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The Sri Lanka Army Rugby team received a handsome sponsorship to the tune of Rs. 2 million for the advancement of rugby football this season from the generous sponsors of sports in this country, Dialog GSM.

The sponsorship package between the Sri Lanka Army and Dialog GSM was signed at the Hilton Hotel on Wednesday evening between the Chairman of the Army Rugby Committee, Brig. H.M.N. Krishnaratne and Nushad Perera, General Manager, Sales and Marketing, Dialog GSM.

Speaking at the occasion Major General Lohan Gunawardene said that this is just the beginning of a fruitful partnership between the Sri Lanka Army and Dialog GSM. "With their assistance we will field a better team this year," said Maj. Gen. Gunawardene.

Nushad Perera, General Manager, Sales and Marketing, Dialog GSM, said that Dialog started as a small company in 1995, being the last entrant to the Mobile phone arena and they signed up for a special package with the Army called the Army 103 where over 6,000 phones were sold.

"We have been sponsoring many events like musical shows, Ranaviru etc and we find that there is tremendous potential in the Army and that is why we are sponsoring them this year and hope to extend the sponsorship. With the peace efforts very much in progress the Army ruggerites will have more time to spend on rugby this year," concluded Nushad Perera.

Coach of the Army rugby team, Asanga Seneviratne said that rugby is not a professional sport in Sri Lanka and the sponsorship of the Army team will go a long way towards improving the nutrition levels and the fitness of the team with emphasis on physiotherapy. Since there seemed to be a decline in the sport in the last decade, this sponsorship by Dialog GSM would go a long way towards helping Army in coming to the top of the "A" Division clubs.

Answering questions from the press as to why he was performing a voluntary job, Seneviratne said that he is doing it for the "love of the sport," and that in the future rugby coaches, ideally should be remunerated." At the moment we have about 30 players in the pool and we hope to give a good account of ourselves in the coming rugby season which starts in May," commented the Army coach.

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