Aelian dominates cager courts
President of the Sri Lanka Basketball Federation (SLB), Aelian Gunawardene, wants the Education Ministry’s to reconsider their decision on the ban imposed on schools sports activities of Under-13 age category. The Education Ministry discontinued competitive sports for schoolchildren below 13 a few years ago, through a circular.
Basketball, the second most popular sport in the world and in formidable nations such as the USA, and European countries, is considered a sport that needs greater attention in bringing up the players from the very young ages, notably from school level.
“That is the basis when you start schoolchildren coming through. That’s one of the things we are making applications to the Ministry of Education to start Under-13 basketball,” Gunawardene pointed out.
SLB executives are to meet the Ministry of Education dignitaries to discuss the issue of playing basketball for Under-13 schoolchildren.
“Actually, we are meeting them, I had already communicated with them. We already had discussions with them, but we have scheduled a meeting this week again to further finalise matters about this topic,” Gunawardene revealed.
In the meantime, due to the COVID-19 pandemic during the past two years, there were no players coming through and SLB is keen in conducting its main tournaments from this year, under the guidelines of the health authorities.
“We intend to start Under-15 and Under-18 tournaments, we should get the necessary clearances as well. Then we have the school level starting to play. And we will have the club level playing, we have the mercantile tournament going again and that will generate an interest,” insisted the basketball chief.
“Our idea is to get the approvals to conduct all tournaments. Once the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, we can start our tournaments.”
Concurrently SLB also focuses in giving prominence for the latest format of basketball, the 3×3. It’s the latest team sport debuted in the current Tokyo Summer Olympics. This version is a 10-minute game with three players in a team.
“We are putting a lot of focus on 3×3. Sri Lankan players have the skill, because of their natural genes. We don’t possess the size, as players of European or Western countries do. We have to go with our strength. We should focus on speed and shooting if we want to achieve success, in that scenario we found 3×3 is a format that we can go forward with.”
SLB is currently focusing on development towards international recognition. In addition to giving more interest on 3×3, it’s also eyeing regional sports festivals, such as the South Asian Games.
“We have made plans to select a team. It will not only about skill training, it will be also about physical, mental and actually nourishment and then we will bring them up to a level and present contracts by 2023.”
Gunawardene, a reputed CEO of a successful corporate establishment, believes planning and execution is a mantra anyone or any entity could adopt and follow, towards success. The new SLB administration has drafted a five-year plan, going hand-in-hand with the FIBA Plus programme.
“This is the best five-year plan for the sport. We will go towards that,” Gunawardene concluded.