When the schools’ Rugby season was about to kick off on April 1, the much awaited grand show experienced a sudden blow, after influence from the top caused confusion among the participating teams.
The competitive schools’ League Rugby tournament, after a lapse of a year, came under the spotlight and questions are rife whether officials who were in-charge of the sport for the past couple of years had done justice to the sportsmanship and quality of Rugby the poor players had been exposed to during this time despite tug-o-war of the officials.
The schools’ League Rugby tournament about to kick off to an exciting start, is now forced to delay by a week or two, when two schools, namely, Science College, Mt. Lavinia and Dharmaraja College, Kandy, took their grievances to courts.
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| Schools rugby has always attracted a lot of attention as seen in this picture. |
The tournament was scheduled to begin with 10 teams in each group in Division I, after many rounds of discussions between Minister of Sports Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLSRFA) officials and Rugby officials of Science and Dharmaraja Colleges on Thursday (24). But now, the top league will feature 12 teams, according to an Education Ministry ruling.
The sudden development erupted after the two teams- one relegated to the lower group after last year’s league, and the other failing to gain promotion to the top group, sought legal redress, disregarding the decisions taken by the newly appointed SLSRFA headed by Kingswood Principal Ranjith Chandrasekara.
Kingswood Principal Chadrasekara whose team ended as runner-up of group ‘A’ in Division I, had offered Science its place in the top group. They were willing to move down to third place of group ‘B’, where Science was.
Accordingly, Science agreed to the decision and had promised Minister Aluthgamage and SLSRFA officials that they would withdraw their case filed with the Colombo District Court, which issued an Enjoining Order preventing the Schools’ Rugby Association from conducting any tournament without them.
In the other case Dharmaraja had filed a protest against Isipathana fielding an ineligible player during the 2010 league tournament. But Isipathana later challenged the protest with a letter issued by the Ministry of Education, which allowed the said player to continue playing in the tournament, despite having failed his GCE O/L examination at the first sitting.
“The letter and the rules pertaining to the incident was cross checked by an official from the Ministry of Education, who incidentally, was responsible for drafting the relevant clause into the law. But it was later established that, as per the regulations of the Education Ministry, a student can sit for the GCE O/L exam for the second or third time as long as he/she is under the age limit.”
“This law, however, was not enacted to support Rugby players or any other sportsman; it was to support less fortunate students from rural and difficult areas of the country, who lack facilities to get through their exams. However, certain individuals took advantage of it, and hence Isipathana was not guilty, and Dharmaraja informed accordingly, thereby agreeing to play in group ‘B’ of Division I,” said a source close to the Ministry of Sports.
But, it was later revealed that Dharmaraja officials had sought an official letter from the Ministry of Education soon after their initial meeting on the same day. The letter had instructed the SLSRFA to include Dharmaraja and Science in this year’s tournament. SLSRFA officials eventually remain without a choice than to agree to the verdict. But Chadrasekara said that the time has come to restructure the entire tournament format in order to ensure lesser misunderstanding among schools in the future.
“This is totally unethical from the point of view of the teams that completed a successful league tournament. There may have been misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the laws and regulations implemented by the Ministry of Education, but it definitely should not clash with the decisions made by the SLSRFA. Deprived schools should not seek petty advantages through administrative loopholes, while a duly elected governing body is active,” Chandrasekara told the Sunday Times on Friday.
The two separate incidents which occurred during the 2010 inter-schools’ League Rugby season however dragged on into this year’s edition of the competition without being resolved. Many top teams who had been regular participants, however, are showing their displeasure at the current development, but the sporty sacrifice made by the Kingswood Principal to relegate themselves to the lower group, in order to give an upcoming team such as Science, was highly praised by many.
“It’s an exemplary and magnanimous gesture. Had this issue cropped up during the tenure of the officials in the past two years, there wouldn’t have been all this confusion. It’s just that all the teams are keen on playing in the top Division, though all cannot sustain the challenges. All can’t be winners. All are not equal. Some are better than others. If all the teams, especially the ones who miss it by a whisker, are gracious in defeat, then everybody can enjoy the game in the correct spirit. But today, they want to win at any cost, and that’s sad,” a veteran of the game, who wished to remain anonymous, commented.
The Ministry of Sports in an official media release stated on Friday that it is disheartening to see such confusions arise. It requested all schools to set aside, personal agendas and to dedicate themselves for the benefit of the country's sports without creating problems.
The tournament will now feature defending champions St. Peter’s, Kingswood, Royal, Trinity, S. Thomas’, Isipathana, St. Anthony’s, Wesley, St. Joseph’s, Thurstan, Dharmaraja and Science. The tournament will be rescheduled and a new date of commencement will be announced after a special Fixture meeting on Tuesday (29). |
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