SLR awaits ‘green light’ to resume rugby
Rizly Illyas leading the SLR inaugural press coneference - Pic by Amila Gamage
The new administration of Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) unveiled its action plan with four important competitions to be staged from October onwards, but its implementation will depend on the feedback from the higher authorities.
President Rizly Illyas positively revealed SLR’s immediate action plan while introducing the new heads of the committees at their inaugural press conference held on Friday, in which he also stated on an important meeting with stakeholders to be followed on September 17 to draft the guidelines focusing the ‘new normal’ state of the country.
Accordingly, SLR is set to meet its affiliations which includes clubs and schools, in a brainstorming session come Thursday before sketching out the recommendations and guidelines for future rugby activities, to be sent to the Ministry of Sports for approval.
“We, as the controlling body of rugby in Sri Lanka, are responsible for the sport here and up-to-now we haven’t produced guidelines, which could be followed even by the school section. We are highly confident that the fraternity could act promptly and collectively, to see rugby back in action,” a confident Illyas stated.
So far Sri Lanka Cricket and the Football Federation of Sri Lanka have managed to come out of the competition drought and resume its domestic competitions following strict health guidelines after producing its own recommendations to the relevant authorities, who provided the much needed ‘green light’. SLR hopes to be the third major sport governing body in the country to resume its domestic competitions.
“We have already gathered proper information and covered almost all areas before coming out with our domestic competition lineup. We have put in place committees to oversee those important areas and have appointed Christopher Jordashe as ‘COVID Director’. The upcoming workshop is to exchange ideas and suggestions and gather everyone’s support to give a comprehensive draft of guidelines to appease the higher authorities,” he added.
If all works well for SLR, its deputy president and chairman of the tournament committee, Nazim Mohamed revealed that all plans are afoot to revive the domestic competition with a two-legged Sevens Tournament towards October end. The first leg will be played in Colombo followed by the second, to be held in the Southern Province. This competition is expected to include teams from all eight ‘A’ division clubs and six from the Women’s Division.
Following the Sevens Tournament, SLR has set plans to reintroduce the Under-24 15s tournament, which will be contested by all top division sides. The main event of SLR’s calendar, which is the Dialog Rugby League, has been slotted for February 2021, and will be played with a revised format for 11 weeks. The fourth tournament on the cards will be the Dialog Clifford Cup Knockout Tournament.
“In the League, all eight teams will play each other in the first round and after completion the top four teams will play for the ‘Cup’ while the bottom four teams will play for the ‘Plate’. This will save more time. With the intention of popularising the game in the outstation, we are planning of playing the remaining two legs of the local Sevens Series in Kandy and Radella. We are confident that all will work out as planned,” stated Mohamed.