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| Sunday, 31 March 2002 |
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Discipline takes pride of place - Dennis de Rosayro by A.C. de Silva Twenty five years is a long time and to guide the destinies of a organisation in a competitive field of sport calls for one hundred per cent dedication towards the sport. This has been the achievement of Dennis de Rosayro - the President of the Mercantile Hockey Association. Dennis, known to many sportsmen and especially hockey fans, is a tireless worker in whatever he undertakes to do and hockey being one of the sports that he fancied most from his childhood. He was the first captain of hockey at St. Benedict's College and played as centre half and right half for BRC for 25 years from 1954 to 1978 in the Andriesz Shield and Pioneer Cup tourneys and played for All-Ceylon as a schoolboy against the Indian Olympic team when they came here and also against Pakistan in 1961. So, Dennis de Rosayro is not short of ideas or experience as he has played against the best players during his playing days. From playing days to administration and there were no problems as such for Dennis, who has the knack of tackling all difficult situations well to the satisfaction of all concerned. So, there is no wonder as to how he has carried on as President of the Mercantile Hockey Association for 25 years. First on the agenda in Dennis' administration is discipline and once discipline is maintained, the other things follow. "Discipline comes first and all concerned must realise that the game comes first than one's individual self," said Dennis de Rosayro, no sooner he was unanimously picked as President of the Mercantile Hockey Association for the 25th year on Wednesday night. He said that he was somewhat sorry that at times the game tended to go haywire, but strict disciplinary measures taken put back the game in the right direction. Hockey, he said, is a 'hard game' and all concerned must know the rules and how they will be applied. A regrettable fact according to the Mercantile hockey boss is that teams play matches, but they don't attend practices as regularly as done in the good old days. "When I used to play, we had practice every day and by hard work we came up in hockey", he said. Hockey does not get the dollars as cricket does these days and keeping the game going calls for dedicated work by the officials. Having started with a somewhat empty barrel, the Mercantile Hockey Association now has a Trust Fund and having that fund gives credibility to the association and the day to day work continues smoothly and sponsors come in as they see that there is work being done. Rosayro also said that they are a responsible association and they are willing to learn and any criticism done is looked into and decisions taken to improve the game. Speaking about Sri Lanka hockey in general, he said he was somewhat sorry that the standard has dropped drastically and this is due to the wrong men being in charge of the vital aspects of the game. Another thing that annoyed the Mercantile hockey boss was the pathetic state that the Astro Turf is in. 'Not a single match has been played there this year,' charged Rosayro. |
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