Director General of Sports, retired Rear Admiral Shemal Fernando, duly authorized and entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on behalf of Sri Lanka with the president of the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) Fumio Ogura in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia yesterday.
It coincided with Minister of Sports Harin Fernando securing two Olympic-level Blue Polytan Astro hockey turfs for Sri Lanka through the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF).
“It is great news for Sri Lankan hockey players and this has been a long felt need of the country to uplift hockey and the stakeholders of the sport”, said Rear Admiral Fernando in a telephone interview with the Sunday Observer from Malaysia yesterday.
President of the World Hockey Federation (FIH), Dato Tayyab Ikram graced the occasion while State Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Rohana Dissanayake, himself a former hockey player and former Hockey Federation president also graced the occasion.
The ceremonial signing of the MoU took place during the AHF Executive Board Meeting in the presence of all Asian ExCo members from across the continent coinciding with the Men’s Junior Hockey World Cup in Malaysia.
The state-of-the-art Astro turfs will be for venues in Colombo and Matale which is considered the birthplace of hockey in the island and valued at approximately Rs.163 million in Sri Lanka money.
However, Sri Lanka successfully negotiated to procure the turfs at a special discounted unit price of USD 235,000 (approx. LKR 77 million) through the World and Asian Federations.
The Ministry of Sports will pay the AHF account in Tokyo, Japan in US dollars within ten days and work on the project both at manufacturer’s facility as well as in Sri Lanka will commence concurrently.
The AHF will take full responsibility for the supply and installation of the hockey surface in blue colour.
Rear Admiral Fernando said the project will enhance coaching courses, umpiring courses, youth development activities as well as women’s empowerment projects.
