Veteran sports journalist Asoka comes out with Palamuveniya
View(s):Asoka Goonetilleke, the regular contributing editor to the field of sports literature in Sri Lanka will soon be launching his fifth book titled ‘Palamuveniya’, which gives the meaning ‘The First’.
Palamuveniya is first of its kind portraying life and times and achievements of 20 sports luminaries of Sri Lanka in the international sports field, including the Olympic Games.
Asoka Goonetilleke’s love on Sri Lanka sports literature was ignited when he was planning to attend the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 as a journalist. Since then he has authored four such books but a hand book on journalism was the first to go off the blocks in 1988.
‘Olympic Serisara’ in 2001, ‘Jagath Paapandu Soorathava’ in 2002, and ‘Olvarasan’ in 2006 are his previous books on sports literature, which were widely acclaimed.
He had also compiled books on Asian Athletic Grand Prix (2003), Historical and Modern Culture of sports in Sri Lanka (2005) and 10th South Asian Games Colombo (2006).
In addition he had worked as one of the editorial consultant to ‘Sri Lanka Through the Eyes of a Philatelist’ in 2013 which is known as a five star volume. This publication was made available only to the Diplomatic community.
This was printed and published by Ministry of Postal Services under the guidance of Hemasiri Fernando who was the secretary of the ministry then.
However, Palamuveniya is a contrast. In it Asoka Goonetilleke strives to keep the flag flying hosted by the said 20 sporting personalities.Some of them, to name a few, Susanthika Jayasinghe, Duncan White, Arjuna Ranatunga, Muttiah Muralidharan, Kumar Sangakkara are very well known whilst some of them, perhaps, are never heard of.
Be that may, the author’s intensive research work and the simple writing style would force anyone to read Palamuveniya, thus making the achievements of those who have been featured would not be buried in the sands of times.
“It is a timely need and a must read,” writes Yogananda Wijesundera, founding Director of the School of Sports Sciences in his epilogue.
Asoka Goonetilleke, an Airman turned journalist counts 37 years of experience and became a full time sports journalist in 1982 as the founder sports editor of the Divaina newspaper.
Asoka Goonetilleke soon became a household name as he was able to revolutionise the style of sports reporting in the Sinhala Media.
Neil Wijeratne, attorney-at-law and author of many sports related books once wrote, “……his (AG), art of writing has the elegance of a cricketer.
The sharpness of a footballer. The aggressiveness of a boxer. And,the attractiveness of an athlete,” justifying AG’s sincere efforts to build a healthy and powerful Sinhala sports reporting fraternity, who would one day commit themselves to contribute to the upliftment of sports literature in the country, which indeed a crying need at present.
Asoka Goonetilleke’s such attempts paid dividends. Being a sports journalist who had covered six Olympic Games in a row and another nearly 50 internationals including investigations and exposure of corrupt officials paved the way for him to win the coveted Olympic Award for Sports Journalism in 2004.
Palamuveniya is scheduled to be launched on September 25 at 3.00pm, at the Institute of Sports Sciences at Nidahas Mawatha in Torrington. Palamuveniya is a Sarasaviya publication.