Rugby followers in the island are up in arms and totally confused, some might say bundled into touch, after Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe ousted the elected body of Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) and appointed his so-called Stabilization Committee.
Today the Sri Lanka team cannot play in the Asian Games as the national side but instead under the flag of the NOC which analysts say is the biggest tragedy to hit the sport in the country in more than 140 years.
What has happened is that the Sri Lanka rugby team has literally being taken to court for no fault of its own as officials and the Sports Minister are embroiled in a tussle for authority over the game.
Thanks to political interference, Sri Lanka has become a pariah in the eyes of World Rugby in the same way football has been subjected to.
The biggest fear is that nothing appears to be coming to an end, not for the next year and the Minister is likely to move out in yet another expected Cabinet reshuffle while elected officials watching from the sidelines will have plenty of soul searching to do and rugby would have gone back four disastrous years, needing another four years or more to re-launch meaning eight years of wasted potential.
Presently SLR has taken the Minister to court on a charge of Contempt over his prevention of the functioning of SLR’s elected membership and the outcome is due next month.
The worst part is that World Rugby (WR) has discarded the Minister’s letter to them justifying his appointment of the so-callled Stabilization Committee saying they (WR) do not accept political interference and hence decided to suspend SLR meaning the team cannot play international rugby under the Sri Lanka flag.
Sri Lanka Rugby is presently suspended by Asia Rugby over some issue which SLR has refused to accept saying they did not receive a fair hearing calling it “Kangaroo Style”.
SLR had in turn conveyed to World Rugby that Asia Rugby has violated the norms of “natural justice”.
World Rugby is yet to pass a ruling meaning rugby in the island is yet to be stabilized.
The National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Sri Lanka is also backing SLR over its suspension by Asia Rugby while World Rugby said it is in the process of probing the case.