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by Pelham Juriansz

The Badminton Association's Golden Jubilee theme will be to raise enough money so as to further popularise this sport in order to reach International standards like cricket according to Sumith Guruge, Chairman, Organising Committee for the Golden Jubilee Tournament.

"We are looking for sponsorship for the players as then we could reach international standards. The players in Bangkok practise for eight hours a day but our players practise for only two hours. We need to bring in a sort of semi-professionalism and then we could reach the standards that we have set in cricket", said Guruge.

He said this as the Chairman of the Organising Committee for the Golden Jubilee Nationals to be held at the Royal College Sports Complex from November 27-30. Out of 100 entries from all districts and provincial associations, 32 were selected for men's singles and 16 for the ladies.

The special logo for the championships was also launched recently.

The tournament is sponsored by Commercial Bank and according to Guruge if the media and especially the electronic media give adequate publicity to the event there could be around a million viewers. Dr. A.R.L. Wijesekera, who is the chief referee for the tournament, tracing the history of badminton in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) said that it is pertinent that he strike a personal note in mentioning the fact that he was one of three people who was present at the inauguration of the Badminton Association and for the first nationals fifty years ago. The others were Basil P. De Silva and Nanda Nagasinghe who later became Mrs. A.R.L. Wijesekera.

The chief guest at the opening ceremony will be Sajith Premadasa, Deputy Minister of Health and Nutrition and the guest of honour will be Secretary to the Minister of Sports, N. Punchihewa.

At the closing ceremony the chief guest will be the Minister of Sport, Jonston Fernando and the guest of honour will be the Managing Director of Commercial Bank, Amitha Gunaratne.

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