Sri Lanka’s so-called National Olympic Committee (NOC) with just one medal in 75 years has been allowed to outgrow nearly everyone in the country and turn into a movement that even the country’s sitting Parliament could do nothing other than debate allegations of corruption, human smuggling and other malpractices.
It reached a point where the NOC were also wary of arresting the situation that it had to fall on the shoulders of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to step in and call for the suspension of its secretary Maxwell de Silva after a previous order by the Ethics Committee.
Last December Parliamentarian Chaminda Mayadunne branded the NOC the most corrupt in the country based on an Audit Report of 2022 and there was complete media silence from its head Suresh Subramanium as the bandwagon kept rolling and De Silva continued amid numerous media reports calling for investigations before the IOC that provides the funding stepped in.
In his speech in Parliament, Mayadunne accused the NOC of taking custody of international funding meant for former Olympic silver medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe and depriving another Olympian sprinter Yupun Abeykoon of opportunities to move forward.
For Sri Lankan Olympic officials it was more of a case of serving themselves than serving the needs of the sportsman and women. They perform like total dictators and are excellent at attending ceremonial functions.
Former Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe, the bravest and boldest of them all, could be kicking his heels that he was sacked when he was just one shot away from a clean-up of corruption in sport.
More than two years after Ranasinghe was sacked by a pompous Head of State in Ranil Wickremasinghe who in turn was shown the door and ousted in a popular people’s vote, sport has ended up in a worse situation with cricket administrators continuing to feather their nests, rugby played in a courthouse and so-called Olympic officials some of whom are not worth a grain of salt continue to hold sway and the country pre-occupied.
But the biggest fear among sports followers in the country is who will be the new Sports Minister and will he or she be able to rid the country of a rotten sports set up where corrupt and shady administrators cling on to technical clauses in their Constitutions that were created when sport was amateurish and followed by handful of people unlike today when seven out of 10 or more are passionate followers.
Unlike in other areas, what many don’t see is that some of the biggest rip-offs are taking place behind closed doors by the keepers of sports in the country. Today sport is either a stepping stone to climb the social ladder and get things done that would not be possible in other fields, a goldmine for plundering.
The so-called National Olympic Committee needs to be completely purged and purified of some of its officials who are allowed to bask in prominence with the country having won just one medal in 75 years.
While the few independent cricket scribes in the country have nothing more to add to the present scenario other than spare a thought for the passionate lay followers of sports in the country, comes another alarming episode where schoolboy boxers were made to kill sleep, fight in the ring like professionals at the 105-year old Stubbs Shield meet last week and go back with sunrise just a few hours away.
The Stubbs Shield meet of all was never created to enter into a pickle with other sports in what has now become School Games, Provincial Games, National Games and Sports Festivals that have become platforms catering merely to quantity and not quality
Why won’t the fabric of sports breakdown when it is left to fester in the hands of custodians who look for escape routes and there are plenty of ways to hoodwink.
The sport of rugby that was in the hands of gentlemen who had no vested interests when it was played for the enjoyment of both player and spectator has now become a platform for egoistic keepers who have been caught on the blind side while attempting to shift the goal posts for self gain and left behind while the international fraternity has moved forward.
To cling on to position and defy an order to step down is the biggest conflict at a time a new People’s Government has launched out on a clean-up drive.
