American Football: New tournament for local Universities this weekend

The efforts of former Sri Lanka and CR&FC three-quarter and well renowned Rugby referee Dilroy Fernando in promoting American Football in Sri Lanka will take a new twist, with the introduction of a new team from Jaffna among many local universities at the EFLI University Flag Football League for the SAGT Trophy 2015 to be played next week in Colombo.   The two-day competition will be held at the CR&FC ground at Longdon Place on June 27 and 28 from 9.00am onwards.   American Football, a sport introduced to Sri Lanka in 2012, through EFLI (Elite Football League of India), is however not alien to Sri Lankans.   The sport has become somewhat familiar to the Lankans through American movies, where the basic crux of American football -- the bone crunching tackles by the blockers and star quarter back passes all the way into the end-zone are part and parcel of every great inspirational sport movies.   However, it is still striving hard, at an infancy stage in a country where cricket and rugby holds forte.   Fernando, the Director of ELFI Sri Lanka through his blueprints, plans to change that and make American Football a household name by hosting the second season of EFLI University Flag Football League 2015.   A total of 16 teams, representing 11 Universities will take part. University of Peradeniya, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Kotelawala Defence University, NSBM, NIBM and IIT will field two teams each while a team each will be fielded by Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, Jaffna Invitational Team, BMS and Auston.   Elaborating on further plans to promote American Football in Sri Lanka, Fernando said: “Our aim is to popularise the sport in Sri Lanka by introducing it to the Universities in all the provinces and then move on to the schools. We are also planning of conducting a full gear tackling Triangular League in September and October, between Colombo, Kandy and Jaffna. For this all gear and equipment to the teams will be provided by us. We are also planning of hosting an International League with the participation of teams from India and Pakistan during the year.”   According to Fernando American Football is a unique sport with all the ingredients to be successful in Sri Lanka, which arrived in South Asia in 2011.   EFLI and Sri Lanka had the honour of organising the first ever International League in Sri Lanka in 2012 where eight international teams from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka contested for the championship over a period of nine match day’s with 32 games. An Indian team emerged victorious.