Resolutions for National Sports 2025
View(s):No wonder, we know that we have lost our way given the plethora of concerns that the public sees in almost all sports. Honestly, do we need a crystal ball to realise what is intrinsically wrong and surely we have sufficient expertise within our ranks to help resolve many of these issues? What is lacking is that our administrators from the Ministry of Sports (MoS) downwards do not wish to listen to plain common sense (which we are told is so uncommon) and do what is plaintively straight forward; do what is right? This column for long has been like a voice in the wilderness.
Let’s start this discussion with the highest sports authority in the land, the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOCSL). The national newspapers have been replete about the fiasco that has been dragged on like a nauseous carcass through our sports milieu. The NOCSL is directly affiliated to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Those noble people turned a blind eye and let the problem fester favouring the man who helped keep some of their officials in clover. Now, with local NOCSL affiliates demanding that enough is enough, some contortionist moves have been put into play to hold an election when all the accountability, manipulation, corruption and deceit has gone on for long. No wrong to correct, it means.
Since IOC does not tolerate government interventions, and thus the MoS bowing to the sanctity of independence, the NOCSL has concocted a covert operation with a President both helpless and ineffective. The MoS has respectfully kept their distance when it should have engaged the IOC and put an end to the skullduggery. No prizes for guessing that the same team backing the NOCSL Secretary General will be back in business with a show of the finger for good effect.
Fast forward to cricket and the religion that surpasses many faiths in our promised land. Smart stroke play has brought about a smaller enclave of voting clubs by a Special General Meeting, offered as a virtue to those who know little about the machinations of those in power. The Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) President is now the chief of the ACC and there you are, the message is clear to all and sundry.
Please don’t rock the boat. So the sanctimonious commissions that advised otherwise can keep its brief in weathered suitcases while the caravan moves on. Fortune favours the brave it must be said, for the master-blaster having been given his reign, has ignited some homespun logic and revitalised the squads in his charge. Whether it will withstand the big teams in the long term is another debate. But for now, we seem to have injected some respectability into our efforts in the middle.
Take a closer look at rugby and football and you wonder which ball to kick first. Pleasantly, the Club Rugby League is on and for the city-wallahs, the fashion and style of the elite clubs is enough to overlook the deep seated conflicts within the system. The Director General of Sports (DG) seems to love the loose play, because he can then move on the blind side and engage in jaunts to save the game, even in forums that did not welcome him. The rugby schools system is no better, that for all its glamour, just under the surface is the specter of substance abuse and the ‘abduction’ of talent by the big schools to whom money is an old boys unlimited predilection.
Football is a laughable nightmare. The biased trinity has come apart it is obvious given the surfeit of dirty linen laundered in public. The President waxes eloquent and feeds on the largesse of FIFA, which benevolently lends pictures with its President for our tabloids to gloat and flaunt that
Sri Lanka has at long last, improved its miserable ranking. The Secretary General, who is a FIFA sponsored appointee languishes within an Executive Committee that does not recognise his presence and refuses to pay his mind-blowing wage. Meanwhile, all the prestigious national tournaments are on hold as it appears that the funding is not forthcoming, until a FIFA forensic audit is completed.
Netball has its own swirling laments. The lasses missed the Asian crown to Singapore when all expected them to give the Lion state a bit of their own medicine. The battle is basically among its coaches and their alignment to the Presidents who govern this sport. Nothing very calamitous, but once again, merit must supersede masquerades.
Athletics is by far, the enlightened one. Probably because it is an individual sport. Here, what one sees is an unknown lad or lass striding to stardom without any fanfare in the hinterland of our island nation? From there to the world is a short distance and established scholarship programmes, notably from the USA and Japan, give these talented athletes the reward of a dream come true. Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA) must preserve that identity, though it has its share of bad eggs and the tragedy of jealousy that was reported recently.
One can go on in this vein, for all sports are subject to the malignancy of deceit. This determination is a result of the lure of international travel and the unimaginable benefits it brings. Wu-shu and badminton are two good examples. For the ambitious and deserving, international appointments are a definite attraction and that may be justifiable. However, what one sadly witnesses is that these sojourns become permanent features and prevents others from those coveted opportunities. Go one step further, and it translates into big business, as it has been evident in the mega sports arenas, such as cricket and football.
It is not easy to grapple with these distractions because most sports are now profit making commercial operations. Nothing is for free. To be effective, the MoS and the Ministry of Education (MoE) must join hands. It must at some point in time, introduce a web portal which can seamlessly monitor the progress of each sport, something we have agitated for a long time. More than all, the MoS needs to be restructured to focus on a graded sports hierarchy, where its investments can be deployed effectively and not merely attempt to embrace fairy tales that try to pass off as international sports. If these are resolutions, so be it. The MoS must act now.