, making capital of an incident during the Royal-Dharmaraja Rugby match played on June 28, 2013 at the Royal Sports Complex. The incident apparently was about a spectator throwing a plastic water bottle at an assistant referee, during the game. No doubt such action cannot and will not be condoned by any sensible person. Nevertheless, if one or two individuals in the crowd can stop a match that was played in the true spirit of the sport, the officials would only be encouraging hooliganism.
If it was a case of sabotage, the law enforcement officers would have done better if they got hold of the culprit and dealt with the individual without letting such an element disrupt a well played match. However, the intention of Mr. Perera’s article reflects not his love for rugby, but his implicit and explicit desire to tarnish the image of the rugby champions of 2013.
Mr. Perera had grossly exaggerated an incident which was not even noticed by the spectators but had chosen such words such as ‘boisterous behaviour of the crowd’ and ‘missiles thrown’ etc. which were baseless allegations. If not most spectators who were on the opposite side of the students pavilion would have noticed such action. As a matter of fact, when the match was interrupted by some officials who walked on to the ground from the main pavilion, there was no indication whatsoever of misbehaviour of any sort by anybody and the match was going on extremely smoothly. Most of the spectators of this match would agree with me that the players of both sides and the spectators as a whole were extremely well behaved and there were no such noticeable incidents as described by Mr. Perera. It should be emphasised that the boys from Kandy and their supporters had nothing to gain by disrupting the game, as prior to this match against Royal, the Dharmaraja rugby team had already won the trophy (a “piece of metal” as Mr. Perera suggests). It appears that it was a thorn in the eye for Mr. Perera to witness the Rajans’ skipper being presented with the championship trophy and Rajans had emerged as unbeaten all island champions in the ‘A’ Division Singer League. It is quite amusing when Mr. Perera referring to the Dharmaraja team had stated that, “The winners are not the type that promotes the game of rugby in the correct spirit.” It is more surprising when such a statement could have been made by a former referee. Fortunately for the Rajans, throughout the past week there were several articles in all the daily newspapers including the Sunday Times, admiring the high performance of the Dharmaraja rugby team. Credit is due to the senior police officers who “refereed” the situation created by the interruption to the match by some officials and got them to get on with the game.
A word of caution to the up and coming rugby-playing schools is that they must not let undue criticisms disrupt their sporting spirit and the progress they have made so far. It is amazing that Mr. Perera pretends as if there had never been any incidents of regrettable behaviour during rugby matches played among the so called “good old friendlies”. One can well understand the frustration of Mr. Perera, due to the fact that one of his favourite ‘A’ division schools has fallen to ‘B’ division. But is it ethical for a former referee to have written such sinister articles and propose to reserve rugby exclusively to be played only among so called good old friendlies/Friends? One could have only dreamt of such a scenario before Sri Lanka gained independence from the colonial masters.
- Shanta A De Silva an Old Rajan
Note from Sports Editor: The writer who is referred to is a senior rugby referee as well as an IRB Referee Evaluator and is well-versed in the game of rugby. His opinion always takes into account the larger picture of the game’s current scenario.
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