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With only seven months to go SAF games still in turmoil
A stiff hurdle to clear?
There is hardly seven months left for the 10th rendition of the South Asian Federation games to hit the city of Colombo after a lapse of fourteen long years. However from reports through the grape wine, it seems that the whole project is still in utter chaos. According to insiders the only game that has started so far is musical chairs which is currently being played by the political big wigs who are still ascertaining who is going to get the most amount of political mileage from this exercise.

According to a well-informed insider, when the games were first held in Sri Lanka for the first time in 1991 the then President Ranasinghe Premadasa used the SAF games as a huge political vehicle and gained miles and miles of added value from the success of the event.

Then when the team for the games was initially convened, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse who is also a past president of the AA sat in first as the steering committee chairman. But, from the reports reaching us, the Prime Minister is now sidelined and President Chandrika Bandaranaike herself has taken over the reins of the project.

When the question was posed to NOC president Hemasiri Fernando he said "There is no change of any position; it's only that President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has got involved in the project as head of state and she has every right to do so. She now has convened a meeting on the 13th of December and thereafter we are sure that everything will fall in to the correct slot."

Added to this, Lalith Weeratunge who is a close confidant of the Prime Minister has resigned from post of Chairman of the Sponsorship Committee -- leaving that important segment of the project also headless. In reply to this situation the NOC chief said that "Lalith Weeratunge did decline to hold that position and Cyril Gunapala who took over the post subsequently also declined later. However we are hoping to appoint someone to this position at the December 13 meeting.

Then the next important factor is that still no Television Station for the project has been finalised. From the information received, it is only Rupavahini Corporation that is geared to handle such a project, but they too are short of equipment which will run into millions of rupees. According to the NOC this is a function of the media committee and all 21 committees which are appointed are responsible for their respective functions.

Fingers are also pointed at the events that are being planned to be held outside Colombo. Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Nuwara-Eliya and Ratnapura. They point out that task of finding accommodation, providing media facilities and other necessary factors for people who will throng to these places have not even been considered up to now. With regard to this the NOC boss said "We have dropped Ratnapura and Polonnaruwa because the facilities for doping tests could not be carried out there. But, the cycling event will be at Anuradhapura and the mountain biking event will be held in Nuwara Eliya" . The pin-pointers went still further. They say "leave alone the outstations. Even the equipment that is needed for the rehabilitation of the Sugathadasa Stadium is not on schedule'.

Monies allocated for various associations are yet to be given and it is speculated that this will be done by the 13th of December. This means that these associations will have to go in for training preparations from January 15 onwards. Just imagine! For an event of this magnitude is just six months preparation sufficient? The national sport volleyball is one such event that is bound to suffer heavily as a result of this grave situation. On this predicament Hemasiri Fernando said "There is a deputy minister in charge of this committee who has to look into these aspects and it is a responsibility which should be borne by them."

At the same time Technical Handbooks which spell out the technical points of the 19 games on the card have not been printed yet. Generally these books are received by the respective associations of the participating countries at least six to eight months in advance so that they too could make adequate preparations.

Of course it is possible to trot out explanations for all the above allegations. But, finally this whole episode will cost the country a cool 500 million rupees of which a sum of Rs. 300 million will be spent by the treasury from the tax-payers' money. One fervent plea going from this page is that without being divided and trying to pull the whole project apart get the act together and make it a grand success like it was in 1991. Now on your mark, Get ready and go.....

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