By Julian Jansen
Sri Lanka’s sports scene has long been tainted by political interference, much to the dismay of its athletes. While countries like Australia flaunt trophy cabinets overflowing with accolades from various sports, Sri Lanka’s shelves remain barren, accumulating nothing but dust and cobwebs.
In athletics, Sri Lanka boasts a grand total of two Olympic medals since 1948. The cricket team hasn’t touched a global title in a decade, and breaking into the top three in Asian rugby is a distant dream. With these being the pinnacle of Sri Lankan sports, delving into the other associations seems almost laughable.
Political meddling has turned Sri Lankan sports into a tragicomedy, where genuine talent and development take a backseat to the whims of power-hungry officials.
Now, let’s dive into the delightful circus that is Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR).
The Ministry of Sports, in its infinite wisdom, suspended SLR for failing to hold its Annual General Meeting and Elections by the oh-so-crucial deadline of May 31, 2024.
The SLR President-Elect, Group Captain (Rtd) Nalin De Silva, apparently dropped the ball on this one, as he could not break ground with the SLR Council of Members.
Enter Director of General of Sports Development Rear Admiral Professor Shemal Fernando, appointed to oversee rugby matters. His brilliant move? In a desperate bid to control the narrative, he released a statement outlining a chronological sequence of recent events, conveniently distancing Sports Minister Harin Fernando from the controversy. The release, however, was peppered with half-baked truths and demonstrated the DG’s glaring lack of knowledge on this very current subject he is dealing with. For DG Prof. Shemal Fernando’s information, there are sports journalists who have been keeping a tab of all the dramas taking place regarding these matters dating back to 2018, and if in the event he needs a more accurate description or a chronological sequence of these events, I am sure most journalists would gladly provide him with same and even educate him further on request.
Meanwhile the Director General of Sports published a newspaper advertisement calling for an SLR Special General Meeting (SGM), blissfully ignorant of the SLR constitution’s guidelines for holding such meetings. The seven Provincial Unions promptly declared the SGM illegal and vowed to seek legal action.
Former SLR President-Elect Nalin Fernando, who is batting for the Sports Ministry as one of their new recruits, had to swoop in and clarify that the newspaper advertisement was incorrect, and that the meeting wasn’t an SGM but just an ordinary meeting. This frantic damage control highlighted the ongoing chaos within the Ministry of Sports.
The subsequent ordinary meeting did eventually take place on the 12th of June 2024, where DG Prof. Shemal Fernando made an even bigger blunder than his newspaper advertisement by naming an Election Committee to oversee the upcoming SLR Elections, once again violating the existing SLR constitution.
Where was his current legal advisor when this was being done? Perhaps he too is another political appointee to the post and not necessarily a suited horse for the course when it comes to providing sound advice to his masters, when they need to handle technical matters related to sports.
Meanwhile, Sports Minister Harin Fernando, ever the reformer, is pushing for amendments to the SLR constitution based on World Rugby’s recommendations. These changes are about giving ‘A’ Division clubs more voting rights, a saga that has become the latest episode in this riveting drama.
The roots of this mess stretch back to 2018 when Sports Minister Harin Fernando, blissfully unaware of the monster he was creating, instructed his legal team then to issue a dubious letter for former SLR President Asanga Seneviratne to be appointed to Asia Rugby as a near and dear buddy of the current Asia Rugby President Qais Abdallah Al-Dhalai who wanted him by his side. This was done as the then SLR President refused to indulge in doing such untoward things and should be commended for taking that stance.
Nevertheless Seneviratne, a savvy businessman and a close ally to the former Minister of Sports Namal Rajapaksa and who along with Al-Dhalai soon formed an alliance and tried to wrest control of SLR by attempting to oust the then elected SLR President Rizly Illyas who was voted in 2020.
That power struggle till to date has continued to plague SLR.
The then Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa, another political figure, initially attempted to hijack control of SLR by appointing a Technical Advisory Committee in November 2020, with Seneviratne as chairman. Rajapaksa stated that he had made that decision based an email that he had received from the Asia Rugby President Al-Dhalai. That ploy sadly fizzled out, leading to the former Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa issuing a gazette notification suspending SLR and transferring its powers to the Ministry of Sports. This was done on the 1st of April 2021, barely two days before he himself was ousted from his Ministry.
Qais Abdallah Al – Dhalai, the President of Asia Rugby, soon jumped on the bandwagon and ensured that the SLR President Illyas and SLR were both suspended over a personal WhatsApp message that was sent by the then SLR President Rizly Illyas to Abdallah.
World Rugby didn’t also mince its words when it suspended Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) too.
Soon thereafter, David Carrigy, a World Rugby official, and Benjamin Van Rooyen, Asia Rugby’s Acting CEO, visited Sri Lanka on a fact-finding mission. They dealt a blow to SLR by bypassing its hierarchy and meeting directly with ‘A’ Division Clubs’ representatives to hear their grievances.
The focus thereafter was on amending the constitution to favor ‘A’ Division clubs, a move that Sports Minister Harin Fernando also seems to endorse. He in fact made it a point to address the press and stress on this point too.
However, what one needs to be reminded is that the current voting system, in place since 1991, has also been a system where at least 15 respected officials were elected in the past to serve as SLR Presidents.
So now, why all of a sudden has this voting system and so-called paper clubs become an issue? Is it because a handful of ‘A’ Division club officials are trying to find a path to occupy the SLR top post? It may perhaps be a good reason because according to the current system recommended by Kiwi Jeff Matherson and implemented by SLR, most of those aspiring to take over control in such a manner stands no chance.
But since Namal Rajapaksa and Seneviratne couldn’t seize control, this system suddenly became a problem in 2021. Out of the blues, after almost 30 years of SLR running its affairs smoothly, an issue of ‘A’ Division rugby clubs not having their say due to the existing Provincial Unions holding sway became a huge issue.
However, more than just voting rights, Sports Minister Harin Fernando needs to look into more serious past transgressions and commence inquiries into them.
One such issue is the violation of the Immigration Act, where Fijians were allegedly provided with Sri Lankan passports to represent the country when Namal Rajapaksa was the national rugby captain. These matters demand accountability, as do the debts accumulated under previous SLR Presidents, who have evaded responsibility. Up until those investigations are completed, Minister Fernando must ensure that those responsible are not permitted to hold any position pertaining to rugby-related matters or, for that matter, any other sport association.
However, a fair section of the rugby-loving public finds it hard to trust Sports Minister Fernando, who has a track record of indecision.
His political flip-flopping, from United National Party (UNP) to Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and back into the arms of the current President Ranil Wickremesinghe and his UNP, then his theatrics at the ‘aragalaya’ event, raise questions about his motives. His apparent support for elite Colombo rugby clubs’ hints at a deeper political game, possibly aligned with support to the Asia Rugby President Qais Abdallah Al-Dhalai, Asanga Seneviratne, and Seneviratne’s political master the current MP Namal Rajapaksa.
“All of them are friends machang,” quipped a senior rugby stalwart when discussing this matter.
As the saga unfolds, Sri Lankan rugby remains entangled in a web of political puppetry, with no end in sight to the farcical power play. If there’s an issue, it should be resolved with an amicable solution that levels the playing field, not through political muscle to bulldoze a path that satisfies an affluent minority in this case, the private rugby clubs of Colombo.
