Substandard quality and breach of rules mar Schools Zonal tourney
The recently concluded Zonal level badminton tournament, to select players for the Sri Lankan National Badminton Championships, had been a tournament marred by multiple problems, the Sunday Times learns.
In one such problem, despite a documented directive from the Ministry of Education prohibiting any charge levied from the participating students, the Sri Lanka Schools Badminton Association (SLSBA), the organisers, have breached that rule and regulation by charging Rs.750 for Singles and Rs.1000 from Doubles matches, including Rs.250 as registration fees.
Sources said some schools might have pumped in amounts as big as Rs.100,000, when none of these participants were even supposed to pay. Mallika Waduge, Secretary of the SLSBA, while saying there were no sponsorships, also said they were compelled to levy these charges as they were bearing big expenses.
“We didn’t get sponsorship or any grants from SLBF (Sri Lanka Badminton Federation). SLBF will come into context only for national tournaments organised by them.”
“We had to pocket out our own money and we had to charge from the schools. The materials and hosting charges have jacked up over the years. Hence, we were forced to charge from the schools,” she said.
SLBF also confirmed they had not provided any sponsorship, at the same time the Education Ministry too clearly laid out they strictly cannot levy any charge from the participants. Along with that, in an unfathomable organising, players themselves have officiated as line judges, main referees and handling the scoring.
Additional problems have only piled up when a grossly erred point system has been utilised and match points going up to even 31 and 32. The universal points awarding system applied to all local and global games is that, the first to reach 21 points will be adjudged as winner. However, if the game becomes 20-all, the game is extended until a two-point gap separates the winner.
In case the games progress up until 29-all, the first to reach 30 would be the ultimate winner. However, in the competition that was held, all rules and regulations were broken and played to the organisers’ whims and fancies. When protests were raised and complaints were lodged, officials, again, unfathomably, have told this is how the ‘game works here’.
In another issue, age groups Under-17 and Under-19 were supposed to play using feather shuttles meant for their age groups. However, standards have been dropped in all age groups going down to the levels playing out through plastic shuttles.
Waduge refused to elaborate and reason out their stance for the above accusations. The National Badminton Championships is slated to take place between January 16 and 23 at the Sugathadasa Indoor Complex. The zonal level, having functioned as a selection platform for the Juniors of the Nationals, was worked off from mid-November to latter part of December across the island.