Economic crisis postpones golf tournaments
Sri Lanka Golf (SLG) became the first sporting body to be hit due to the ongoing crisis in the country, when they were forced to postpone the – 132nd Sri Lanka Amateur Open and the Ladies Amateur Open Championships – which was all set to start tomorrow (21), at the Nuwara Eliya Golf Course.
This postponement, came in as a last-minute announcement yesterday, owing to the multiple crisis of gas, fuel, and electricity shortages firing in on all fronts.
The organisers claimed, though the Nuwara-Eliya Golf Club is equipped with a generator, unavailability of diesel and petrol poses a practical problem in going ahead with the originally scheduled dates of 21-28. Adding insult to injury, are the scheduled power cuts, hampering the accommodation that will have to host about 50-60 people during the eight-day tournament.
But the biggest blow for SLG and the event itself is, four foreign nations namely – Pakistan, Malaysia, Nepal and Bangladesh – having already confirmed their participation, have cancelled.
In addition to the local and foreign participants, there were also going to be private entries from India and Australia, of which, the Indians were notified not to come down, though the boy from Aussie had arrived.
“In spite of foreigners were withdrawing from the event, which nearly returned after two years, locals were fine with it and have not shown any signs to follow suit of the foreigners decision”, Michael Magala Perera, the President of SLG, told the Sunday Times yesterday.
“Locals were okay, pretty much okay, but the club (Nuwara-Eliya hosting club) was finding it difficult to accommodate, power generation, fuel, food and all that. If the gas is over, it becomes an issue”, he added
He claimed, had the situation was normal, they would’ve had more overseas participation from more countries.
Another roadblock has been they all have to be present eight-days prior to the event that also poses problems for the hotel.
Given this bolt from the blues blow, SLG is bound to suffer a financial loss. However, the president declined to disclose even a rough estimate as he was uncertain of the exact amount.
“I don’t want to be giving bogus figures,” he said.
He added, due to the unpredictable and deteriorating crisis, they have to wait-and-watch as to when it can be rescheduled.
“We don’t know when we will come back to normalcy from this,” he concluded.