Official apathy towards a National Plan
Sri Lanka (SL) have won 2 Olympic medals, 4 World Championship titles, 2 Para Olympic medals and has emerged as a major force in the South Asian region. Duncan White (1948 London Olympics), M.J.M. Lafir (1973 World Billiards & Snooker), 1996 Cricket World Cup, Susanthika Jayasinghe (2000 Sydney Olympics), Nishantha Fernando (2012 World Carrom Championship), Pradeep Sanjaya (2012 London Para Olympics), Dinesh Priyantha Herath (2016 Rio Para Olympics), Chamil Cooray and Nishantha Fernando (2016 World Carrom Championships, London) have brought honour and fame to the country. However, Susanthika’s effort is the most significant, as she was competing against over 200 countries. No athlete from the Asian region (Track events) has won a medal. It was in 1962 that Sri Lanka won its first Women’s medal in Track & Field at the Jakarta Asian Games. Thereafter, our Women have won medals at the South Asian Games (SAG) up to the Commonwealth Games. Our Women have also won many team championships. However, in the recent past, the standard of Women’s Sports has dropped alarmingly and the Sports Yardstick decided to speak to a few professionals regarding this issue.
Rohini Fernando
(Former National Women’s Cricketer and
President- Colombo District Women’s Cricket Association)
Women’s Cricket in SL was inaugurated almost 40 years ago. We have been participating in all ICC World Cup tournaments and Asia Cup tournaments, but have not made any progress in the game during the past few years. Our Men’s team won the World Cup, T20 World Cup and the Asia Cup. Hence, we should feel ashamed looking back at Women’s Cricket in SL. We have not won any major title or series in this game. We cannot be satisfied with the performances of the Women’s Cricket team, just because of winning a match or Best Player in a particular game. But countries which started playing Women’s Cricket recently, have made vast strides in the game. Bangladesh, West Indies and India have made huge improvements in their game. We have won only a handful of matches at international level. No doubt, we have some talented players in the country. But unfortunately, these talented players do not receive proper direction. Our Women have won Olympic medals, World Athletic Championship medals, Commonwealth Games medals, Asian Games medals and several other international medals. The SL Women’s Cricket team could also make an impact like the Athletes in the past. The main reason for this setback is because we do not have a proper plan for the development of the game. Some of our better Cricketers have been deliberately sidelined by the authorities. They do not have a chance to prove themselves. Only a handful of cricketers dominate the game in the country. The involvement of men in the administration of Women’s Cricket has also contributed to the downfall of the game. A lot of promising players have decided to keep away due to the entry of men into Woman’s Cricket administration. In fact, there were allegations of sexual harassment by some of the officials as well, in the recent past. As a result, parents are reluctant to send their daughters for Women’s Cricket. I think the Women’s Cricket should be administered entirely by women. This has been the practice in almost all other countries. If we can change this situation, we should be able to win more tournaments and series and dominate Women’s Cricket. We have also requested the authorities to hand over the administration of Women’s Cricket to some of the past Women Cricketers. But to date, they have not looked into this issue.
Olivia Gamage
(Retired Sports Director- Ministry of Education)
SL is the only country in the South Asian region to have produced an Olympic medal in Athletics. But unfortunately, SL has suffered a huge setback in Women’s sports during the past 17 years. I could name a lot of reasons for this setback. I think we have come down drastically in team events, but have performed reasonably well in individual events. There are more Women in SL than Men. But there is a noticeable drop in the participation of Women in sports activities. If you take the Athletes who came into the limelight in 1991, from the SAG, they all had a highly successful schools career. In fact, SL dominated the 1991 SAG winning the overall title in the Athletic championship, and most of the Gold medals were won by Women competitors. In addition, the Women’s VB team also took Gold at this event. We can spot a number of talented boys at school level even today. But their progress has been very slow, compared with the earlier days. We do not have a proper vision and a target for Sports in the country. As a result, most parents are hesitant to send their children to compete in sports. Today, most parents are concerned about their children’s studies and their exams. Also, we do not have a proper selection criteria. As a result some of the better players are being ignored by the selectors. There should be different selection pools under schools, district, provincial and national level. This will be the ideal way to select the most talented sportsmen/women for the respective events. Today, we see a number of selection trials being held inside two or three hours, which is not the correct way to select a National team. In this way, some of the more talented Athletes could lose their place. However, a more organised selection trial will help identify talented Athletes. We have some good qualified Coaches, Technical Officers and plenty of human resources required to produce top class sportsmen/women. Also, Women Athletes without proper employment opportunities. In addition, there is no proper solution to keep school leavers involved in the game. Another point I see is that, when we lose a tournament, there is no ‘postmortem’ to ascertain why the team performed badly. This situation can affect both Men and Women Athletes. The NSG which was inaugurated in 1984, is the best example to get the best sportsmen/women from school level. This was followed by the entry of some top athletes in the calibre of Damayanthi Dharsha, Sriyani Kulawansa, Dhammika Manike, Jayamini Illeperuma and Susanthika Jayasinghe, who are medalists from SAF Games up to Olympic Games. In addition, the 1991 SAG Gold medal-winning Women’s VB team and the SL Netball Team which won the Asian crown on 4 occasions, are the results of the National Sports concept. It is high time that we start looking for talented athletes from school level.
