NOC to decide CWG contingent on Monday
Weightlifter Chinthana Geethal Vidanage was Sri Lanka's flagbearer at the 2018 CWG, leading a contingent of 139
The panel of officials overseeing Sri Lanka’s probabilities and possibilities of the upcoming Commonwealth Games 2022, to be held in Birmingham, England from July 28 to August 8, will meet again tomorrow to take a final count about the Sri Lankan contingent.
Originally slated to fly out a contingent of over 200, according to the previous cutoff date of December 31 of 2021, Sri Lanka is now in the process of pruning down further in bulk numbers, with a doomed country economy. Traditionally, the government has been financing its sports contingents to quadrennial multi-sports events such as the South Asian Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games (CWG) and the Olympics.
With a crippling national economy which potentially runs towards a depression era, Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Sports officially announced that it could not support any of its representatives in sports, directly burdening the National Olympic Committee (NOC), which coordinates local athletes to these multi-sports events.
“When the situation is such that the government cannot support the athletes, as a responsible body how can the NOC look away. As its President how can I tell these children that we are unable to send them,” a concerned Suresh Subramaniam, told the Sunday Times.
“The onus has now fallen on us, we must send a contingent,” he added.
If a member country of the CWG fails to send or withdraw athletes or teams that have been already confirmed as participants, the nation is obliged to be penalised. However, Subramaniam and his team had swiftly acted by negotiating with the CWG Secretariat to offer economically battered Sri Lanka solace.
As a result the organisers have agreed to provide accommodation and food free-of-charge with other undisclosed recessions coming in handy for the Sri Lankan contingent. Now, the contingent is likely to be pruned down to less than 165.
Earlier the count was 160 athletes and 40 plus officials, including coaches, trainers, masseurs and doctors. The now pruned down count may come down to 130 athletes and a lower number of officials, which would not exceed 30.
In addition, unlike other years NOC will be represented solely by its President, Subramaniam and the General Secretary, Maxwell de Silva, as they are mandatory to sit at official meeting of CWG. This time around the contingent will not include invitees or special guests.
But the contingent will have two officials designated by the Ministry of Sports (MoS), solely to stand in as caretakers or observers, in preventing athletes from potentially looting out of the contingent and becoming runaways or illegal immigrants.
According to sources, the Birmingham CWG 2022, will not feature a games village. Instead, the organisers will house the athletes and officials at three different locations — designated hotels, and two universities at Warwick and Birmingham.
“Unlike games villages, accommodations at these universities are unsecured. We have to make appropriate measures to prevent potential runaways. With the present situation of the country, we have to be mindful of that fact too,” Subramaniam expressed his concerns.
The last time Sri Lanka had runaways from its official contingent was in 2014, when two athletes — a beach volleyball player and a hockey player — deserted the games village a week before the closing ceremony of the 17th Asian Games held in Incheon, South Korea. With the two Ministry officials designated to keep close surveillance on athletes’ movements, the total contingent for the upcoming CWG 2022 could come to 164.
“There are a few grey areas we need to address on, such as appeals and petitions. We will be able to officially confirm the final count by tomorrow evening,” Subramaniam explained. With nearly 20 sports disciplines expected to represent Sri Lanka, NOC will have a relief in letting off the financial burden from the Women’s Cricket team and the Men’s and Women’s Rugby 7s teams, as Sri Lanka Cricket and Sri Lanka Rugby have taken the responsibility to sponsor its teams. Apart from these two sports, who earned their CWG spots on merit, the Men’s and Women’s Beach Volleyball teams too earned qualification.
Sri Lanka won a silver and five bronzes in weightlifting and boxing at the 2018 Games held in Gold Coast, Australia. This time the island nation could have bigger success as a number of track and field stars, including Yupun Abeykoon, at their peak in addition to weightlifters and pugilists.
Other than cricket, rugby and beach volleyball, Sri Lanka will be represented at the CWG 2022 are aquatics, athletics, badminton, boxing, gymnastics, judo, squash, wrestling, table tennis, weightlifting, basketball and para athletics. Boxing and wrestling associations have not submitted their official letters to the NOC, while table tennis will conduct its final trials today to pick the final team.