The catwalk and rugby

By Udena. R.Attygalle

Duminda De Silva is Mr Sri Lanka 99 in modelling. So why a sports interview with a guy off the catwalk? But then, Duminda does most of his walking on the rugger field or the hard tartan of the basketball court.

The CR & FC flanker and the Colombo Basketball Club cager had represented the country in both sports. A rare achievement.

This athlete who now consentrates more on rugger conceded, "I like basketball better but rugby has a better future so I decided to focus more on it".

Born in Ratnapura he started off as a track & field athlete, but then like everybody else at Trinity College, took up rugger.

A tall build assured him success in basketball. A sport he admits: "I took up because of my friends". The high point of his career as a cager came with him captaining the under 19 youth team to Japan and China.

Dumimda recalled, "at one time being 1st XV rugger player was the one and only thing in life for me, it was only later that I understood the importance of studying".

Duminda almost made it to the Law Faculty, but was unfortunately deprived of entrance when he did not receive the additional 25 marks for international representation. Duminda now 26, is attached to the Seylan Bank in Colombo.

Success flowed easily for this natural athlete, and this prompted him keep at sports even after leaving school, a time when many talented sportsmen fade away.

Duminda played for Kandy SC from '93 to '96, during which time he first represented the country in rugger at the '94 rugby 7's in Taiwan. He later moved to Colombo and to his present club.

At 6 feet 2 and 90 kilos he complains, "I feel small when playing against international players". He believes that Sri Lankans don't have the genes to make them big and strong.

Weights training he added "can build up the muscles but even then we lack the inherent power of the foreign players". According to him the skill level of the Sri Lankan players are high but when it comes to stopping guys like Lomu from scoring, its a wash off.

The same thing happens in basketball he explained. "Even a 5'2 American can dunk but a 6 foot Sri Lankan doesn't have the leg power to do it". But then Duminda believes in going out there and doing his best, no superstitions involved.

So how did he get involved in modelling? Apparently the previous year's winner had walked into the gym while Duminda was working out, and spotting good talent had put the idea through. It took Duminda, the sportsman a long time to decide on it: but he finally made up his mind to give Duminda the model a try. "I took it up because it gave me a chance to get properly groomed and I can meet new people", he explained. Training was done late at night after rugger practices.

"It felt funny when they asked me to walk in a straight line and I couldn't do it," he talked about those first few steps in modelling.

So what does the future hold for Duminda? A try at entering law college seems to be the next step in his game plan. But then that would mean working even harder for this guy who "hasn't had a weekend off in four years".

What would you do differently if you had a second try at life I asked? "Concentrate more on studies" came the unexpected yet inevitable answer.

Batting debacle at Asgiriya

A Test match that concludes in eight sessions will not be considered as a memorable one. lt was a game that produced many unusual scenes.

In the very first session the game took an unexpected twist. lt must record as the first instance that Sri Lanka picked up six scalps in the initial two hours of a game of Test cricket. The pacemen sprang a surprise on the Aussies who were taken off guard. Chaminda Vaas was on song after recently rubbing shoulders with the great D.K.Lillee in lndia. He bowled the entire game with good rhythm. His run up was of controlled pace, balanced at delivery, enabling a good follow through. All this resulted in accurate bowling and movement off the pitch. Something that Vaas was struggling with during the one day series.

The Australians were slow on their feet, were drawn into poor shot selection and were soon in trouble. The delivery that Justin Langer received off Vaas was probably the best of the match. It pitched short of a good length on off stump and moved away a couple of inches, at good pace, to get the outside edge. A perfect outswinger. Having lost six wickets in that session was a big blow and the visitors were not able to recover from that situation.

Nuwan Soysa also bowled well in spells during the game. The dearth of strike bowlers has been this country's biggest cricketing problem. Muthiah Muralitharan has been there for quite a while now but without adequate support. With Vaas in form and Soysa backing up it was all so different.

The batting display of both teams was disappointing to say the least. The innings played by tailender Jason Gillespe was a classic example of how to bat in a Test match. He was forced to do if with his team in deep trouble. He gave his partner Ricky Ponting admirable support and they slowly but stedily kept the scorers busy himself.

Alas, for both Gillespe and his captain Steve Waugh, their collision was one of the most horrific accidents that I have witnessed on a cricket field. It did throw the team off balance. Just when they seemed to be clawing their way back into the game they were reduced to nine full time participants.

Sri Lanka did not capitalize on that or on dismissing the Aussies their opponents for a low score. A majority of the batsmen played with undue hurry. Not willing to wait for runs. Too many risks were taken on a pitch that did offer assistance to the bowlers right through the game. "Test" cricket means just that - conquering all obstacles.

lf the pitch did give Chaminda Vaas some assistance in the first dig, it was absolutely dry the second time round. He was still capable of producing three wicket taking deliveries and that threw the Australians out of the contest.

