It is election time for Rugby and the date fixed is in the first week of January. The elections are to take place on the 7th ahead of the deadline. Nominations have been received from the Provincial Unions including the Western Province which the SLRFU at various forums has alleged to have been suspended. It was this fiasco among other things that led to the IRB suspending the membership status which was restored at latter times. Rugby in Sri Lanka is on the edge of being driven to another year or two with another President and committee in office.

The text phase is to go forward through participation, collaboration, and being equitable through consultation, facilitation and education. Whether you run rugby the same way or introduce new thinking what is needed is to create value to the stake holders. In the recent past at many times the word chaos has been interchangeably used to describe the process of rugby. If this has any semblance of truth the new President will have a tough time on his hands. The challenge lies for the new President to take the game forward and these needs to identify and manage ego issues that lead to chaos. There should not be any room for; it is my turn now to note the attitude which can surface as the field of play hears snippets such as “we will see”.

Action from the popular Mercantile Rugby Sevens.

I understand the nominations have been forwarded by Western Province challenged their suspension early during the current year. The Interim committee who some say have no status has also forwarded nominations.

The good as confirmed by reliable sources is that both lists are identical and shows consensus as compared to the recent past when punches were traded by both sides. However it does not seem to be clear road ahead as there are muttering that the nominations may be challenged.

Hopefully this may not be needed if one uses best judgment to interpret the intention as most provinces have nominated identical lists. I am told that most provincial unions have either seconded the same list of the Western Province or proposed a similar list. Sabaragamuwa I believe have agreed to an identical list with a disagreement only on the Post of Vice President. Another list of nominations believed to be form Central List have included names for the Post of Vice President and Secretary that are different to the ones that have majority consensus.

It is clear that there is agreement on the post of President and Asanga Seneviratne will be uncontested. Asanga has waited a long time to take charge of Rugby. In 2007 he was Vice President in the council headed by Nimal Lewke. This was the year that Michael Jayasekera the Vice President in Office in 2006 withdrew “Jayasekera, quoted President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who had told the medal winners at the South Asian Games and Asian Games, that "sports politics have ruined" Sri Lanka sports. Jayasekera not only resigned from the post of Vice President of the SLRFU, but also withdrew from his candidacy from the post of President. Jayasekera, in withdrawing said he “regretted" his decision, but believed that contests only divides the people and that he does not wish to be a party to any division in the controlling body. History is the only scorer that can vouch for the accuracy of what was said.

Asanga Seneviratne

Asanga who should have succeeded as President in 2009 did not have the wind blowing his way. The resignation of three key officials lead to the Minister of Sports appointing an interim committee as the vacuum created by the officials resigning did not leave room for the rest of the council to call for the Annual General Meeting and to hold elections. In hindsight I am tempted to ask was the resignation of three officials accidental so as to class them as three mutually exclusive decisions. Was this a well orchestrated concert by a maverick/s that kept Asanga out of office? This was subsequently followed by the cock up by Western Province and others that turned up late to hand over nominations. Rest is history and here we are at an annual General Meeting where there appears to be consensus on the face of it.

As the Annual general meeting is held in early January there will be little more time than before to get the ball rolling for the year 2012. Critical among them are the 2012 calendar which includes the Asian 5 Nations Division 1. This requires being able to focus on key issues than to be involved in litigation and or solving problems that are the result of self becoming more important than the game. The vision has to be pronounced early and the plan should be in place so that every stakeholder knows what is to be done. Have realistic milestones that can monitor progress and not be a wonderful story when read in print. Pleasing of friends and relations cannot have any place in these milestones.
As 2012 is born; the pass is a warm greeting to all rugby lovers.

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