The cheque book tactic
By Riyaz Nadeem
It is now well over a decade since Kandy Sports Club ascended the throne of Sri Lanka rugby and threw down the gauntlet to anyone and everyone trying to pretend they are king to try and topple them.
There has been the occasional stir now and again with the loss from time to time of one of the many titles they have now become accustomed to own. But their reign since their rule began has been largely secure.
It is disappointing then from the game's point of view that Kandy SC has not yet contributed to rugby as much as it has enjoyed from the sport. It is a well known fact that the one thing that Kandy SC's competitors would pray for from their master's weaponry is not their playing talent, but their cheque book.
It is this one big factor that has stood out between Kandy SC and those who try to topple them. The one big factor that has helped the sports top club to stay ahead of the rest is their buying power.
Laga for instance an important cog in their fine tuned wheel this season was brought into the country by rivals CR&FC. Yet they managed to lure this foreign talent away from Colombo for the first time.
Then we saw some time back in the case of Nalaka Weerakkody. Though the outstanding sportsman hailed from the hill capital, he honed his skills not at home but at CR&FC. He was brought home the moment he began to spark with the help of a cheque leaf.
This year too, to our utter dismay we through the howls and screams of an infant learnt of the most disappointing and damaging activity by them, which was to throw cheque leaves at players from Kandy Youth SC. Here was a club struggling to survive in a city where nothing else mattered but the results of Kandy SC.
That Kandy Youth did indeed try to so boldly emerge at a period when Kandy SC had reached the pinnacle of rugby was admirable.
Not only did they have to fight for the net resources of the sport-players, but also a support base that will fund their existence through gate receipts. To those who know about rugby in Kandy, it was as obvious as a lion and a deer competing for the same pool of water in a parched forest.
Not that the rugby forest in Kandy is that parched. There are six top Schools with a rich history of Rugby in Kandy. Trinity, St Anthony's, Kingswood, Dharmarajah, Vidyartha and St Sylvester’s enjoy a place of prominence in the sport and do have a very large following that not many of even the leading Colombo schools can boast of.
During the Schools season this year St Anthony's had a bigger following even in Colombo than say League runners up Wesley. Trinity even with a not so promising side this year drew such vast crowds at their away matches in Colombo while Kingswood is the first School to play Rugby in this country and quite obviously do care a lot for the sport.
So it was doubly important for Rugby's sake that more competitive teams emerged from over there. Imagine the amount of talent being drained each year due to lack of opportunity.
For these six schools to compete seriously in an extremely competitive sport, they have to produce very good players. And that they do year in year out. That we do know looking at the performances of these schools at the All Island tournaments.
Yet there would remain an opportunity beyond their college life only for a very few. Because until very recently surprising though it may sound Kandy was represented by only one team in the National tournament. That meant places for only 15 players though the city kept producing extremely talented players in their numbers.
One good example that comes to mind is that of exceptional flanker Dilip Adihetty. Unable to find a place in the Kandy outfit he languished in the B division with CR&FC until he finally got his break. And what a good player he turned out to be. Had he played competitive A division rugby straight after college, we can only assume how good he would have turned out to be.
So it was doubly important that when Kandy youth emerged it got all the help it could be given.
It was shocking then to find that even though Kandy SC had won the League title two years running that they should put on the heavy boots to trample Kandy youth so severely that even their survival became in doubt. And that they did by shamelessly luring away their talent, they had so tirelesly developed in the infant stages of their history.
To rub salt to the wounds of Kandy Youth they pulled out all their big guns- foreign talent and all to steam roller the struggling newcomers. The after effect was that Kandy youth had a long list of injured players who were put out of action by the foreign talent of Kandy SC for a considerable period of the season.
How interesting it would have been for the home crowd had Kandy SC offered their hometown opponents the lifeline of a challenging contest sans the big names and the foreign imports. It would have given them some respect and the promise of even a decent gate for the rest of the season.
After all the debate did rage on all season for teams with foreign players to make alterations in their sides when confronting weaker opposition. For the good of the game that is.
Instead they were stripped of their dignity with a historic score line and were even made to think twice about existing.
Former Sri Lanka captain Priyantha Ekanayake who now enjoys the position of Rugby Vice President, enjoys the ideal position to give the ailing infants a lifeline.
As Kandy SC plod home with the title of Kings of Rugby secure, what should be asked is - in the name of progress from here what next?
No one can dispute that Kandy SC reigns supreme in Rugby. But now that the same script has been reproduced year in year out for the last decade and more is it not time to see a new challenge from Kandy SC.
Say a fifteen member team made up of only Sri Lankan players. It is time Sri Lanka believed in her talents. We have beaten strong international teams in the past and definitely an outfit consisting of only local players is quite capable of holding their own even in a competition litttered with foreign talent.
And then, one day Kandy SC will be able to say that during the era they were at the top they did contribute to the growth of the sport in a big way. They were truly Kings of the Sport.
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