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Sri Lankan after its victory over Singapore, at the Division I tournament, becomes the newest to join the Asian Top 5 rugby teams. This promotion will take effect in 2011. The top five team championship for 2010 begins this week and one form the present will be relegated in 2011. The top five teams currently are Japan, Korea Hong Kong, Kazakhstan and Arabian Gulf. Sri Lanka has one year to get its team to perform to be ready to remain among the top five. Sri Lanka becomes the seventh team to join the top five since the HSBC A5N began in2008.
It’s time to celebrate. The Sri Lanka rugby team in a joyous mood. |
Previously Arabian Gulf was relegated and Singapore joined in 2009 only to be relegated in 2010 and the Gulf State rejoined.
It is necessary that the Lanka have a strategy and plan to be among the first five and not be in and out. It will happen if we aim to to be among the first two and not think of being fourth to be there. It also means that we have to get our act together and focus on rugby and not other issues that have plagued the game in the recent past.
The virus was not the interim committee alone as we would love to believe. There have been many other issues that have taken rugby back in the recent past. This ultimately led to the politicization of the game. Chief among them has been player selection, captain issues and subsequent conflict that resulted in a ban being imposed on key players. It was the removal of this ban and Sri Lankan having most of its better players that saw the final result of “Rugby Sri Lanka” joining the big five in Asia. It is important that an elected body be in place for the game to move forward. I was told by the Chairman of the Interim Body Dr ‘Maiya’ Gunasekara that the IRB has given a deadline for having an elected body in place by May 30th .If not Sri Lanka will automatically stand suspended by the governing body. Else this will result in all the good work done by the players being brought to naught.
Two rugby fans with Sri Lankan players Rajeev Perera and Eranga Swarnatilleke. BELOW: Mid field action. |
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Players were an integral part of this victory as I believe they played their heart out. That is despite the pre match back room suspense that prevailed, followed by the on tour issues that surfaced. According to the Manager of the Sri Lanka team Rohan Gunaratne the spirit and the determination they possessed was extraordinary. The majority of the players being from Kandy Sports Club and CR helped as these teams have been practicing since January.
Therefore there was a fit and conditioned pool on hand. While victory has many parents the need of the hour is to say thank you to all that may have helped in the game. This included those who made themselves available at short notice. They also include those who made the grounds and other facilities available for a team to practices and succeed. In the words of Gunaratne he mentions specially the police team and its coach Marso who made the grounds available even if the Police team had made arrangements for it to practice. He also mentioned about Kandy Sports Club and its known rugby stalwarts who made ground and other facilities available for players to train under the capable guidance of Johan Taylor.
Now Sri Lanka has to plan for its next stage. The Asian five nations series will involve each team playing two matches against each other on a home and away basis .This will require to host four matches and there is a need for International standard facilities. It will also mean that we will have to reschedule the domestic season as the A5N series is played in April / May. The main rugby community, the clubs need to be spoken to and preparation to be made with consensus. This would mean opportunities for our match officials to get an experience as Citing Officers, Judicial Officers, Match commissioners etc.
This requires persons to be trained and to make training opportunities available. With top status there will always be opportunities. It will not happen if we ignore correspondence and not make use of chances as happened in the recent past. Where a course was conducted for judicial officers during the division 1 tournament in Singapore and ARFU was subsidizing. We almost missed the bus as there was no nominee from Sri Lanka. It also does not mean that we should continue to deny the exposure for referees appointed by for international tournaments.
There is a lot of work to be done and the corporation of all is needed. The clubs too should be happy with the Sri Lankan team performance as this will lead sponsors to look forward, backing a winner. This has to be marketed and made use of for rugby development and has to be done in a professional manner. If we start to niggle and to jab others masquerading as lovers of the game all will be lost ad we will back to square one.
Vimal Perera is a former Rugby Referee, coach and Accredited Referees Evaluator IRB |
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