The state of domestic rugby in Sri Lanka is in a “perilous situation” and a “real crisis” of international proportions is looming unless the custodians of the sport come out from their frog-in-the-well attitude.
The secretary of Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) Jude Pillai had resigned after yet another ugly confrontation at the last executive committee (ExCo) meeting. The President of the Central Province Rugby Football Union and a former national rugby stalwart Pradeep Basnayake together with Bandula Mallikarachchi, Jivan Goonatilake and Pavithra Fernando have also reportedly resigned from the SLR Council.
It is a well known fact that ExCo meetings of SLR have deteriorated into virtual brawls with most members now staying away from meetings in disgust.
When SLR were unable to restart rugby after the COVID-19 pandemic amid conflicts with sponsors, Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa intervened appointing a high-powered Advisory Committee for the development of rugby in Sri Lanka in November headed by former SLR president and Asia Rugby Chairman of Competitions and High Performance Asanga Seneviratne. It included respected former national players and administrators Dilroy Fernando as secretary and Hafeez Marso and five other members.
At the time it appeared as if rugby in the country was going to be run by a parallel administration although the SLR president Rizly Illyas was also co-opted into this panel.
However, in an interview with the Sunday Observer, Seneviratne clarified that the eight-member Rugby Advisory Committee (RAC) which also comprised Wing Commander Eranga Geeganage, Rear Admiral ASL Gamage, Udani Edirisinghe and Dr Lal Ekanayake were appointed with the main task of restarting all forms of rugby and to advise the minister on the way forward since all sports in the country were faced with similar situations.
“Our first task was to restart rugby. The minister felt that it had been dragging on and thanks to his efforts the schools and club tournaments got under way,” he said.
When asked why the 15-a-side inter-school matches were not played, he said some schools refused to play since players had either left or given up. “We did manage to play some friendlies but unfortunately some teams refused since they felt fielding a weaker team was not in their long term interests,” he said.
“I feel this was very unfortunate since some of these youngsters have worked hard for over a decade to make it to the First XV team and the main thing is to play rugby or any other sport at the highest possible level for your school and country. Winning and losing is irrelevant and most importantly giving the lads an opportunity was the responsibility of the schools and all concerned. The minister tried his best to get everyone together and restart rugby,” said the former Thomian, CR&FC and Sri Lanka fly half.
He lauded the Schools Rugby Association and its president BA Abeyratne and his team who worked tirelessly to ensure the restart and also SLR deputy president and chairman of the tournament committee Nazeem Mohamed, his team and club officials who despite facing many difficulties with lack of sponsorship conducted the league championship.
The rugby panel followed the appointment of a Technical Advisory Committee for cricket by the sports minister and when asked if his team were similarly involved, Seneviratne replied in the negative.
“A major difference was that we are not involved in many aspects of Sri Lanka rugby as they are in Sri Lanka Cricket,” pointed out Seneviratne.
“I believe the cricket advisory committee plays a more hands-on role. They are involved with day-to-day matters, selections, national team affairs, appointment of coaches, remunerations, team strategies, etc but we are not involved in any of those aspects. We are there to support schools, clubs and national rugby with matters pertaining to sponsorship, organizing tournaments, supporting SLR and the Referees Society when requested, and co-ordinating and advising the Sports Ministry on the way forward,” he said.
“Our role is also to advise the Minister if he does require our input from time to time. Also the clubs have approached us with certain matters. We are attending to those matters and doing our best to help them,” he added.
Currently SLR is walking on thin ice after several fall-outs with sponsors. Recently the main sponsor of SLR, Dialog withdrew one of the biggest sponsorship packages, crippling the sport. For the first time in over 30 years, SLR is without a sponsor for any of their tournaments and the national teams. The rugby community is also up in arms with no coverage of the league matches on TV and dwindling crowds.
When asked about the present crisis, Seneviratne said that sooner issues are resolved it is best for the sport.
“It is an extremely unfortunate situation. Dialog was with us for eight years. Every year we managed to increase the sponsorship but from 2018 it ceased to happen,” said Seneviratne who was SLR president when Dialog came on board in 2012.
The non-existence of a sponsor for the second most popular sport in the country with a rich history of over a 125 years has put rugby on a perilous journey with the national teams (both men and women) hitting rock bottom. Both teams fared disastrously in the Asia 7s series and the future looks extremely bleak with no plan or programmes in place.
Seneviratne says that SLR has to look at the broader picture when dealing with a major sponsor like Dialog. “You have to give them time to get their approvals and can’t only look at the money they give because they spend a lot more on promoting the game, supporting players and doing a lot of things that actually add a lot of value. A monetary value cannot be given to the value addition we have created together with them over the years and what we achieved post-2012 in the sport. This is something that you have to take into consideration when you are negotiating a new agreement,” he said.
On the other hand, he said Dialog also benefited immensely from their partnership with Sri Lanka rugby.
“Also since the start of our partnership in 2012, Dialog as a company has grown five-fold. Their profitability has increased astronomically and is one of the biggest conglomerates in our country. Even if you consider from 2018 when our sponsorship expired to now, I think Dialog’s profitability would have doubled. So there is no reason that they would have to cut down on our sponsorship. Rugby is one of the most popular sports in the country. There is also massive school participation and you are helping to create a healthy and vibrant society,” said Seneviratne.
“The schools association had a problem with their sponsorship and they met the advisory committee and together we met with Dialog and ironed out all the critical issues. They not only got their full sponsorship but got additional support as well and restarted rugby successfully,” he said.
“It is up to SLR to sort out this ridiculous situation. As an advisory body we have no role to play unless we are invited to assist,” he stressed.
“We were appointed to ensure that rugby is taking place in the country smoothly and the national team would be able to prepare for all tournaments with the full support of the Ministry of Sports, based on logical plans presented by the governing body. We are in an Asian Games and Commonwealth Games year and the Olympic qualifiers will be upon us soon. We also have the Asian 7s and XVs series and the junior tournaments including the Youth Olympics to consider as well,” he said.
Once a thriving sport in this country with a host of international tournaments being conducted and the men and women competing shoulder to shoulder with the might of Asia and world rugby, here and overseas, rugby has hit rock bottom and is at the crossroads once again.
With no sponsorship and no plan, the stark reality is that Sri Lanka could easily be soon relegated to play with the minnows in Asia.