Volleyball to be removed as National Sport
Minister of Sports Dayasiri Jayasekera said he intends to change the National Sport of the country soon, following the Sunday Times exposure that Volleyball is not, officially, our National Sport.
Volleyball was made the National Sport in 1992, by a 3-member Committee headed by Prof Vinnie Vitharana, under the guidance of then Sports Minister Nanda Matthew.
Sri Lanka is also the first nation to select Volleyball as its National Sport.
However, there is no legal document within the Sports Ministry or in the Sri Lanka Archives, that renders Volleyball as the National Sport following a Sunday Times investigation.
The then Minister of Sports Nanda Matthew had announced the decision to the Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation without any Cabinet approval or Gazette notification.
Volleyball was introduced to the US by William G, Morgan in 1895 and the game was introduced to Sri Lanka in 1916 by US national Robert Walter Commack. However, there has not been any objections to selecting Volleyball as the National Sport of Sri Lanka at that time.
When the Sunday Times broached this issue with the Minister, he said he is completely against the decision to make Volleyball the National Sport of the country, and intends to propose to the Cabinet to make ‘Angampora’ or ‘Elle’ be named the National Sport of Sri Lanka.