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The new hierarchy of the CH & FC headed by its President Sarath Wickremasinghe and rugby convenor Jayantha Jayawardena has embarked on a new approach to rugby with emphasis to develop young players with disciplines, at a luncheon meeting held at the club house at Maitland Crescent on April 3.
Jayantha Jayawardena, a former Trinity and Upcountry rugby player who was also a National selector and an Army rugby coach was the brains behind the new approach designed to bring dignity to the game of rugby which is on the decline due to the mercenary attitude prevailing in local rugby among clubs and players.
The main design of the new adminstration is to make the game enjoyable to both player and spectator. Jayantha very correctly said that he is prepared to lose all the matches this season if that is what it costs to be disciplined, play good rugby and enjoy playing the game.
This brings back memories of what Eleric Abeyguna-wardene said in 1968 when he was Inspector General of Police, after a Police - CH & FC match where a couple of Police players were involved in a fracas with Mike Davies, a Welsh centre three quarter and Maurice Marrinon, an Australian forward playing for CH at Police Park.
He promptly suspended the Police players saying that he was prepared to lose all the matches if discipline is to be maintained. I wish all the other clubs too adopt such measures to clean up rugby in Sri Lanka.
Some of the starategies revealed at this meeting with the objective of ensuring an enjoyable rugby season this year by Jayantha were.
* Every player will be given an equal chance to represent the club depending mainly on attendance at practices, fitness, discipline and performance. Past records will mean nothing.
* No local player will be paid money to attract him to join the CH & FC, Jayantha said "I have also informed players that if they have been offered money to play for some other club, they may go there''. In a lighter vein he added that those who opt to leave could take even a few more if it was money that matters.
* Since other clubs have brought down foreign players CH too has been forced to do the same. He said here too the club that cannot afford the high cost of foreign players are at a distinct disadvantage.
CH&FC this year will be captained by Bimal Perera and coached by S.W. Chang, who coached Havelocks last year.
They will be fielding three teams this year with the third team coming in as the Colts catering to the leftovers from the 'A' team and the Kabaragoyas. The third team will be their development squad who will play friendlies with outstation teams such as Dimbulla, Dickoya, Schools and the Universities. Jayantha also hoped that the SCRFU will take a cue from the CH&FC and form a development squad which is vitally essential if rugby, at national level is to improve.
CH&FC which was the preserve of the expatriates till the mid-sixties fielded an all foreign rugby side upto that period and had some great rugby players like John Banks, John Burrows, Nick Tait, Peter Sawdy, Neville Leafe, Mike James, Mike Prendaville, Mike Birch, Mike Wilson, Keith Anderson, John Le Jeyt, Graeme McLeash, John Arenhold, St. John Davies, David Cunningham, Shamus Cowley and Dick Harrison to name a few.
After the CH&FC was opened to the locals in the late sixties some of our own who adorned the club in the company of foreigners such as Mike Davies, Maurice Marrinon, Marriot, and McCall were Lorensz Pereira, Carl Fernando, Sam Abrahams, Iftica Cader, Roger Da Silva, M. Fuard, Y.C. Chang, Noel Brohier, Tony Amit, Tyronne Fryer and Saman Jayasinghe.
CH&FC were the first to bring in foreign players from Fiji spearheaded by Apsai Nagata, since the early nineties who made CH&FC kings of local rugby.
This year CH&FC will play two western Samoans in Loyld Schuster a 24-year old who could play as a centre or wing three quarter and Faatonu Toli, who is 25 years old and who could play as a flanker at No. 8.
CH&FC play their first match in the Clifford Cup knock-out tournament today against Air Force who beat the Petersons on Wednesday in the curtain raiser.
Sri Lanka cricket captain, Arjuna Ranatunga has set his sights on leading his team in the defence of the World Cup in England in 1999. He disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Terry Maddaford of the New Zealand Herald on March 3.
The 33 year old Ranatunga is in no hurry to retire, but admits there could be problems for Sri Lanka, if the four senior players, Hashan Tillekaratne, Aravinda de Silva and Roshan Mahanama and himself decided to step down at the same time.
"I am sure we have the nucleus of the Sri Lankan team for a long time and hopefully someone like Aravinda will stay on.
Seven or nine years ago we had some brilliant cricketers but the results were not coming. Now there is a bigger commitment."Interest in cricket has risen since the World Cup. Every kid wants to play and ultimately try to make the national side."
We are looked on as heroes. Those of us who have come through over the years can handle it, but some of the younger players may find it difficult. We waited 15 years to achieve anything. Some of them have come straight into the limelight".
Apart from De Silva, the players all have out-of-cricket employment (often in banks) but Ranatunga admits the rewards are greater now.
" If you play for the national side five or six years, you can earn a lot of money.
Ranatunga expects much from the 18 year old Nuwan Soysa whom he discovered playing school cricket just eight months ago.
"He is the best young cricketer in Sri Lanka. He took 44 wickets in six matches in our first class competition," said Ranatunga. " Some people said he was too young to play but I feel that if someone is as talented as he is, then he should play.
CR & FC and Police booked their berths into the semi-finals with comfortable wins over Old Trinitians and Havelocks respectively, yesterday.
At Nittawella, CR & FC beat Old Trinitians by 32 points (3 goals, 1 try, 2 penalties) to 18 (1 goal, 1 try, 2 penalties).
For the Colombo Club, Champika Nishantha, Lasitha Gunaratne, Asanga Rodrigo and Haren Perera scored a try each while Nishantha goaled two tries and put over two penalties and Paul Bennel put over two penalties.
Manjula Kotuga, Janak Samarasinghe scored a try each for Old Trinitians while M. Farshad goaled one of them and put over two penalties.
At Longden Place, Police beat Havelocks by 25 points (1 goal, 3 tries, 1 penalty) to 7 (1 goal). No-8 Lalith Leelaratne scored three tries for the Police and lock-forward Saravan scored the other try, with Nizam Jamaldeen goaling one and putting over the penalty. Dilano Rodriguesz scored the loser's try which was goaled by Rushdie Faiz.
The all Island Inter Schools under 17 hockey championships conducted by the Sri Lanka Schools Hockey Association will be played at the CR & FC and Royal College grounds on April 26th and 27th.
The Schools that have qualified are:
Colombo - Ananda, Wesley, Nalanda, St. Benedict's.
Kandy - Vidyartha, Dharmaraja, St. Sylvester's, Trinity.
Kurunegala - Maliyadeva Model School.
Wennappuwa - Joseph Vaz.
Galle - Richmond, Mahinda.
Tilini. L. Piyadasa and Ravi Vindyan did Sri Lanka proud by winning the gold medal in the boy's doubles event at the 7th Asian Junior TT Championships in Dhaka.
This is the first time that Sri Lanka had won a gold medal at this championships.
Sri Lanka also won a bronze medal in the girl's doubles - Rifkha Kameel/ Dilini Madawala, mixed doubles - Ravi Vindyan and Punya Nanayakkara and the girl's team event. (AF).
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