No National Sports Festival this year
The last NSF was held at the Vincent Dias Stadium in Badulla in 2019
The 47th National Sports Festival (NSF), scheduled to be held towards the end of 2021, is likely to be cancelled for the second consecutive year, according to the Ministry of Sports (MoS). The core reason for the cancellation is the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has escalated in large numbers.
The Ministry of Sports called off the 46th edition of NSF last year owing similar reasons and subsequently the MoS made an attempt to conduct a combined NSF for the years of 2020 and 2021. However, with the latest development, that plan too now has been deemed as unviable by the organisers of the event.
“As per the latest data gathered, Central and Southern provinces have conducted their regional events, towards the national stage, and they were in their final stages of competitions. But there are no information from the remaining provinces, if they have conducted their rounds or not. As a result, the Ministry of Sports, do not have any clear information of the progress of the regional events, and even if we gather all data, there’s hardly any time left in the year to make any progress of conducting the NSF,” stated Amal Edirisooriya, the Director General of Sports of MoS, explaining on the practical difficulties of conducting the event.
The state-funded annual event, which comes under the budget of the Sports Development Department of MoS, reserves approximately Rs 21million for the entire process of NSF, including the zonal and provincial stage events. However, Edirisooriya disclosed that the MoS is looking at minimising the negative effects that could bring on the athletes due to the cancellation of NSF.
“We are hoping to have discussions with the sports directors at provincial level to look at how athletes could be supported due to the cancellation of the NSF, now happening for the second year running. We are concerned about the athletes and will come out with a comprehensive plan to benefit them,” he added.
The MoS will allocate the remaining portion of the budgeted amount to develop infrastructure and renovation projects of main provincial sports venues and the amount reserved will be Rs 10million. The NSF was initiated in 1972 when the late K.B. Ratnayake held the portfolio of Minister of Sports, and in its history it has been cancelled once in 1983 due to security reasons. This will be the third occasion the NSF will be cancelled after the event was called off in 2020.