The new Sports Minister is Faizer Mushtapha but does he have the time for sports given the fact that he has other ministries to handle. It now appears that every government that comes into this power game or keep shuffling the pack every six months or so, treat sports as if it has no importance to the country or is it that sport is only important for the government when some team or individual wins a trophy or medal so the politicians can pose for pictures and bask in the limelight.
A Sports Minister should be a full time sports minister like the ones found in other countries that are extremely successful in the international sporting arena. Also what is Mr. Mushtapha’s sporting background. Does he really have sport at heart?
May I appeal to all those so-called experts in the Media and outside it to use their pens and mikes to take the government at hand to task for treating sports in this shabby manner!
For too long has sports being given this kind of step-motherly treatment by governments. It is high time the government realized that sport is no longer about matches. It is about life and there is so much at stake. Even schoolboys have become big professional sports stars if one were to take the sport of rugby. Sports has gone far ahead and in Sri Lanka the sports watchdog or caretaker is still in the stone age.
Just look at the amount of money and time that is being invested in sports by various clubs, schools and other organizations that promote sports. Does the government care any longer to take stock? Will Mr. Mushtapha be another ceremonial sports minister like his predecessors have done over the years? From the looks of it a big blunder has already taken place as reported in the Press that a questionable official has been appointed as the manager of the Sri Lanka junior athletics team.
Is Minister Mustapha going to probe this matter, now that it has been publicly highlighted? Can Minister Mushtapha spell out his policies in public? Why did Sri Lanka have to wait for half a century to produce a medal at the Olympics from 1948 to 2000? Why is it that since the exit of Susanthika Jayasinghe who won a medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, the country has still not been able to identify anyone with world potential?
Coaches and officials are having a field day promoting their egos and businesses at the expense of sportsmen and women. Can this new minister put a stop to the plane loads of officials who go on joy rides to all these international events and enrich themselves by selling the country’s name for their own benefits?
I fully agree with Mr. Bede Perera’s remarks last week in the Sunday Observer that the outspoken critic against corruption Ranjan Ramanayake should be made the sports minister. But what happened to him? This is why we need a full time sports minister. For how long more can honest and forthright people be kept away from the scene while the shady characters are allowed to run and call the shots in sports? This is aiding and abating. Mr. Mushtapha I challenge you to clean up this rot. Or am I taking up valuable space of this newspaper by trying to get involved in a losing cause. Will you be another “also-ran” Sports Minister?
Ron Dias, Dehiwela