The Sunday Times Sports - The plight of a generation

If the outgoing UN Secretary General Koffi Anan is looking for new associates and the likes of his tribe he may look towards Sri Lanka. The reason, here in Sri Lanka people indulge a lot in Anan or Anagena Kan. When you go down the lines of this musing relaxed in your favourite chair on Sunday morning, you will see to what depths Sri Lankan sport has descended from the very core of the supply routes down in the nursery to its national grid.

In the last few weeks our columns have been cluttered with news items that have been developing in the schools rugby arena that has raised more than a few eyebrows. The news that has been emanating for this sphere of activity has contained – player violence, crowed violence, about coaches getting red carded and most of all school authorities seeking ways side-stepping, bending or nakedly breaking the existing rules with a view to win at all cost.

A few decades ago a trip to Kandy from Colombo gave the players a huge thrill which we used to look forward for weeks on end or vice-versa. But, at present just the thought of making the trip either way gets your sprits so low you just keep wondering as to how it all would end!

At the same time another disturbing piece of news that came to our notice was that some school authorities had reportedly sought ways of bending or just plainly flouting laws to retain certain players in school who were technically not eligible to stay on. Ironically towards the end of the league season this very move by a school blew out of proportion when this factor became a thorny issue with Royal College deciding to protest against the inclusion of an Isipatana player who was purportedly not eligible to represent the school so much so that it nearly turned the entire season topsy-turvy and nearly brought to a halt the President’s Trophy Schools’ knock-out tournament and only timely action taken by the SLSRFA saved the day. However this paper carried the aftermath of that issue in detail until last week. A final decision on the matter is still to be arrived at.

At the Milo schools rugby knock out rugby press briefing an angry SLSRFA President Hemantha Prematilleke exploded. He said “Prior to the league tournament getting under way we invited all participating teams along with representatives of the governing body to explain the modalities of conducting the tournament. But sadly things have gone radically wrong as things went by. Just see if referees are getting assaulted and the scuffles between players and spectators after most matches do not reflect a healthy situation in the rugby arena”.

Then markedly referring to the incidents of reportedly ineligible players representing the schools during the league tournament the SLSRFA president said “I firmly believe that rugby should be played by the students and not the others who are on the peripheries. The Association cannot check on the credentials of all the players. So it must go on a basis of mutual trust and when an authority places his signature on a document it should be a responsible one.

“We have received several complaints about such incidents and we have requested the relevant schools authorities for the necessary information so that we could expedite investigation. But, so far reciprocation by schools have been lethargic and the association does not have the authority to take such information from a school by force. So we have sought the assistance of the Sports Council of the Ministry of Education to intervene and give us guide lines to arrive at our own decisions.

But, meanwhile as you know we are going ahead with the knockout tournament with the same set up that prevailed at the end of the league tournament. However we have made a request to the relevant school authorities to leave out such players whose credentials are in question for the knockout tournament and we are hoping to take the case forward from that point onwards.”

When asked if they were earnestly hoping to punish the wrongdoers Prematilleke said “We are waiting for the feedback from the Sports Council. On the strength of that we will go ahead with our decisions. Very frankly if anyone is found flouting the law they will be punished.”

What does this depict? This indicates that it’s not the boys who are at fault but their elders who are supposed to guide them to be good citizens of the country. In most of the cases for a student who hails from the middle class, playing rugby for his school is like the purchase of a ticket for his future. Most of the rugby players from schools that have strong rugby roots are readily annexed by the police and the armed forces. Then coming back to his school days the boy has been given the indicators that flouting or bending the law for one’s benefit is an accepted norm in life.

With a scenario of this nature where the wrong indicators make up the values of the future generation it would do no good at all for the very health of our tomorrow’s children! “Win at all costs” – Seems to be the accepted norm in life.