SLR should not be confrontational: CR&FC president
CR&FC president Hiran Muttiah has urged Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) to engage in a broad dialogue with all stakeholders including players without being confrontational taking into consideration the many challenges faced by the clubs in a post-Covid situation to promote and develop the game.
CR President Ted Muttiah (below pic) wants the game to prosper
With the Western Province Rugby Football Union (WPRFU) of which CR&FC is a member being deprived of voting rights at SLR’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) because of non-payment of subscriptions, Muttiah found it intriguing that such a trivial issue could not be resolved through discussion.
“If the strongest province is not paying subscriptions, why is it only coming to light now. The SLR should not be confrontational. I am sure there should have been some communication to the WPRFU about this. We do that for our CR&FC members. We don’t kick them out. If you take the last resort as the first resort, I think there is something wrong,” said Muttiah who felt CR&FC should not be penalised for the mistakes of others.
“CR&FC have not done anything wrong. We have followed the direction of the SLR as in the provincial unions. We are a member there and we have been active. If the WPRFU have done something wrong, I don’t think we should be collateral damage from that misdemeanour,” he said pointing out that they never resigned from the WPRFU.
Several ‘A’ division clubs including Havelocks, CH&FC and Police had pulled out of the WPRFU seeking restoration of their rights as Founder Clubs in support of constitutional amendments that needed approval at a Special General Meeting (SGM) which could not be held before the AGM. The WPRFU appointed a three-man review committee but their report is still awaited and may not be valid since the WPRFU stands suspended, according to an official.
“Just because three or four other clubs might have resigned from the WPRFU, we never resigned because we wanted to have dialogue to see what the position of the Western Province on all these matters are. The WPRFU heard us and said ‘Yes, we understand what SLR wants to do. We may not agree with it but if this is the voice of our collective members of the WPRFU, then we will carry that to the SLR table’,” he said.
“We have also supported a review of the provincial structure to see whether it has been effective or not. We support it but we didn’t see a need to resign from the WPRFU when the hierarchy of the WPRFU have been quite accommodating to understand our view. They never said to us ‘no, we don’t agree with you, therefore we are going to take a different view’. If they go to the SLR table and say something different, then we would have to respond to those actions at that time,” warned Muttiah.
If the model of Provincial Unions do not appear to have worked or achieved the objectives set out several years ago, he thinks then a review is appropriate.
“We don’t want to be confrontational. This is the reason we have never resigned from the WPRFU. We respected that was the collective decision at that time going back several years to have Provincial Unions. If that is to be dismantled there would also be an appropriate process to follow,” he said.
“Any rugby follower would accept that rugby today is no different to rugby before. Yes, we are paying players and things like that and the skill level is much superior. But in terms of development of the game it is still being played in the two provinces – Western Province and Kandy (Central Province). We haven’t actually taken the game out. If we have, we have not been able to develop it to a level that is commensurate with the other two ‘A’ division provinces,” he pointed out.
“If members collectively believe that it is not working then it’s the same members that has the democratic process that we should follow through the AGM of SLR and subsequently SGM or a special committee to be set up to evaluate the pros and cons and what might be the alternate,” he said.
“I’m not suggesting we should go back to what it used to be. I am simply saying that we should be engaging with other unions around the world in similar set up to see how we can develop because Sri Lanka is not a big country. We have a lot of registered players but how are we transferring that registered players to high performance to actually feed the national team,” said the former Royal, CR&FC and Sri Lanka three quarter.
“Ultimately it is about having a good national programme but you have to start with the grass roots and women’s rugby also in my opinion,” said Muttiah wearing his SAGT (South Asia Gateway Terminals) hat on. “We have been sponsors of women’s rugby for the last six or seven years. We have seen sporadic successes but there has to be continued development and skill building. These are the programmes we need to see,” he said.
“The other factor is very important. Now it has become professional. Clubs are spending nearly 40 million at least per year. In the new normal as we call it where businesses are finding it very tough, people in are losing jobs, many have taken salary cuts and the community is finding it tough. In that setting how do we develop rugby. Many of the players are now professionals. Some had sporting contracts meaning they do not actually work but are on somebody’s pay roll. All of them overnight have lost their jobs and we are talking of blue-chip companies,” said Muttiah, Chief Commercial Officer of SAGT.
“I think it is important to listen to the stakeholders and players are also stakeholders. You need to hear from the players also. What are their challenges. If they are the breadwinner, 40,000 is not sufficient. Lot of office workers get that. Their take home pay is not going to sustain if they are a breadwinner. I think these are all important. If you look players coming in to play rugby today, that is their main source of income. Going back to 25 or 30 years, people played for the love of it. Clubs did not have to carry a 40 million budget but what are the clubs surviving on,” he said.
The bottom line is SLR need to take all into consideration without saying we have the answer, said Muttiah who has served in the Council previously.