| HOME PAGE | EDITORIAL/OPINION | NEWS / COMMENT | BUSINESS | PLUS
Sri Lanka's sprint queen Susanthika Jayasinghe and seven other athletes are to be suspended on charges of intoxication and damaging property belonging to the School of Sports.
The Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Mr. S.B.Dissanayake is of the opinion that a five year ban be imposed on these athletes on disciplinary grounds.
"I have left everything to a Committee appointed by the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), which includes Sports Ministry representative Mr. Abeysinghe, N.A.T. Jayasinghe and Tory Jayawardena to decide on the suspension period", said Sports Minister Mr. Dissanayake.
Seven of the eight athletes are currently in the national pool who are undergoing training for the forthcoming SAF Games to be held in Kathmandu, Nepal in September.
The athletes who are facing the suspension are: Susanthika Jayasinghe. Dulani Rajapakse Gunasekera, Sudath Ravindra Weerasinghe, W.S.L.P. Wickremarachchi, Chamala Priyankara, Chandimal Niroshan, R.T.C.Pushpakumara, R.A.M.C.Ramanayake and Rohan Jayaratne.
The Sunday Times also learns that the AAA has failed to send entries in time for three foreign meets which has deprived top Sri Lankan athletes from participating at these meets.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Times tried to contact Susanthika Jayasinghe to get her version of the incident, but she was not available.
However her coach Dervin Perera speaking on her behalf, said that Susanthika admitted drinking beer at a party arranged by some athletes to celebrate Sinhala New Year.
She and the other female athlete drank beer while the boys drank brandy, and she started vomitting. Dervin Perera said,
No damage was done to any furniture or property of the Sports Ministry Hostel as stated in the newspapers but only two glasses used for drinking were broken, Perera added.
Susanthika will face an inquiry today at the Sports Ministry premises her coach, Perera said.
The commentators at the Sri Lanka-Pakistan Test series were under severe pressure as a cricket official, who was not too happy with the comments they had made, had insisted that they be removed.It is understood that this official, who has connections at the highest level, had even tried to use his influence to get the commentators removed.
However, a senior commentator had spoken to the Cricket Board President and had told him that the commentators should be free to voice their comments as long as they were fair and constructive.
During the two Tests the commentators concerned had been receiving threatning telephone calls as well.
Meanwhile two journalists have been threatened by an up-and -coming cricketer, who is following a training stint at a leading institute in the sub-continent. One journalist received a threatning telephone call while the other has been threatened with assault.
It is up to the Cricket Board to hold an inquiry as to why this cricketer is so agitated.
Both CR & FC and S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia will benefit by a Fijian rugby coach who has been signed on for the first time during their ongoing rugby season.
Senevalati Lau Lau (44) weighing 96 kilos, 6 feet tall, has a fine playing and coaching record.
Lau played for the Nadi Colts in 1977/1978, Nadi seniors in 1979/90, Fiji seven-a-side in Hong Kong in 1980 to 86, National team in 1980 to 1987, World XV in 1981 to 83, New Zealand Barbarians (Australian tour) in 1985, in New Zealand in 1985, in Australia in 1986, and the All Blacks reserve in Hong Kong in 1982, 83 and 1985.
Lau's coaching record is as follows: coached, Nawaka District School, Nadi College High School, Nawaka Rugby Club, Vatukarasa Rugby Club, Sabeto Rugby Club, Nadroga Province, Nadi Province and Fiji National tens team.
During his coaching career Lau, helped the Nadi team to emerge champions in Fiji in both the sevens and the 15-a-side. (AF).
A team of three will represent Sri Lanka at the N.T.T. World Junior Tennis, 1997 - I.T.F. Team Championships
1. N. S. Paramanathan,
2. R. Munasinghe,
3. D. Ranaweera,
Manager/Coach: Aruna Seneviratne, D. M. D. Abeygunawardene.
Kandy SC turned in a rib-bruising performance to down CR&FC 18-6 in heavy rain in the Clifford Cup rugby final for the Carlsberg Trophy at Nittawela yesterday.
Kandy's points came off a goal, a try and 2 penalties while CR's points were made up of 2 penalties.
The game was hotly contested and Kandy scored in the 12th minute when Nalaka Weerakody fired across a penalty. CR levelled the scores with a penalty by Rohan Chintaka in the 14th minute. From then onwards the rains came down in buckets and the game turned into a mud-larker's battle.
The muddy conditions slowed down the game and the ball was slippery to handle but Manasa Qoro put Kandy further ahead with a beautiful try and Weerakody added the extra points.
