Nilfer over Marija for CWG
Marija was skipper of the Sri Lanka 7s team at Hong Kong 7s under Ibrahim
Disregarding the recommendation made by the National Rugby Selection Committee, headed by Ashoka Jayasena, to appoint former star flyhalf and present Kandy Sports Club coach, Fazil Marija as the Head Coach of the Men’s 7s team for the upcoming Commonwealth Games, it is reported that the Competent Authority had already made a decision to appoint Nilfer Ibrahim as Head Coach of the touring party.
With Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) being annulled through a Special Gazette Notification on April 1, by the then Minister of Sports, Namal Rajapaksa citing an issue that occurred in 2019, the rugby administration was passed on to the present Director General of Sports Development of the Ministry of Sports, Amal Edirosooriya. However the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka, (NOC), World Rugby (WR) and Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) had already made concerns of the decisions taken by the Competent Authority on behalf of the sport citing different reasons.
The latest development in brushing off the recommendation made by the Jayasena headed National Rugby Selection Committee to appoint Marija as Head Coach, places rugby at a tricky position with formal procedures of the selection still pending to be approved by the NOC, WR, ARFU and the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee.
In a correspondence from Jayasena to Hamza Hidayathullah, the Executive Director of SLR, who negotiates official dealings between the Competent Authority and other related parties, it is clearly directed that Marija should be the man in-charge of the National Men’s 7s team.
“Your request had been discussed by national selectors and even though it is related to the Sri Lanka Rugby Technical committee, we thought that giving opinion/recommendation is in the best interest of Sri Lanka Rugby at present. Hence, we would like to recommend Mr. Fazil Marija, who had played Commonwealth Games, Asians Games with a lot of international rugby experience and the present head coach of most of the national sevens squad players,” the recommendation made by Jayasena’s Selection Committee states.
However, in an otherwise decision taken by the Competent Authority, Amal Edirisooriya, it is clearly noted that Nilfer Ibrahim and Saliya Kumara have been officially appointed as the Head Coaches of the National Men’s and Women’s 7s teams respectively.
“I approve the following posts as per the previous Executive Committee decisions and the recommendations of the Technical Committee. Please enter them to the final list for the Commonwealth and Asian Games 2022,” a correspondence sent by Edirisooriya to Hidayathullah states.
Rugby experts have raised concerns over the sole decision taken by the Competent Authority, which that express as ‘politically motivated’ when the National Selection Committee had already given their recommendation on players and the coaching staff. Yet, the final say of SLR and its affairs are under the control of the Competent Authority, who will act as the person in-charge of rugby affairs until an administration is duly elected and appointed.
This comes as part of the series of questionable decisions taken by the Competent Authority, whom rugby experts term as a ‘dummy’ acting on someone else’s commands.
On Wednesday, the Writ Application submitted by the former SLR President Rizly Ilyas, challenging the decision to dissolve SLR on April 1, was taken for support by a team of lawyers including President Council Faiz Musthapha, and Attorneys At Law Panduka Keerthinanda, Keerthi Thilakaratna and Sanjaya Kaluarachchi at the Colombo Courts. However there had been no appearance on behalf of the respondents, the Ministry of Sports and the former minister. The court will take on the case on May 12.
In addition, it is reported that the SLR Nippon Paint Club Rugby League 2022 will resume after the second week of May, which will decide the winners of Cup and Plate segments, on its way to determine the teams that will play against each other at the upcoming Clifford Cup Knockout Tournament.
Earlier it was reported that ARFU had suspended SLR, but according to the latest development, the suspension comes on for competitions conducted by the regional body. SLR will still have the liberty to conduct its domestic competitions, in addition to taking part in tournaments and events conducted by WR or any other party, such as the Commonwealth Games and NOC.