Furore over seedings and draw

By Channaka de Silva

A furore over seedings and the draw overshadowed the competition on the second day of the Junior National Badminton championships at S. Thomas' college gymnasium yesterday.

Some players who were not in the original draw had been included at the eleventh hour, to which some parents objected.

One parent had reportedly sought legal assistance and claimed damages from the organisers for changing the seedings just before tournament started, a reliable source told The Sunday Times.

K.D.H. Ranaweera said some of those players had not played qualifying tournaments but they were included on their performance at last year's championships.

But their names had not been included in the original draw due to an oversight.

One of the best known coaches of the country said that this was the first time that the draw of the Junior Nationals was changed after it was originally made. He further commented that the whole problem cropped up due to the unprofessional handling of the draw by the authorities. This time the Junior Nationals are jointly conducted by the Schools Badminton Association and the Sri Lanka Badminton Association.

Although there were administrative upsets, there were no upsets in the arena.

RESULTS :

Under 19 Girls Singles (Quarter Finals):

Pameesha Dishanthi (Dharmasoka) beat Anushani Welikala (Sacred Heart) 11-1, 11-1

Shashikala Perera (Sirimavo) by walk over

Kanchana Geeganage (Sirimavo) by walk over

Under 19 Girls Doubles (Semi Finals):

Kanchana Geeganage (Sirimavo) and Pameesha Dishanthi (Dharmasoka) by walk over

Umanga Ratnayake (Musaeus) and Anushani Welikala (Sacred Heart) beat Ishara Cooray and Nirosha Peiris (OLV) 15-0, 15-0.

Sports in brief

Park SC dethrone CH

A victory which is sure to boost outstation hockey, Park SC, Matale dethroned defending champions CH and FC by two goals to one in the 43rd Moore Sheiled final at the Astro Turf Reid Avenue yesterday. At half time scores were deadlocked at nil all.

The stage was set for an exciting final between CH and Park SC after which the two team beat the Army and Air Force respectively inthe semi finals.

CH beat Army 4-2 and Park SC in a match which went to extra time beat Air Force 2-1.

All that was needed by Park SC Matale to clinch the oldest tournament in Sri Lankan hockey, was two goals within two minutes in a strategy that was more defensive than offensive. The two goals were scored by left extreme D.R. Dissanayake in the 52nd and 54th minutes.

CH should have won the final on a platter but Park SC's goal keeper Chaminda Batugoda had other ideas as he saved everything which came his way including a penalty, which was taken by CH's Duncan Devendra. However CH found a consolation goal four minutes before the long whistle when Asoka Pieris sounded the board.

Umpires - Gamini Jayasinghe and Ravi Irugalbandara.

Eight cricket clubs to play a qualifying tourney

The executive committee of the Cricket Board which met on Friday were unanimous in deciding that eight clubs vying for the final four places of the Premier Division league tournament should play a qualifying tournament in order to secure their places in the final 12 which would play next year's tournament.

Cricket Board tournament committee chairman Carlton Bernadus said The Sunday Times yesterday that his committee decided to conduct a qualifying tournament after taking into consideration the facts presented by all parties concerned at a special meeting which was held on Thursday.

Now, Division I Segment B champions Galle CC, Kurunegala YCC, Panadura, Sebastianites, Old Antonians, Sinha, Matara and Police SC will play this qualifying league tournament and the top four will play the Premier Division tournament next year alongsides SSC, Bloomfield, NCC, CCC, BRC, Moors, Colts and Tamil Union. These eight Colombo teams automatically qualified by the virtue of having finished on top of the two groups of last year's tournament.

This qualifying tournament will begin in December and is scheduled to be completed before the second week of January.

The tournament committee had earlier suggested to add Galle CC (on the strength of their Segment B victory which usually warrants a Segment A place the following year) and Kurunegala YCC (being an outstation club as all eight top teams were from Colombo) into the Premier Division and ask the rest of the six clubs to play a qualifying tournament.

But after the vociferous protests by the concerned clubs at Thursday's meeting, the Tournament committee finally decided to recommend the qualifying tournament to all eight teams. Bernadus also revealed that the Board has already found a sponsor for next year's Premier Division tournament. Last year the tournament was conducted without a sponsor.

