One of Sri Lanka’s top categorized and most successful and popular indoor sports, carom has been without a home for almost four months. The Sri Lanka Carrom Federation (SLCF), which was housed at Race Course in Torrington for 16 years, lost its headquarters on July 11 this year when they were asked to vacate the premises within just 48 hours. When the news broke suddenly the SLCF was about to host their annual Inter-Club league tournament.
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| Langley and Rohini Mathiasz explaining the SLCF’s four-month ordeal. |
“We were suddenly called up by the Ministry of Sports and were told to evacuate our headquarters in two days, on July 13. On July 16, the Inter-Club league tournament was about to begin, after a long lapse. “We were left in the middle of nowhere all of a sudden,” said a stunned Rohini Mathiasz, the tournament secretary of SLCF.
However the SLCF had been guaranteed by Sports Ministry officials that the carrom ‘house’ would not be moved though many sports governing bodies vacated their respective premises from Race Course at phased intervals to other locations. The SLCF had been told that the ongoing renovation project would not affect the area where they were situated which was on the ground floor of the legendary grand stand in Colombo. With the sudden development the carrom officials, largely the husband and wife duo, Langley and Rohini Mathiasz ran around looking for help from various well wishers who had been supporting the sport for years.
“First thing we did was to inform all the clubs and players about the situation, and they were good enough to understand. Many of them even joined us in looking for a suitable home for our beloved sport, carrom,” added Rohini.
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| High quality carrom boards, often used by national poolists, stacked at the Mathiasz’s residence for the convenience of players. |
Simultaneously, the sports ministry officials also tried to help the SLCF the best possible way, after their building too was demolished under the renovation project. The SLCF was offered a space at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium, which was much smaller than their lost home. Upon relating their factual purpose for a bigger space, it is also said that the ministry officials had reminded the SLCF that they (the ministry) is not liable to provide premises to sports governing bodies in the country.
“We too know that the sports ministry had nothing to do with all these episodes and that they are not under any obligation to provide land, building or premises for sports governing bodies of the country. But if I may remind, this space was offered to us by then Minister of Sport, Mr. S.B. Dissanayake. We were there for 16 years, had ample room to conduct competitions and as a result players were always in fine form. This guided us to many international wins and five finals at the Carrom World Cup and with many individuals behind us to support, we won the World Cup in 2008. Until now Sri Lanka men and women teams have entered all five World Cup finals,” said Rohini almost in tears.
With the SLCF failing to secure a new place the Mathiaszs decided to open the doors of their home at Hill Street, Dehiwela for carrom and its players. In the meantime the national ranked players had been given room to practice daily from dawn till dusk for two weeks in preparation for International Carrom Federation (ICF) Cup which was held in Malaysia recently. Despite the minor setbacks back at home the Sri Lankan slicers emerged runners-up in Malaysia.
“The room which was given to us by the sports ministry at Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium was used as a temporary place to keep equipment and documents. We took some of the boards to our place so the players would have the opportunity of continuing with their practices. However we were told by the ministry officials to look for an alternative place to position our federation. We looked all around in Colombo where it was convenient for many but the rent was too high. Ultimately we found a place in Maharagama last month with the help of one of the national players,” Langley revealed.
For four months, the SLCF had to skip four tournaments. The postponed competition was held in August with the assistance of the Survey General at their auditorium. Since the SLCF officials had to borrow someone else’s venue they were compelled to condense the tournament format in order to save time. But they were forced to postpone the Rangers, Novices, All-Island Junior and Federation Cup tournaments as they could not simply keep on ‘borrowing’ places.
“Annually we conduct 12 to 16 tournaments domestically and participate in over four international tournaments. It is necessary for the players to engage at tournaments so they don’t lose touch when they go out to play internationally. The ministry gave us a room to run our office but regrettably ours is a sport that revolves mainly around players. More than the administrative part, we focus on the players’ benefits which are tournaments and practices. We hope the new venue will be an ideal place at least for the time being. We hope to shift within this month but still there is some pending work to be done at the new premises. We hope to conduct our first competition with the 24th Federation Cup Championship 2011 in January 2012,” added Rohini whose passion has been carrom since the early 1970s.
But only a few are aware that carrom, a sport loved and played by many is about to enter dire constrains in time to come. Until recent the SLCF had to spend on an average amount of SL rupees 10,000 monthly mainly as electricity and sanitary expenditure. But from this month their monthly expenditure is about to hit SL rupees 75,000 monthly which includes the rental, electricity, water and other expenses unforeseen. This development only is set to hamper the progress of the happily cruising sport which has been rated as one of the top five sports in Sri Lanka by the Ministry of Sports itself. Though the situation is such, sadly only one out of a thousand from the corporate sector is interested to support the sport financially which has won the world and will host the World Cup 2012 in Sri Lanka.
“We have no other choice than to raise the entry fees from the players and the annual affiliate fees from clubs. We have approached many top companies for sponsorships but their primary query from us is, “What is the mileage you can promise?” Many companies run behind more popular and attractive sports. But for the sake of information the number of players in Sri Lanka has grown from 250 to over 1000 in the past decade which is a great development. We were able to achieve this by spreading the sport into schools and the outstation while many companies turned their backs on us.
But there were some companies who continued their support, seeing the potential of the sport. Though carrom is widely played around the country - from funeral houses to competitions by millions in Sri Lanka - it has failed to strike the corporate sector. But we have nearly 100 sports, nationalized and mercantile clubs playing top level carrom. If we could attract sponsors and contributors, these types of obstacles would have been just another event for us. Sadly but truly it is still just a popular poor man’s sport,” the Mathiaszs grieved. |
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