Gayani to lead Lanka at Asian Netball Championships
Gayani Dissanayake
Promising player Gayani Dissanayake has been named as the skipper of the Sri Lanka Netball team for the upcoming Asian Championship to be held in Bangkok, Thailand. The 10th Asian Senior Netball Championships will be held in Thailand from July 31 to August 7.
The Dissanayake-led Sri Lanka netballers are slotted to play rookies Afghanistan in their first outing on August 1. They may also have an easy passage against Brunei, and up and coming side but the true test will be against Group rivals Malaysia and Japan, who are uncanny despite being newcomers.
According to the earlier schedule Sri Lanka were to meet the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in their first match but the UAE team, who were invited to play in the tournament had withdrawn from the contest and the match schedule had to be changed.
Accordingly Sri Lanka will play the first match on August 1 against newcomers Afghanistan. On August 2, Sri Lanka will face Japan and on the following day their true test against Malaysia, which may affect their campaign against Brunei on August 4. This will be the last match in the first round of Group B. On August 6 the matches will be played on a criss-cross basis and the final will be on August 7. Meanwhile it is reported that Umpiring Panel of the Asian Netball Federation has not picked a single female candidate from Sri Lanka as umpires. Generally the Asian Netball Federation calls for the names of umpires to officiate at these championships from participating countries and other countries from the region. Customarily an Asian International Umpiring Selection session takes place in Singapore, where the Asian Netball Federation is based.
According to SLNF President Yasa Ramachandra, Sri Lanka forwarded seven candidates, which had five females and two males among them, for the umpiring panel. But surprisingly the Asian Federation has reverted with a shocking news that the female umpires had failed the ‘Physical (Beep) Test’. However the two male umpires had passed the test successfully but are yet to get confirmations from the organisers. The Umpiring Panel of the Asian Netball Federation has not decided to date whether both umpires will be called for the Asian championship or one will be called up. The selected male umpires are Deeptha Senarath Bandara and Buddhika Suriyabandara.