Muthiah Muralitharan was reliable as ever. Once again he tormented the batsmen. ln the second innings he extracted a lot of spin off the pitch, flighting teasingly and at times making the ball to hurry through. He is now at the peak of his off spinning powers and is certain to be the biggest " thorn " for the Aussies in the remaining two tests.

Australia's spin ace Shane Warne was successful in claiming a five wicket bag. He needed that to regain confidence after being left out of the side in the final Carribean Test. He has lost some of that vicious spin and did not bowl the flipper. He sometimes strayed in line and length. Warne must be looking to the next two games to take it further forwards from Asgiriya.

The two outstanding players of the game were Ricky Ponting and Aravinda de Silva the joint "men of the match". They demonstrated the art of batting in a Test match. Ponting and de Silva played the bowling on its merits and played each delivery off the pitch. That is so very important on a pitch that offers assistance to the bowlers. To "graft" for runs is the catch word in playing the long innings and that exactly was the basis on which Ricky Ponting and Aravinda de Silva built their innings.

Should one more batsman from each team have played with the same commitment then the game would have well gone onto the fifth day. That is now water under the bridge. The batsmen on both sides seemed rusty in playing a long innings. Now the players have had time to go back to the drawing board and come geared up for the next two Test matches, where solid Test match batting could be exepected.

The memorable rugby sevens

By Aubrey Kuruppu

It was rugby with a foreign flavour, albeit an Asian one, when the Singer Sri Lanka Rugby Sevens were worked off at the Bogambara Stadium last weekend.

The most pleasing aspect was the clock-work precision with which the matches were played. An event of this magnitude must have many people working closely and in harmony in this respect, the committee of the Kandy Sports Club can pat themselves on the back for having done a difficult job well.

Good rugby needs good surfaces; and the playing area at Bogambara came in for special praise from some of the visiting teams. The lush green well-grassed playing field was a feather in the cap of Alex Lazarus, no stranger to the preparation of playing surfaces. And so to the actual rugby, the anticipated climactic clash between the Asian giants, Japan and Korea, never materialized due to the fact that interlopers, Chinese Taipei, pulled the rug from under the feet of the Japanese. The latter fielded a team of relative youngsters and it is fair to say that this put paid to their chances.

The Koreans, the only unbeaten team in the tournament; thrashed their opponents from Chinese Taipei 38-7 in a rather one sided final. The power and the pace of the Koreans inspired awe. They even succeeded in scoring tries from a position of defence - defending their goal-line one moment and touching down the next.

Chinese Taipei deserved their spot in the final for sheer consistency of effort. Their match against Sri Lanka was a good example of their fighting approach. Down 0 -12 after two superb ties from that gifted runner Sanjeeva Jayasinghe, Chinese Taipei struck back with a vengeance to overcome the home team 28-12. From a Sri Lankan point of view, this sad tale was repeated in the final of the International plate event. Sri Lanka led the Malaysians 26-12 with around five minutes to go. Yet their opponents struck back to score thrice in the next few minutes and clinched the trophy 27-26. Did the Sri Lankans run out of steam? Had they shot their bolt too early? Events show that this could have been the case. It is true that Sri Lanka were not at full strength. However, losing from a position of strength not once but twice points to an inherent weakness in the mental make-up of the players. A postscript on the Sri Lankan performance begs the question whether we should have different coaches for the 15-a-side and 7-a-side teams. Something for our think tank to chew on! China showed that they were catching up fast losing in the semi-final to the eventual plate winners, Malaysia, by a single point. For the Indians, it was a tremendous feat to win the Bowl by defeating Thailand. However some of the gloss was taken off that win by the fact that two Kandy players did duty for them, first as two "Kandyans" turned out for the Thais.

The kings of local schools' rugby, Isipathana recovered some ground they had lost recently by winning the schools Cup. On the way they had to get past Thurstan, Kingswood and Vidyartha, three very good teams indeed. Vidyartha performed at their best to hold Isipathana to a draw at full time, but were undone in the first minute of extra time. Isipathana burly number eight was most prominent in their victories. Hamesh Gunaratne, the winger who is in the senior Sri Lanka Pool had the mortification of seeing the ball pop out of his grasp when he dived over the try line early in the final. The fact that there was no pressure on him compounded the error.

Vidyartha was a little unfortunate not to have pulled off the big prize. They have a couple of extremely fleet-footed runners whose side-stepping was a delight. Kingswood was the other team to make an impression, consigning the Royalists to bitter defeat in the schools plate final. One of their players, big-made Chaman Vithanage was adjudged the player of the tournament.

