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| Sunday, 26 February 2006 |
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Three top national ruggerites to be suspended for one year By Lal Gunesekera Three top national ruggerites have been recommended to be suspended for a period of one year by the Disciplinary Committee of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU), while the final decision is to be taken by the Council at their monthly meeting next month (March). The Disciplinary Committee headed by Neil Wijeratne and also comprising Metha Abeygunawardene and Saliya Udugama, inquired into various unsavoury incidents that occurred at the final between CH & FC and Kandy Sports Club at the Singer Professional 7s at Longden Place on January 29. This committee has recommended that Kandy SC's Sanjeewa Weerasinghe and Nalaka Weerakoddy together with CH & FC's Milinda Jayasinghe be suspended for one year from the day of the incident, while CH & FC, who walked out of the field before the final whistle, are to be suspended for six months. If this suspension is ratified by the SLRFU Council at their next meeting, the three players will be unable to represent Sri Lanka at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia next month as well as from the Hong Kong 7s also next month, apart from the Rugby World Cup (RWC) Asia qualifying games against China and Hong Kong. Meanwhile, all the top posts in the SLRFU were uncontested at its annual general meeting held last morning at the Trans Asia Hotel. Priyantha Ekanayake continues as President for the second consecutive year with Michael Jayasekera as Deputy President. Fazal Mohamed comes in as the Secretary and Sunil Karunanayake the Treasurer. There were 10 nominees for seven posts in the Council. Those elected were Arjun Dharmadasa (38 votes), Major General Krishnaratne (38), Sqdr. Ldr. Sanjay Fernando (38), Daya Jayasundera (30), Mohan Samarakoon (30), Roshan Deen (28) and Ranjan Canagasabai (26). President of the SLRFU, Priyantha Ekanayake said that he was very happy to see Sri Lanka's ranking improving dramatically. They are 46th in the world from 68th and sixth in Asia from 10th position and hoped it will improve further. He thanked all the sponsors, including Caltex for the five year sponsorship package from this year, Singer, Carlsberg, JK Office Automation and Trans Asia Hotel. Ekanayake further commented that the SLRFU have managed to change the format of the League tournament and introduce an Under-23 tournament too from this year. He also thanked the SLRFU's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dilroy Fernando, and the Council members, who supported the Union in various ways. A former rugby stalwart and President of SLRFU, was made a Life Member of the SLRFU. As protem Chairman, Almeida said that he was happy that tradition has been given preference over individual agendas and hoped it will continue in the future too. He congratulated Priyantha Ekanayake and his team for bringing in proper procedure and careful control of the Union funds. He further said that more attention should be given to discipline by the players on the field and by officials off the field and instead of going to courts, settle disputes by going to the Appeals Board of the SLRFU.
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