K.G. Badra Gunawardena
(Former Sprinter and presently an Athletic Coach)
SL have been in the forefront of Women’s Athletics for a long period. It was Nirmala Dissanayake who first won an international medal for SL in Women’s Track & Field, when she won Bronze in the 200 metres, at the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia. This journey we started from this historic Bronze medal, went a long way and eventually ended with Susanthika Jayasinghe winning Silver at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. However, I think, the most successful event for Athletics was the 1991 SAG held in Colombo. SL created history by winning 15 Gold medals and were overall champions in Athletics, ahead of India who secured only 14 Gold medals. I think the National Schools Games (NSG) concept initiated in 1984, had a lot to do with the success of our Athletics Team at this meet. It was during this period that top athletes in the calibre of Damayanthi Dharsha, Sriyani Kulawansa, Jayamini Illepperuma, Susanthika Jayasinghe, Ineka Cooray and several other athletes came into the limelight. This was followed by the Olympic Medal concept initiated by former Sports Minister S.B. Dissanayake in 1994. The Olympic Concept produced great results for the country, as the Athletes were well looked after on and off the field. The result was that, Dharsha, Sriyani, Susanthika, the 4×100 metres and the 4×400 metres relay teams were able to win medals at the SAG up to the Olympic Games. In addition, they were also able to set up new Asian records for the country. Their performances turned out to be a major threat to the South Asian and Asian region as well. The secret behind their success was that, they were provided with good nourishment and other facilities but more importantly, they had set targets to win medals at the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championships and Olympic Games. Also, the Athletes were held in high esteem by the government as well as by the private sector. However, since 2000, SL has not won a medal except for at the SAG and Asian Championships. The main reason for this is because the entire Athletic system in the country has collapsed, from school level up to national level. for want of a proper National Sports Plan for the country. The authorities are now more concerned about the immediate events to be worked off. We have many unqualified coaches in the country, who are misleading the Athletes, while Athletes are provided with low quality vitamins. This has been the main reason for the decline of Athletics, both Men and Women, in the country in. My 100m and 200m SL records stood for 20 years. I reached the top not by taking vitamins, but by consuming quality food such as green gram, gram, dry fish and eggs. Today, I see there are too many Coaches, Athletes and competitions ruining the careers of some of our promising Athletes. As there is a competition among the Athletes, the unqualified Coaches who are desperate to see their prodigies win at these meets, have now decided to get coaching tips by browsing the internet. The outcome of this is that, the Athletes are being over-trained and then become injury prone within a short period. Injuries happen when Coaches try to train the athletes in an unprofessional manner. Today, Sports administration is only concerned about winning medals. But have not provided any facilities to the Athletes, and do not have a target to develop the sport. India and Thailand have made vast strides in Athletics, because they have a strong provincial level. We could achieve similar results, if the Education Ministry, Sports Ministry and the Provincial Council join hands towards a common goal.
Jayanthi Somasekaram de Silva
(National Player- Basketball, Netball and
President Mercantile Netball Association)
SL has earned a reputation as a nation which always produced top class Women Athletes. Susanthika Jayasinghe’s Silver Medal in the 200 metres at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, is a classic example of this fact. True, Duncan White did win SL’s first medal at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, UK. No doubt, it was a great effort, but I believe there was no real competition at that time. In contrast, Susanthika had to compete against the world’s fastest Athlete Marian Jones of the US. We cannot forget this historic moment. In addition, SL is the only country to date, to have won the Asian Netball title on 4 occasions. Also, the Women’s Volleyball (VB) team won SL’s first Gold Medal at the 1991 SAG in Colombo. Before that, the SL Women’s VB team won a Test series against India in 1970, in India. The Women’s Basketball and Hockey teams have also beaten several top teams, although they have struggled to win a major championship. But sadly, today, Women’s sport has dropped well below standard in every discipline. Also, the Women have not won medals at Games level since 2000. The Women’s Netball team have also failed to make an impact since 2009. They have lost 3 successive finals to Singapore in 2012, 2014 and 2016. The Women’s VB team have always lost to India at the SAG. The Women’s Cricket team have been competing for more than 25 years, participating at every tournament, but have yet to win a major tournament. The situation in other sports is also at the same level. The main reason for this is because we do not have a proper long term Sports plan. SL emerged champions at the Asian Youth Netball Tournament held in 2015 in Hong Kong. As a result, we also qualified to compete at the World Youth Netball Championships in Botswana in July 2017 and the Asian Youth Netball Championships in May 2017, in South Korea. We were fully aware of these 2 events 2 years back but, I am surprised that the National Pool for this tournament was named just 4 months before the event. The National Youth Coach is also yet to be named. We have made it a habit of preparing for major events in the short term, which is not the proper way to march forward. This has been the practice of all Men’s sports events as well. Another aspect I noticed is that, we appoint officials of a touring squad, well before selecting the National Pool. I see that, they give more priority to the officials, not for the competitors. We have to give priority to local competitions, if we are to make progress. We should first try to get match experience before competing in these foreign tournaments. I have seen some National Sports Associations (NSA) have participated in overseas events, even without conducting their domestic tournaments. The 1990s and the 2000s were the best period for all sports in SL. All NSAs had their long term plans with necessary financial backing. All sports had its own official sponsors as well. As a result, Sports made vast strides during that period. But today, we are suffering without financial backing, without any sponsors and cannot see local tournaments being conducted as scheduled. We prepare for foreign competitions just 2 months before the event. The Coaches also do not get the required international exposure. We cannot blame the Athletes for poor performances at international level. The Sports Administration should take the entire responsibility for this setback.
