When the Sunday Observer over the past six years highlighted the abuse and violence taking place in the schools rugby arena, the Warnings fell on deaf ears and the powers that be never gave a damn other than carry on with impunity in the name of what is being called College pride and tradition.
When the Warnings were finally heeded it may have been too late six years down the line as the father of one of the players, a Royal College boy among many players from several schools, opened the dreaded can of worms this week.
Why the parent of the player of 2022 waited for two years to open out begs the answer or are the skeletons now coming forth as Royal College lost the League and lost the Bradby. Had Royal won the League and won the Bradby would it have changed anything. The answer will blow in the wind.
Royal College must be the only school in the island that suffers from some kind of a complex wherein their pompous think-tanks or Committees calling the shots in cricket and rugby at the school suffer from the syndrome of immortality.
They treat the Media as if their so-called big matches in both sports are unlike anything in the country that they demand that reporters be present at their sacred venues armed with only their (Royal) Passes issued in advance with the names of the media man and his or her national identity card number on it to be inspected by men in black guarding the gates.
What Royal authorities don’t realize is that their arrogant attitudes speak of a kind of fair-skin Supremacy embedded in the school that pays scant respect to the many illustrious sportsmen and academics of honoured dignity that have passed through its gates in past years.
The Authorities at Royal College it must be said live in a fool’s paradise far from the ground realities of today. Could it be that Royal’s fortress of hidden blemish has crumbled with the presidency that one by one are now gathering strength and courage that they did not have the balls for to lash out at the abuse of their children in the win-at-any cost syndrome for which the inter-school rugby season over the past 10 years has become notorious for.
One old boy of the school even went to the extent of boasting to the Sunday Observer that Royal’s budget for a single season is as high as Rs. 87 million and they could have any breakfast fit for a king or queen.
Is there a need for more proof and why should the Ministry of Education not step in and blow the whistle to signal the end to the dangers of subjecting schoolboys to the deep depths of untold pain and suffering contesting commercial tournaments to satisfy the stakeholders.
The dangers that lay hidden or visible could not have been projected any worse than in the 2023 season when armored cars, anti-riot police, some of them with automatic rifles, and water cannons took up position outside the gates of St. Peter’s College in Colombo where the League decider against Isipathana College was played under armed guard for fear of crowd violence that knows no borders.
The match was incident-free apart from crashing down a gate and on-field encroachments. But when did school sport come under heavy guard that bears testimony to sadistic adults playing pucks with other people’s children in the name of sports promotion and College pride.
It can only be hoped that what the parent of the Royal College player who claims his child was brutalized in a way that even an animal should not be subjected to, would be the final red card for schools rugby to go back to its past when commercial tournaments and highly paid coaches were unheard of.
Enough and more has happened for the powers that be to act before the goal posts come crashing down. Let not the cradle of the island’s rugby be at the mercy of men at the altar of sacrifice and who are perhaps mad to take the values of sportsmanship to the gates of hell.
