I have been reading a book about sport leaders and how they achieved greatness. It was about people who have achieved great heights in individual or team sports. One thing in common among fifty five top sports personalities was that they had to work hard to achieve the greatness. In team sports it was about the team. It was about the need to play as a team if you are to win. It was about the inability of one man not being a team member though he can be a crucial ingredient. It is about passion, being practical and teamwork if you are to reach dizzy heights.

It is just a week away from the Carlton Sevens. It is an Asian Sevens Series tournament with recognition from the governing body. In between there is a sevens tournament which is called by various names such as super sevens, masters sevens etc. It does not matter whatever the name; it has the possibility of players from some well known rugby playing countries playing here. The publicity is on and billboards have come up in various corners of the city and suburbs .Well and good that there is an attempt to keep the game alive.

Yet one wonders if that commitment passion and practicality is seen through the governing body. I say this because of the disappointment as we talk of the National team .We have an opportunity to play in front of home crowds. To play in the Asian Sevens Series on home soil with a week to go, there are around fifteen players attending practice. A reason to be happy is that there were only five players last week and statistically a three fold.

That is the type of clownish argument one may hear as the powers that be explain what is happening. Of the fifteen few are recently out from school and hoping to take on the bigger boys of Asia. Not to worry as there is Pakistan in our group. Great! Let us beat the minnows and start from the bottom. What else can be done as we have to stick by our decision as we have suspended the better players? “You are playing at home and have to get the best out of the opportunity.”

That is what I hear around me and an urge to be practical and allow the best to play.” But they kept away from national duty.” “So what, others did not come for practice.” The talk goes on and on expecting a politician to be practical. I mean all those who are politically appointed also become like politicians. With a big ego: only the security entourage is missing.

The opportunity we have to climb from the bottom of the barrel is being thrown away by the characters that have taken to manage the game. It seems that there are many characters hovering around the hall of rugby at Reid Avenue while the game at this moment is badly in need of people with character.
There are those who are either trying to fish in troubled waters or trying to show their face of support when all they want is to make their presence felt, moreover those who have been rejected by the masses.

The game, as has been reported in many parts of the daily press, is being taken to a new low in the hundred year history. Rugby it appears is a dying game. This was what I gathered as I talked with two ardent female rugby supporters who have not been seen very much this year? Their comments satisfied my thinking that rugby is losing the zip and the glitz it had some years ago. It seems that even the shine that was there in the last few years have been fading away.

There is news that Asanga Seneviratne who is to be the next Elected President is expected to be in attendance at the IRB meeting. It will be his task to convince the powers that we are on track to have an elected body. It will be up to him to get what is given for the development of the game. Hopefully what Asanga says and promises will bear fruit in the form of the first and most important offer the: “elected body.”

With elections for National Government on the cards will rugby elections be forgotten? Anything will be a good excuse. The characters that adorn office make statements that sound nice but are the least followed. There as this committee of the board for rugby football management and development. How many of those listed in the official website of the SLRFU are still in attendance. How many meetings were held during the year?

There is many a slip between the cup and the lip: The proposed and the actual. Where to from here is the question the constituent bodies should ask. That is the provinces that form the Union; The clubs that form the provincial unions. The stunning silence that is maintained by most is an indication either of apathy or not wanting to rock the political boat. These interested parties have to wake up and be taken notice of. Else as the game suffers so will the coffers. Sponsors will not show an interest in a game that is reaching a decline stage.

Vimal Perera is a former Rugby Referee, coach and Accredited Referees Evaluator IRB