The one thing that stuck out like a sore thumb in an otherwise superbly organized tournament was the absence of the crowds. The crowd on both days was embarrassingly small and this, notwithstanding the fact that the gates were thrown open on the second day.

Now for the glad tidings of great joy. The principal sponsor of this event has promised to keep the funds pouring in. Singer Sri Lanka should certainly be commended on both decisions - initially join the "scrum" and next, the promise to keep it going.

1967 : Golden Year of Police Rugby

The year 1967 was the golden year of Police Rugby. It was during this year that Police which was only a " B" division team created history by becoming the only unbeaten side in the entire league tournament having played both the 'A' division and 'B' division teams. In all they played 16 matches and won 14 matches and drew 2 matches under my captaincy.

This brilliant performance by the police team qualified them to play in the Clifford Cup knock-out tournament.

This year the Police was fortunate to have the services of Summa Navaratnam, the former Royal College, CR&FC and Ceylon skipper as their coach. Rudra Rajasingham, another rugby great from Trinity College and CR&FC who took over the Colombo Division Police as Senior Supdt. was in charge of Police rugger and was the driving force behind the Police team's success. Aleric Abeyagoonawardane who was the Inspector General of Police and a great sportsman from St. Thomas College, Mt. Lavinia too gave all the encouragement to the Police team in its quest for rugby supremacy.

In the quarter-finals of the Clifford Cup, the Police was pitted against the Planters from Dickoya captained by David Bretherton, who had in his team Chris Bean, a very hard tackling franker and John Boosefield and these three were known as the famous B's of Ceylon rugby, This team also had several local planters who had played brilliant school rugby as those days the best rugby players from leading schools were recruited as creepers and then planters to the tea plantations.

The Police team captained by me had only two other schoolboy rugby players in M.A. Majeed, a hard running center three-quarter and prop forward T.M. I. Hamid both from Zahira College Colombo. Others in the team were players who had learnt their rugby only after joining the Police such as full back Bagoos Sourjah, wingers Bandula Wijesinghe and T.S. Peiris, centre S.L. Samaraweera, fly half Budhadasa, scrum half T. Samath, Lock K. Banda, and Flankers G. Tnirumani and K. Ratnasingham. The Police side was further strengthened by the inclusion of No. 8 Anton Benedict of St. Joseph's College, lock Anton Shedaon from the Air Force and prop forward E.K.R. Wijewardane of Thurstan College, who were " Rookies" under training as Sub Inspectors of Police. The quarter - finals has played in a neutral grounds which was the Peradeniya University grounds and everyone fancied the powerful planters from Dickoya who had earlier won the Clifford Cup to beat the Police and there was a mammoth crowd present at the Campus grounds to witness this encounter. The Police team which was housed at the Asgiriya Policy barracks arrived at the Campus grounds as underdogs to face their baptism of fire a against the experienced planters from Dickoya.

From the word "Go" Dikoya dominated play and confined play to the Police territory for the first fifteen minutes and the Police defended with determination, Then off a line-out mid-field the tall and tough Dickoya forwards tapped the ball towards their side and the ball went looses. I as hooker who as standing No. 1 in the line-out broke through and booted the loose ball towards the Dickoya goal area and when the ball went over the goal line the Police prop for ward E.K.R. Wijeyawardane who backing beautifully in support fell over the ball to score a memorable try for the Police, to the cheers of the Police supporters. Bagoos Sourjah the reliable Police full back made a brilliant conversion from the touch line to take Police to a 5-nil lead.

After twenty-five minutes of play, the Dickoya winger Arumugam got possession of the ball and was speeding towards the Police goal line. But M.A. Majeed the hard running Police Centre brought him with a thundering tackle and Arumugam was rushed to the hospital with a broken knee and thereafter Dickoya played with fourteen players as then there was no substitution allowed. Police clung onto the 5-nil lead till the breather.

During the second session of play the burly planters played some splendid rugby and made the inexperienced policemen to make mistakes and earned several penalties. But they failed to convert these with Chris Bean and John Boosefield being the biggest offenders.

The Police withstood all these onslaughts and continued to play sensibly and was awarded a penalty which Bagoos Sourjah put over with ease to stretch the Police lead to 8-nil with time ticking away.

During the dying stages of the game David Bretherton, the Dickoya burly forward barged his way to score a try and this time John Boosefield made no mistake with the conversion for the match to end 8-5 in favour of the Police and this historic win took the cops to the semifinals against the reigning champions CR&FC which was played the following week.

Ashey Cader refereed this quarter-finals encounter which saw the Police begin its ascendency in local rugby.

It's human to err but...

By Bernie Wijesekara

The talking point in cricketing circles now-a-days is about umpiring in the first Test match between Sri Lanka and Australia at the Asgiriya Stadium.