Nalaka, was not dropped

Sri Lanka's outstanding fullback, Nalaka Weerakody, returned home after a successful rugby tour Down Under. He has written a letter to the national selectors of his non-availability for the forthcoming Asiad to be held in Singapore, prior to team selection.

Weerakody, told The Sunday Times, in some quarters it was mentioned that he has been dropped for the coming Asiad.

But it was not so. I brought to the notice of the selectors, that I had to skip this tour, due to personal commitments.

(B.W.)

Big thrillers in mini-rugby

In an under 13 mini-rugby tournament that can spot future Sri Lankan ruggerites, Wesley vs Isipatana will be the pick of the quarter finals after preliminary rounds were worked off at Reid Avenue yesterday.

Two other quarter final matches — Thurstan A vs St. Aloysius A and St. Joseph's A vs Dharmaraja 'A' — could turn out to be exciting. An encouraging sign that was emanating from the tournament was that a number of outstation schools have qualified for the quarter finals. Notable among them were Bandaranaike MV, Embilipitiya MV, Ehaliyagoda MV and Sri Rahula qualifying for the quarters.

The quarter final line-ups - Cup - Royal vs S. Thomas Prep, Wesley vs Isipatana, S. Thomas' 'A' vs St. Sylvester's and Trinity 'A' vs St. Anthony's 'A'

Plate - Thurstan 'A' vs St. Aloysius' 'A', Bandarawathi 'A' vs St. Peter's 'A', Ambilipitiya MV 'A' vs Lumbini 'A' and Eheliyagoda 'A' vs Kingswood 'A'

Bowl - Vidyartha vs Kingswood 'B', Sri Rahula 'A' Vs Zahira 'A', St. Joseph's 'A' vs Dharmaraja 'A' and St. John's Nugegoda vs Sri Sumangala, Kandy A

POW scrape through

By S. M.D. Sirisena

It was an exciting inter-school cricket match at Moratuwa yesterday as Prince of Wales helped by a match haul of 10 for 96 by Janaka Gunaratne pulled off a five-wicket win over Dharmapala in the final over.

Prince of Wales batting first piled up a commanding 271 for 3 in the frst innings. Dharmapala in reply were 50 for 1 overnight but they were bowled out for 117 in the face of a devastating spell by Janaka who accounted for six Dharmapala scalps while conceding just 30 runs. H. Fernando took 3 for 25. S. Thushara 24, S. Dinesh 28 made useful contributions for the visiting team.

This left Prince of Wales with a challenging victory target of 49 runs in mere six overs. Five wickets tumbled before Prince of Wales managed to scrape through in the final over.

Prince of Wales - 271 for 3 declared and 49 for 5

Dharmapala - (50 for 1 overnight) 177 all out( S. Thushara 24, S. Dinesh 28; Janaka Gunaratne 6 for 30, H. Fernando 3 for 25)

and 202 all out (Ishara Indulla 70, S.Thushara 41, S.Jayasinghe 16, I. Seneviratne 29; Janaka Gunaratne 4 for 66, S.Weerawansa 2 for 12, H.Fernando 2 for 53)

Four Sri Lankans to officiate

Four Sri Lankans will officiate in the 9th Asian Cup Winners Cup 1998-99 second round - first and second legs in Maldives on October 22 and 24.

The match will be between Happy Valley SC, Hong Kong and New Radiant SC, Maldives.

The four Sri Lankans picked by the Asian Football Confederation, are Sunil Senaweera, Referee, Sunil Jayaweera and S.P. Tudor, Linesman with A.G.C. Desapriya as stand-by.

Royal/Thomian Regatta

S. Thomas' will go out favourites in the overall trophy at the 27th annual Royal/Thomian regatta sponsored by GSM Dialog on Saturday October 24 at the Colombo Rowing Club with the races being flagged off at 2.30 p.m.

s. thomas' and Royal are 12 each with a tie in 1994 battling it out for the T.N. Fernando trophy.

S. Thomas' have won 15 while Royal have won 14 of the Boat Races conducted so far.

At the last Reggata S. Thomas' beat Royal by 28 points.

This year S. Thomas' will be led by Shamitha Ganegoda while Royal will be captained by Shehan tennekoon.

The events to be held on this day will be the A & B four, A & B pairs, A & B sculls with the old boys race adding pride of place.

