Just when it kicked off to raise its head again, rugby in Sri Lanka has come under threat of being pulled apart by three protagonists, the Sports Minister, the current set of elected custodians and an outside faction waiting to sneak in.
World Rugby and its regional partner Asia Rugby are both watching from the touchlines as the outside party braces for a barge-in while Sports Minister Harin Fernando using his powers grabbed custody of the sport’s incumbent Sri Lanka Rugby membership fearing a worst-case scenario.
The latest upheaval in rugby came as a shock to many followers of the sport and the Sunday Observer learns that non-playing or bogus clubs with voting rights aligned with the outside faction were set to throw their weight and decide who should run the affairs of Sri Lanka Rugby at an impending election of office bearers.
In a preemptive strike, Sports Minister Harin Fernando handpicked his Director General of Sports, retired Rear Admiral Shemal Fernando to take care of affairs in the run-up to the election the date of which is yet to be decided but to be conducted before the end of July.
The take-over follows moves made by a former Sri Lanka Rugby president to return to the fray with the support of what is being called ‘paper clubs’ that don’t field teams at tournaments but continue to enjoy voting rights and are based mostly in the provinces. “We were banned once by Asia Rugby and World Rugby and we don’t want to be in another situation,” a rugby official told the Sunday Observer.
Rugby was one of the least corrupt of sports free of disputes until recently when it got into the bad books of global and regional keepers and the Sri Lanka players paying a heavy price in isolation.
Taken back into the fold, Sri Lanka Rugby showed signs of prospering shedding its tarnished past and receiving international funding while the team made a successful return to competition at the recently concluded Four-Nations Asian championship in Colombo.
Non-playing or ‘paper clubs’ with voting rights became the focus of attention last year when former Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe blew the whistle in moves to clean-up Sri Lanka Cricket of corruption.
Cultivating the powers that be in high places, Sri Lanka Cricket got way with paper clubs still at the ready for any election that can bring them financial windfalls in return for votes.
