“Hole in the bucket” — Bonza’s only problem
The juniors had some good wins
The newly elected President of Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR), Lasitha Gunaratne, insists that only some systematical changes to the administrative structure would suffice.
Gunaratne pointed out that Sri Lanka’s rugby history runs close to 140 years and needs no sudden or radical changes to its current free flow. However he is disturbed by the fact that he takes over an entity that claims a debt tally of over Rs. 30 Million. As a matter of fact, the former Royal College, CR&FC and Sri Lanka forward is well aware where the remedy lies.
“We know where the problem lies. It’s mainly due to our approach to attract and impress sponsors, which means we really need to be monetarily strong to run the show. We do have a substantial number of sponsors, but that does not help our overall objective,” Gunaratne stated.
Out of the total payables, over half of the amount has been pumped into the National Junior squads of four different age categories. The amount of over Rs. 25 Million spent on eight international tours and series in 2016 and 2017 comes as a huge blow for SLR as it has sent teams without proper sponsors.
“This has been a confusing state for years, when it comes to national and international levels, the main body comes to act. But the schools section (Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association or SLSRFA) should be actually handling that sector. Nothing has been discussed by SLR and SLSRFA until few weeks ago. The meeting was good and both parties discussed matters openly,” Gunaratne added.
While affirming the fact that there’s very little to change, Gunaratne explained further that making the SLSRFA officials aware of the vital role and contribution school rugby gives to the national stream, he went on to say that coming into terms for the betterment of the game is a positive sign.
At the meeting SLR had requested SLSRFA either settle the due amount of Rs. 25 Million and also had given the schools section the responsibility of gathering sponsors for the Sri Lanka junior age group squads in the future.
“For most of these tours that took place in 2016 and 2017 the junior national sides had no sponsors. As a country we are committed to field our teams at all age groups at regional and international stage. SLR had to take care of these teams for seven international tours and in the future we are finding it difficult to continue that trend, unless SLSRFA cooperates with SLR,” Gunaratne added.
For future international assignments SLR expects SLSRFA to allow them to find their sponsors in whole or work as a unit under one wing in raking in a general sponsor or more for the schools domestic tournaments as well as the junior national sides. SLR has given SLSRFA time to revert with their decision, and Gunaratne stated that it will be the ultimatum.
“The SLSRFA is well aware how important the junior structure is. SLR is the sole administrator of rugby in Sri Lanka and it too has vast areas to focus on. Administrators may come and go, but decisions had to be made solid and firm for the betterment of the game. The SLSRFA are doing a fine job by handling junior competitions in a flow, but they too need to fine-tune in certain areas. We hope everything will fall in line,” Gunaratne went on to say.
According to Ranjith Chandrasekara, the President of SLSRFA, the schools section too are willing to work in cohesion with the main body, but had firmly stated that they are not in a position to settle the stated amount. However Chandrasekara told the Sunday Times that the SLSRFA will assist SLR in the future on junior national teams.
“We will most probably take the onus of finding sponsors for three main tours. This will be effective soon after we meet with SLR and come to a final decision. It is true that there are conflict of interest from the point of sponsors in junior rugby, and this is the reason why SLSRFA will try to make matters easy for SLR to send teams overseas. However we are not in a position to settle the said amount by SLR, and we have conveyed our inability in doing that,” Chandrasekara said.
As a result of failing to rake in sponsors SLR had decided to forego certain junior age group tours in the coming months. Gunaratne revealed that the SLR had received an invitation for an International Under-14 competition and they had not yet confirmed the organisers of Sri Lanka’s participation.
“We told the organisers that we will confirm very soon. If we fail to find a sponsor, the only option left is to allow the Division I Under-14 Tournament champions to find their own sponsor and take part in this upcoming tournament. We hope in the future this situation will change”.
In 2016 SLR has spent Rs 17.4 Million on five junior international tournaments and in 2017 the amount sums up to Rs 7.9 Million on three international tours.