Players and clubs caught in somebody’s dirty war of attrition as the once gentleman’s game has been strangled into submission :
One of the country’s favourite boyhood passions and crowd-pulling domestic sports, rugby, has acquired a pariah-like status to its own followers after an elected administration was sacked in a highly disputed move by former Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa with a bureaucracy taking charge.
Rugby which scrummaged through the deadly Covid pandemic and bloomed once again for both player and common follower was cut down with one swipe of a double-edged sword that has resulted in eight local clubs sent packing and Asia Rugby suspending Sri Lanka Rugby over political interference.
Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) claims a deepening under-current had eventually sucked in and drowned not the game’s keepers but the players and their common followers.
“What we have here is a big conspiracy,” said Rizly Illyas who was SLR’s elected head when his Committee was sacked by Rajapaksa and a so-called Competent Authority installed in its place.
“The conspirators are a former rugby president but now still in the scene, a former referee and a former commercial partner who is jealous of our present sponsor. Anyone who has been closely associated with rugby and the media know who they are,” Illyas charged.
But the Competent Authority, headed by Amal Edirisooriya who is the director general of the Sports Ministry without a Minister, claims there was no hidden hand or hands and that SLR was only “suspended” after it accommodated three provincial rugby Unions at board meetings that were delisted for non-payment of what is called “subscription fees”.
The sacking of rugby’s elected body has brought the high profile inter-club League championship to a sudden end when it was just two weeks away from an interesting climax to be followed by the inter-club Sevens and the Clifford Cup knock-outs.
Illyas said it was time for all eight clubs to unite and send a firm message to what he called the detractors of rugby that their actions will never be condoned as the players have been stripped of their social right to play and earn a livelihood like all professional sportsmen and women.
“Rugby clubs and their players are in a confused state. They have lost out on both morale and revenue.
“They must stand together as one with us as we (SLR) are the only administration recognised by them, the people, the International Olympic Committee and the Sri Lanka National Olympic Committee,” said Illyas.
He said the onus was now on the Competent Authority to come out of the mess and restart the League as well as the Sevens and the Clifford Cup tournaments using their own Ministry funds.
“Our commercial partners have signed deals with us and not with any Competent Authority. Our funds are set aside to match our development plans. If the Competent Authority has better plans than we have, then likewise they should do it with their own funding,” said Illyas.
Ex-rugby administrators told the Sunday Observer the explanation to sack SLR was like cutting the nose to spite the face.
“An acceptable fine would have been most appropriate against rugby officials if they had committed any wrong and this way the players and the sport would have been spared the knife,” said a former administrator.