By Harsha Amarasinghe
The
resumption of rugby after nearly one year has been put on hold following the
tug of war between Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) and Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR).
SLAF in an
astonishing press release yesterday announced that the Commander’s Cup has been
postponed due to the challenges connected to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Sri Lanka
Air Force after discussion with Sri Lanka Rugby has opted to postpone the
Commander’s Cup 7’s tournament which had been scheduled to be held as a part of
the Sri Lanka Air Force’s 70th anniversary celebration. The leading rugby teams
who were due to take part in the tournament has informed the Air Force that
they are struggling to follow the Covid-19 guidelines issued by the Ministry of
Health and hence the tournament has been postponed,” the Sinhala press release
from Air Force translates to English.
Further,
the chairman of Sri Lanka Air Force Rugby Air Vice Marshal Janaka Amarasinghe confirmed
that the tournament has indeed been postponed although SLR are going to
organise a separate rugby tournament.
“I can
confirm that the Commander’s Cup is postponed. SLR can organise any other 7’s
tournament but not under this name,” Air Vice Marshal Amarasinghe told ‘Daily
Mirror’ while claiming that Commander’s Cup could be organised in
‘June’.
However,
SLR responded through a media release yesterday (15) evening announcing that an
inter club 7’s tournament will be organized along with the main sponsor Dialog
and co-sponsor Daraz.
“Sri Lanka
Rugby President was dismayed to learn of the article that appeared in Sinhala
Media and completely denounced the article as baseless. The logistics for the
Air Force Commander’s Cup tournament was organised by Sri Lanka Air Force until
SLAF pulled out of organising the logistics at the very last moment. The fact
that 3 leading clubs excused their participation was a fact known to Air Force
since mid-February when they undertook to plan and organise the tournament. We
committed to move forward and will not let down the 5 clubs that has trained
hard with more than 75 players turning up for practices (for each club)
sacrificing their time for rugby. Sri Lanka Rugby has taken immediate steps to
take the tournament forward with a new title name and await confirmation and
sponsorship from Dialog,” SLR statement reads.
However,
when contacted by ‘Daily Mirror’, a source from the main sponsor of the
tournament Dialog revealed that the final decision on the sponsorship would
only be made today (16).
“For the
reason that the status-quo of the said event is being changed, as a public
listed company we have to re-evaluate the sponsorship request. Only after
submitting this proposal to the senior management, we’ll be able to give a firm
answer hopefully tomorrow (today),” the source from the Dialog
revealed.
Sports
Minister NamalRajapaksa responding to queries from ‘Daily Mirror’ said he
believes that all associations including SLR ‘should keep their egos aside and
prioritise the sport’.
“SLR is
responsible for organising the tournament and the Air Force only volunteered to
help out and I do not know why Air Force has postponed the Commander’s Cup, but
they may have their own reasons. However, in terms of tournaments being
organised, you could see that almost every association is conducting
events.”
“We see
cricket, football and even Kabaddi being played. So, all the associations must
keep their egos aside and prioritise the sports, because to be very honest we
have no reasons to be egoistic because we are not on top of the world in any
sport. We are stuck in the bottom and if we are to rise as a sporting nation,
all the associations must prioritise sports,” the former Sri Lanka rugby
captain told ‘Daily Mirror’.
Main picture (L to R): Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa, SLR
President Rizly Illyas and Chairman of Sri Lanka Air Force Rugby Air Vice
Marshal Janaka Amarasinghe
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