Apparently some of the decisions given by the gentlemen in the white coat were found wanting not in the Test match, but also in the triangular series, too.

Be it neutral or local the umpires do make human errors no doubt. This is one reason that the third umpire and the electronic eye came into existence, to assist the two umpires in the middle. Even the third umpire too has lapsed.

The catch taken by Colin Miller off his own bowling off Jayawardena raged controversies, when the Aussies were fighting back. This could have been overcome if the head umpire consulted his colleague - the leg umpire for advice.

The leg umpire is in a better position to watch a caught and bowled, rather than consulting the third umpire.

It happened at the SSC ground in the Test match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Martin Crowe was given out caught at forward short-leg. Crowe refused to walk out. The fielder kept on yelling. Despite the head umpire's signal head high, but Crowe still stood his ground. Finally the head umpire walked upto his colleague for advice. He confirmed it was taken off the ground. The umpire revoked his earlier decision.

Crowe went on to get a brilliant century and the crowd enjoyed his exploits with the willow.

In the end the then president of the BCCSL, Tyronne Fernando gave, Crowe a special award.

Had the fielder concerned been honest to himself this unwarranted episode could have been avoided. Today cricket is no longer a gentleman's game - apparently due to too much of money and professionalism - to win at all cost. This malady is worldwide.

This must be taught to the kids at grassroots level-to be honest to themselves. Especially when it comes to close-in catches or behind the sticks nicks. The player be it the fielder or the batsman concerned. This will help the umpire greatly.

Sri Lanka has had many cricketers who adhered to this principle in the past helping the umpire and by walking out. One of them was old Thomian Vernon Prins, who played for the NCC and Sri Lanka. But today times have changed. The school coaches and masters-in-charge, too want to win at all cost, to be in contention to win trophies. This is not confined to school cricket alone, but it happens in club cricket, too. The seniors are a bad example to the youngsters. Sportsmen must be taught to play the game in the correct spirit and not strive to win without the assistance of the umpire. It isn't cricket!

Before long the ICC will bring in a ruling that both umpires need to be neutral. If this becomes a reality where do the local umpires stand, if they don't act without fear or favour.

Your guess is good as mine!

Peterson's play a decisive role

By Bernie Wijesekara

When it comes to discussing the promotion and development of rugby, Petersons S.C. has played a decisive role despite their limited resources.

The playground club has been the hub and given that much needed exposure for some of the youngsters, who started playing rugby after joining Petes. Some of them have never played for their respective schools, but it was at Petes that they got the real taste for this beautiful sport, according to the president of the Peterson S.C. Cicero Fonseka.

Today, more schools have taken to the sport. But where are the playing opportunities after leaving school. At least 30 percent of them will be keen to continue with the sport. What sort of playing opportunities do they get. Where are the clubs to join and be in the scrum? This is something that the Rugby Union must focus attention on.

This is part of their development programme. It needs proper planning and not just holding coaching seminars. These coaching stints are good for the future betterment of the sport. But where are they going to end up despite their abundant skills? Are the players going to languish on a bench, watching others playing on the field? Its back to square one.

Petersons this year was out of the scrum, for reasons best known to themselves. Unlike in the past few talented players join the services or the Police. Few years ago Police S.C. were the front-runners in this sport. They had several players in the national team. Most of them have left and gone in search of greener pastures.

Successful

Kelvin Farrington the All Blacks coach, who had a successful stint with the Army last season had this to say despite schools oozing with talent: "I am sad to note most of them are sidelined due to lack of playing opportunities. Other than for the few clubs, which hardly cater to the needs of the talented players.

"Even get a Combined Universites team to play, even schoolboys drawn from outside. It's no point SLRFU holding meetings, but must address their minds to this all important issue and encourage clubs to start at the embryo stage. It has to be constructive but not on white paper."

Put aside Peterson, who will come to the surface next year asks Fonseka. Where are the clubs in the outstations where many schools are in the scrum. What has happened to Kurunegala R.F.U. It died a natural death. Did the hierarchy look into it? What went wrong with them? They were playing at least in the 'B' Div.

When a Sunday Times reporter went on an investigative mission he found many young uns moving the ball at the Welagedera Stadium. There may be a Sari de Sylva, Hisham Abdeen, or a player of the class of late Nimal Maralande - from Mawatagama etc.

Loves the sport

There is much activity in the Southern Province with the formation of the Ruhunu R.F.U. - thanks to diehard rugby promoter Kumar Abeywardena, who has played at the highest level and loves the sport. He spends his own men and material to keep the game alive. The lads are big made, had a very good outing at the recent rugby 'sevens' held in Kandy. They fielded a Combined Schools team and gave a good run to Isipatana. Even players from outside should be injected and encouragement given to play in the top division. Trophies are secondary, but participation should be the criteria for its development.

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