No ammunition for shooters!
Straight Talk by Lal Gunasekera
Leave alone trials how can you expect shooters to train for any meet
without ammunition? This is a major problem that is facing the National
Rifle Association (NRA) and the shooters.
For the past two years or so, the NRA has failed to obtain ammunition.
Also, its eight months since the national coach was appointed and he is in a
dilemma due to the lack of ammunition.
The Commonwealth Games is in Melbourne, Australia next month (March),
while the South Asian Games is scheduled to be staged in Sri Lanka in
August. Our shooters are handicapped without ammunition to train and even
the South Asian Games Secretariat has failed to address this problem.
Who is responsible for the procurement of ammunition? Tenders are called,
the envelopes are opened and "put away" Why?
Meanwhile the poor shooters are unable to train for any meet. Last year
(2005), only the NRA Open meet was worked off. I understand that the
national coach had drawn up a detailed training programme and has even
written a strong letter to the President of the NRA about the unsatisfactory
position that he and the shooters are facing.
Four shooters (three women and one man) have been picked for next month's
Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Scores of the four trials held for the
Commonwealth Shooting Federation's Championships held last year in Melbourne
were taken into consideration for next month's Games. The performances of
our shooters (two of them came within the top eight) at the Women's Islamic
Games in Iran last year was not taken into account. This was a major
achievement.
The selections for the Commonwealth Games are wrong and this has created
unpleasantness among the poolists. The Chairman of the Technical Committee,
failed to advice the Chairman of the Selection Committee regarding the
criteria for selection for the Commonwealth Games. This person is also a
selector and a committee member of the NRA. He has been accused of
favouritism - a woman shooter from his own club was taken into the team at
the expense of a girl from the Army who has an outstanding record.
There was a stormy meeting of the NRA Council on Wednesday. The President
of the NRA was castigated for nominating himself to go to Melbourne as
manager without approval from the Council. There was a lot of flak from
members of the Police and Army about the selections and how one woman
competitor is going to Melbourne by meeting her own expenses without even
qualifying. The girl who was victimised is from the Army and was not even
nominated, though reaching the qualifying mark.
About the ammunition, no date has yet been fixed for its arrival. The
shooters and the coach are a frustrated lot over the whole issue and the
team is demoralised. The entire NRA Council were unanimous about the
unsatisfactory selections for the Commonwealth Games by the action of just
one individual.
In-fighting
Certain top officials of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports are now
"fighting-it-out" for berths to go for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne,
Australia next month.
From the list that was submitted, I reliably understand, that the names
of Saman Amarasinghe (Chairman of the National Sports Council who is also
the Minister's Private Secretary) and K. S. Pieris (Senior Deputy Director)
have been "cut".
Who has been included instead? Ministry Secretary, Wirithamulla, and
Director-General Milton Amarasinghe.
Also to visit Melbourne are Minister Jeevan Kumaratunga and his wife
Shereen.
Who controls finance at SLC?
SLC is a controlling body with over Rs. 2000 million in annual income
which is constitutionally subject to state control under the Sports Law and
Finance Act. The accounts are required to be audited by the Auditor-General.
For the last one year, SLC has been operating without a head of finance
after shunting the Chief Financial Officer, who is a senior chartered
accountant, to a junior position during the annual audit of 2004 when there
had been serious concerns about the financial position..... overdrafts to
the tune of over Rs. 200 million obtained from two banks with no real assets
to provide for the cover. The persecution of this senior official is said to
have started when he had to inform the Exco about the serious financial
situation SLC were facing with the delay in concluding the foreign TV
contract of US Dollars 50 million.
The Interim Committee appointed to correct the failings of the elected
SLC has gone many steps further. Without a formal recruitment procedure, a
retired non-financial bank official who had walked in with the Interim
Committee was appointed the top financial officer and was later elevated as
Head of Finance by a curious process called "re-designation" along with
another who now occupies this former officials billet as Administrative
Manager. One wonders what has happened to the principle of accountability
and transparency at SLC.
The annual audit (on behalf of the Auditor-General) is by the same
private firm that has been auditing SLC for 10 out of the last II years.
What is the involvement of the Auditor-General in the entire process?
No improvement to sports in Sri Lanka can be achieved without first
cleaning up and improving the controlling bodies, particularly the top
management in bodies like SLC, FFSL and NOC and a Board of Inquiry to
investigate naked abuse of powers detrimental to the very aims and
objectives for which such bodies have been established will be a necessity
that can no longer be postponed.
Who were they?
Who was the Interim Committee member and two officials of sub committees
who were disallowed by ICC personnel to enter restricted area at the Youth
(Under-19) Cricket World Cup game at the Premadasa Stadium on February 10
between Sri Lanka and India?
Passes were issued, but were restricted to certain areas. Just because
one held a pass, it did not mean that the person could have entered any area
at a venue that he or she wanted.
Another AGM!
News has filtered down that the annual general meeting of a district
cricket association which was held and a former Cabinet Minister (who
crossed over to the opposition) was elected as President, but moves are
afoot by interested parties to get the annual general meeting held again to
elect a politician who was at the helm of another popular sport to be
elected.
Not informed
Two cricketers who were added to the tour party for Bangladesh from
Colombo, were not informed officially about their departure to Dhaka. It was
only when they asked a certain top official at SLC were they told about the
departure and to give their measurements etc for their clothing to a garment
manufacturer. Even the press release was issued on the day that the team
left our shores. Who was responsible?
Kalutara DCA protests
A plot of land of about 20 acres had been given in Dodangoda to the
Kalutara District Cricket Association to construct a stadium in 2003. But
now, the Kalutara DCA have discovered that this land has been allotted to
the Badureliya Sports Club on a request made by a top notcher of the Interim
Committee of SLC. The Interim Committee had even gone to the extent of
leaving aside a sum of Rs. 100 million for Kalutara DCA to develop this land
into an international cricket stadium, but what will happen now? What were
the valid reasons for handing over the land to Badureliya SC?
Kalutara DCA were to use this ground for the benefit of about 30 clubs
and 25 schools in the area and now they (Kalutara DCA) are to appeal to
President Mahinda Rajapakse about their plight.
Accounts of NOC
The National Olympic Committe (NOC) had a meeting on Friday to pass the
annual accounts, but how come they (NOC) held their annual general meeting
sometime back without the accounts been circulated earlier and approved at
the AGM? According to the Sports Law, the NOC accounts had to be audited by
the Auditor-General, but it was not so. Is this valid?
It's all over, but....
The Youth (under-19) Cricket World Cup came to an end last Sunday
(February 19). Teams from overseas have all left the shores of Sri Lanka and
so have the ICC officials.
However, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Interim Committee, has failed to pay the
monies due to the Liaison Officers who were attached to the 16 teams at US
Dollars 50 per day, Baggage Boys at US Dollars 20 per day, Announcers at
each venue at US Dollars 25 and the Scorers US Dollars 15.
They have been going up and down to SLC Headquarters, but up to Friday
(February 24) have not been paid their dues, but the other top notchers have
got the dollars into their pockets.
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