Jinadasa fails to see eye-to-eye with netball administrators
Veteran netball coach Thilaka Jinadasa has decided to quit as Sri Lanka’s national netball coach in frustration at the lack of cooperation from the sport’s administrators.
She will officially convey her decision to the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka (NFSL) once the prevailing situation in the country eases, said Jinadasa.
“It is difficult for me to work in harmony with the present administration of the netball federation. Some people in the netball administration are not 100 per cent happy with the position I hold. It is difficult to work with them. They don’t cooperate at all with me. That is why I decided to resign from the position of national netball coach to which I had been appointed in 2018. Now they have an opportunity to appoint a national coach of their choice,” she said.
“Hereafter, I will never accept the post of national netball coach in Sri Lanka. I have received inquiries and offers from several countries. Since my only source of income is from coaching, I will make a decision regarding this in the near future,” said Jinadasa, who guided Sri Lanka to triumph in the Asian championships twice in 2009 and 2018.
She was preparing the national team for the 2020 Asian event scheduled to be held in June before it got postponed indefinitely because of the global pandemic.
“I took charge as national netball coach for the first time during the year 2008 and 2009. Sri Lanka had not been able to win the Asian title for a period of eight years since 2001. But we were able to win the Asian championship in 2009 when I was national coach. Thereafter Sri Lanka could not win the Asian championship for another nine years. On a request made by NFSL president Trixie Nanayakkara and then Sports Minister Faiszer Mustapha, I agreed to take over as national netball coach again after quitting my job as a special consultant in Brunei for five years. The immediate result was Sri Lanka winning the Asian championship in 2018,” said Jinadasa whose contract with the Sports Ministry was to run until the conclusion of the 2020 Asian Netball Championship.
“However this competition which was scheduled to be held from June 20 to 24 in South Korea was postponed indefinitely because of the coronavirus and is unlikely to be held this year according to my knowledge. I am not sure whether it will be held in 2021 as well,” she said.
“The reason is because the World Junior Netball Championship and the Asian Junior Netball Championship is also scheduled to be held next year. There is no way three major international netball competitions will be held in one year which means this year’s postponed Asian championships is likely to be cancelled,” she explained.
“I was confident of steering Sri Lanka to a title triumph for the third time if it had been held in South Korea as scheduled. The reason was because I had been preparing the national netball pool with high intensity training continuously,” said Jinadasa, a double international in netball and athletics being the first woman to represent Sri Lanka in the Olympics at the 1988 Seoul Games.