Mevan's leadership helps Maris Stella

Mevan Fernando, skipper of the Maris Stella College under-17 team with his astute leadership helped his school to enter the finals of the Gampaha District Cricket Association tournament defeating St Anthony's Wattala.

Besides Mevan, Ashan Dias the upcoming all-rounder, Achala Jayalath, Buddhika Fernando, Malik Jayawardena and Damian Fernando were the others who played a leading role behind the success.

In the current season for the All Island Singer Trophy under 17 tournament, Mevan Fernando led Maris Stella to the final round and were deprived of playing in the semi final as St Servatiu's Matara failed to turn up.

Mevan proved his capabilities as an all-rounder when he scored 312 runs in the seven listed matches.

He led his side to victory against Thurstan with a fine 89 and was unfortunate to miss a century when he was run out.

Against St. Benedict's he top scored again with a brilliant 75 and followed it up with a fine spell of left arm bowling by capturing 4 for 26 and scored a hard hit 64 not out against Prince of Wales.

Mevan also had a very successful season last year scoring 525 runs in only nine matches with an average of 105.

He scored a brilliant unbeaten 122 against Dharmarajah and followed it up with an unbeaten 100 against Rahula Matara.

In the same tournament he scored 70 not out against St. Benedicts, 67 vs St Joseph's and 55 not out against Prince of Wales.

With his leg spinners Mevan captured 4 wickets each against Holy Cross Kalutara and Moratu MV.

Mevan started playing club cricket for Negombo CC at the age of 14 and scored a classic 95 against Lankan CC.

Indian side to play here

India's ruggerites, enroute to Singapore for the Asian championship, will arrive in Sri Lanka for a preparatory match against a team from the Kurunegala Rugby Football Club on Sunday at Police Park in Colombo.

The match has been arranged by Neil Wijeratne, the recorder of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union who is the co-ordinator of Indian rugby.

According to Wijeratne, the Indian ruggerites will be put through a two-day training camp under S.W. Chang who is also a respected figure in the Indian rugby set-up.

India is taking part in the Asian championship for the first time since the event began in 1962.(CD)

Rover pinpoints...

Threat?

A relative of a leading cricketer, with political clout, was heard telling a journalist in angry tones," to inform so-and-so, a TV presenter, to be careful as to what he says." The incident took place at the Bandaranaike International Airport recently.

Publicity hunter?

A stop-gap cricket administrator was heard muttering that the sales of newspapers could be increased if they stop criticising cricketers and write good about them.

A good point! He knows the papers where he is featured. It looks as if discipline has gone to the dogs when he said that he has nothing to do with the Police Force!

No for hockey!

The publicity hunter has taken a new turn by going all out to stop his firm from sponsoring a hockey tournament conducted by a leading school.

He has asked his firm what purposes it would serve by sponsoring hockey. Why not cricket tournaments he had asked!

No lady chaperone

A popular indoor sport which saw Sri Lanka as a certain medal prospect before the event, but nowhere near it at all championships abroad, goes with no lady chaperone.

Is the Sports Ministry laws adhered too? Over to you Mr Minister.

Double standards?

Some players of the rugger team that toured abroad brought some items for their dear ones and for personal use, but alas! they were suprised at the duty charged!

When one questioned why so much duty?

Bang came the reply; I will charge you more for questioning me.

Earlier too there were reports that certain athletes met the same fate. One wonders why cricketers are given special treatment.

Debarred from cheering

Parents of a leading cricket playing school in Colombo have been debarred from voicing their opinion and cheering their sons by the school authorities.

The parents have some consolation of at least witnessing the matches that their sons are playing but with a no sound tag.

Murali vs Hair

Rover learns from unofficial reports that Australian umpire Darrel Hair will be officiating at Sri Lanka's first One-Dayer in the Carlton United limited over series in Australia.

Umpire Hair who called Muralitharan for 'throwing' during the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne has told a powerful personality in the game that Muralitharan will not bowl more than three balls in Australia this summer.

So it looks like another pre-determined Hair- raising episode is in the offing.

Leader walks out

A lengthy discussion was on the cards regarding the on going battle between the rugby refs and officials, but everything was silenced when the head walked out with another ref, asking the Secretary why he should not do the same.

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