The league rugby tournament for 2009 has seen its end. The late burst of Navy Sports Club took the game to a new level. In the recent past it has been leading contenders Kandy and CR who have been vying for the first two slots.
Navy finishing third in the league nevertheless are seen as top contenders if they were to play in the “Caltex” Knock out competition. It is a simple deduction as both CR and Kandy lost to Navy in the second round games.
With the advent of Navy there have been lots of whispers and comments. Talking to General Manger of the Kandy Sports Club, Iswan Omar, Ravi Gooneratne Chairman Rugby of the CR and FC and to Commodore Nanayakakara, I picked up some interesting views.
All were of the opinion that the rise of Navy was good for the game. It was about another team being able to challenge the two leaders. They expressed the view that such competition will do wonders for the improvement of the game and help to light the fire of interest amongst spectators. Commodore Nanayakakra the Chairman of Navy rugby opined that the rise of the Navy team was good for rugby in Sri Lanka. He was of the view that they have created more competition and there is a lot of support for the game. This is building up an interest among rural youth who are in the Navy.
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| CR’s Dushantha Lewke is held bytwo Navy players at the CR-Navy game. |
Digging deeper for opinion I found that as most people ask the question of player movement and also the rationale for such acceptance. Particularly as various views have been expressed and spoken of without an insight to the reasons and the implications.
Fazal Mohammed a former secretary of the Rugby Union explained that the constitution provides for player movement when they were changing residency, particularly, to a different province. He also said that it has been the practice to allow movement mid-season if they joined the forces. Though it was not a written statement in the constitution it was accepted as a practice.
The tournament rules refer to player restrictions in Section XVIII of the constitution. The clause requires the player to be a resident for a period of two weeks within the new province and clearance of the club the player last played. There’s nothing stated about mid season movement.
Iswan who is also a former Secretary confirmed this while adding that in 2009, “There was an agreement among the clubs that acceptance upon the transfer of players mid season to the defense services was in order”.
Therefore they will concentrate on the same in 2009 and retain players who are devoted to the club.
The question possibly is whether the defense services come within the geographical areas of a province. A grey area is the wording of schedule describing defense services clubs. One may argue that the services are all affiliated to the Western Province. Then again what is to stop defense services banding themselves together and ask for the status of a province?
The constitution identifies: ‘The union shall consist of such provincial unions as are recognized by the council… ’ The issue is there and a question for debate as well.
Ravi Gooneratne of CR had a degree of concern as to whether there was a level playing field. There were many grey areas that have not been addressed by the controlling body and these are being exploited. He feared that rugby will be a circus and the effects it may have for the future and it is not today that one has to look at. A club spends a tidy sum in training players who subsequently leave and join other teams for greener pastures. This affects the club as they need to find new players and need more funds to train and retain such players.
Meanwhile standards are bound to drop and spectators will keep away. This will also result in a drop in sponsorship. All this forms a vicious cycle that is bound to affect the game. Wing Commander Sanjaya Fernando said that the Air Force is recruiting top level school leavers. They are concentrating on building a team and not at achieving victory today.
According to Fernando their efforts are creating a window of opportunity for quality players who have few clubs to join. Especially when lack of funds force clubs which were once powerful to be placed at the bottom. His thought of wisdom on player exodus is what the controlling body should look into. That is to provide funds to clubs who cannot retain players
* Vimal Perera is a former Rugby Referee, Coach and Accredited Referees Evaluator IRB |
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