No dollars, no problem; Lanka to still send 164 for CWG 2022
The National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOC) boasted that it would send a ‘strong’ contingent of 164 members for the upcoming Commonwealth Games 2022, which will begin in Birmingham, England later this month.This, however, comes in contrast to the contingent Sri Lanka sent to Gold Coast of Australia in 2018, where the whole party was counted at 139, out of which 79 were athletes. This comes at a time when the South Asian nation going through its worst economic crisis due to lack of foreign reserves.
Sri Lanka were in second thoughts after its sudden economic downfall, following strong opposition towards the ruling government from the general public to step down, yet NOC intervened to act as mediators on behalf of the country with the Commonwealth Games 2022 Secretariat.
This was after the Ministry of Sports announced that it would not be able to dole out the athletes and officials representing Sri Lanka at global multi-sports events such as the Olympics, CWG, Asian Games and South Asian Games. As at the end of December 2021, the intended contingent had a combination of over 200 athletes and officials, but five weeks ago the President of NOC, Suresh Subramaniam revealed to the Sunday Times that it would be pruned down to 164.
On Thursday, the final count was confirmed by the NOC at an official press conference held at the main auditorium of the Olympic House, yet out of the total the count of athletes is 114 – 54 males and 40 female. The remaining 51 includes officials, coaching and support staff, and the leader of the pack, the Chef-de-mission was announced at the same event.
“It’s an honour and privilege for our national athletes to endeavour their performances competing against 71 commonwealth member nations and territories at the forthcoming 22nd Commonwealth Games in less than 30 days from now,” said Major General (Rtd) Dampath Fernando, Sri Lanka’s chef-de-mission to the 2022 Birmingham Games.
According to an official communique` issued by the NOC, following the press briefing, which stated that “due to the financial constraints and qualifying in sports with qualifying standards to earn the eligibility for participation, the selection was done meticulously through a stringent selection process under the scrutiny of Commonwealth Games Association Sri Lanka, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the National Sports Selection Committee, restricting the total number to 114 male and female athletes”. Yet, the outcome was a foregone conclusion which was already signed and sealed.
In contrast to what is stated in the official document, certain sports associations have already reportedly compromised their chances at the upcoming CWG 2022, due to procedural errors in selecting final squads. Table tennis is said to be one of them, who earned a passage to the CWG 2022 in the eleventh hour with the last minute withdrawal of a nation from the Games.
Instead of a sole player, now table tennis will have the privilege of fielding a team, yet the selection trials, which had been conducted hurriedly without most of Sri Lanka’s top players. Interestingly the players selected for the CWG 2022, had lost even prior to the quarter-finals by the absentees of the trials at the recently concluded National Championships, which raises a huge question mark.
In addition, Ushan Thiwanka Perera, the Texas based Sri Lankan high jumper, last week announced that he would have to withdraw from the upcoming CWG 2022, due to lack of competitions, mainly caused due to the failure of the local athletic administration. Under these circumstances, Sri Lanka will continue to fund and fly the contingent of 164 for the CWG 2022, which will be held through July 28 to August 8.
At the last CWG held in 2018 in Australia, Sri Lanka’s contingent had a total of 139 members, 80 athletes in 15 sports disciplines and the remaining 59 were officials. Sri Lanka won six medals in total – a silver and five bronze medals – in weightlifting and boxing, the two sports that the country sports officials are banking on winning medals at Birmingham this year.
Since the inception of CWG in 1930 in Hamilton, Sri Lanka has won a total of 20 medals until 2018. Out of the total, three are gold medals, won by pugilist Barney Henricus in 1938, 400m hurdler Duncan White in 1950 at Auckland and by air rifle shooter Pushpamali Ramanayake at the 1994 Victoria Games.
Sri Lanka did not attend the CWGs in 1930, 1934, 1954, 1974 and 1986 due to various reasons and have returned without a single medal after eight appearances – in 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1978, 1982, 1990 and 2002.