CR reduced the lead with a Rohan Chintaka penalty in the 30th minute while Kandy added another three points through a penalty converted by Weerakody in the 37th minute.
Half time was taken with Kandy leading 13-6. After the turn around, CR missed an under the post penalty in the 22nd minute. Weerakody also fluffed with another under the post penalty in the 35th minute.
Imthie Marikar put the icing on the Kandy cake with a try in the 40th minute and with the rain pelting down Weerakody missed the conversion.
Roshan Deen refereed.
The recall of Dulip Liyanage to the squad that is to tour of the West Indies and the four nation limited overs tournament in India from May 9 is most welcome, but the inclusion of Sanjeewa Ranatung instead of Naveed Nawaz is a question left to be answered by the selectors.
What is the yardstick that is used in selecting Sanjeewa Ranatunge, the brother of Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga is the question that needs to be answered, say some analysts.
The four nation limited overs tournament organised by India to celebrate the golden jubilee of their Independence will be a battle between hosts India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
The Sunday Times learns unofficially that the Sri Lanka team picked by the selectors for this tournament is: Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda de Silva, Sanath Jayasuriya, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Roshan Mahanama, Hashan Tillekaratne, Marvan Atapattu, Ruwan Kalpage, Chaminda Vaaz, Sajeewa de Silva, Kumara Dharmasena, Muttiah Muralidaran, Dulip Liyanage, Upul Chandana.
The team to tour the West Indies is: Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda de Silva, Sanath Jayasuriya, Russel Arnold, Roshan Mahanama, Marvan Atapattu, Hashan Tillekaratne, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Chaminda Vaaz, Sajeeva de Silva, Muttiah Muralidaran, Sanjeewa Ranatunga, Kumara Dharmasena, Dulip Liyanage and Nuwan Soysa.
Swarnamali BMV entered the semi-finals in the age groups of Under 15, 17 and 19 in the Central Province Inter-School Netball Championships conducted by the Central Province Education Department and sponsored by Eva. The are beng played at the Police Grounds, Kandy.
The semi-finals are fixed for 9 am today followed bythe final at 10.30 am. Mr. Senaratne Kapukotuwa, Managing Director of ICLMarketing will be the chief guest.
Following are the results of the matches played yesterday:
Under 15 - Pushpadana BMV beat Sangamitta BMV Matale; Girls High School beat Horamadulla MMV; Mahawatte MV beat Christian College Matale and Swarnamali BMV beat Sujatha BMV Matale.
Under 17 - St. Anthony's Convnt beat Science College Matale; Pushpadana BMV beat Good Shepherd Convent Nuwara Eliya;Mahawatte MV beat Christ Church Matale and Swarnamali BMV beat Sangamitta BMV.
Under 19 - Girls High School beat Sujatha BMV Matale; St. Anthony's Convent beat Udispathuwa BMV; Sangamitta BMV Matale beat Mahawatte MV and Swarnamali BMV beat Pundaluoya MV.
Wesley pulled off their second win in the Inter-Schools Milo League rugby football tournament when they beat Lumbini MV by 16 points to nil at the CR&FC Grounds yesterday. Wesley's points came off a goal and three penalties.
Roslang Alang scored the try for Wesley which was goaled by Asanka Gammampilla who also put over three penalties. The winners led 13-nil at half time.
Pakistani journalists who were in Colombo for the recent Pakistan-Sri Lanka Test series have complained that facilities for the media at the Test matches fell far short of international standards and Sri Lanka would get badly hammered abroad if some upgrading was not done soon.
One visiting journalist who has covered Test and limited over matches in several parts of the world said that on the first day of the Test at the SSC he did not have even a chair to sit in the so-called press box which was a disgrace to a Test playing country. The journalist who did not wish to be identified said the main cricket stadium in Karachi had as many as 12 international telephone lines, an equal number of domestic lines, computers, fax machines and all sorts of refreshments for world media men. It was like a media centre.
In contrast the press box for the Test matches here did not provide even proper local telephone facilities. Though one or two telephones were available they were mere showpieces with few if any calls going out or coming through. When The Sunday Times tried to contact a journalist at the SSC press box several times, the phone was answered probably by a ground boy who a journalist said, "did not know what the hell was happening."
The Pakistani journalist said some Cricket Board officials here seem to be arrogant and indifferent towards the journalists who themselves appeared to be just taking things lying down without insisting that media facilities be raised to world standards especially since Sri Lanka now enjoys the status of being world champions. In Pakistan also conditions had been equally bad at one time but the media there had demanded and got better facilities from the Cricket Board.
Please send your comments and suggestions on this web site to
info@suntimes.is.lk or to
webmaster@infolabs.is.lk