No compromise on selection issue- Anton Benedict

By Lal Gunasekera

RUGBY: There will be no compromise. Discipline and values comes first. It's a principle. The Selectors will go ahead and pick the final 23-member side (they were to do it yesterday) with or without the five players from Kandy Sports Club who had gone to France to witness the World Cup final.

So said Anton Benedict, Chairman of the Rugby Selectors when contacted by the Sunday Observer yesterday. Attendance counts and keeping away without a valid reason (witness a World Cup final is not valid as national duty comes first) is a criteria.

The Asiad is to be staged in Colombo from November 3 to 10 and the five players from Kandy Sports Club who are away in France at the moment are - Sanjeeva Jayasinghe, Dushan Lewke, Fazil Marija, Sean Wijesinghe and Imran Bisthamin.

Benedict had gone to the Ministry of Sports and met its Secretary, Liyanagamage, handed over all the documents and given a "patient" hearing about the entire episode concerning the selections and about the five players who are away in France.

The hierarchy of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) too had gone to the Ministry of Sports and requested that the five players be included in the national side for the Asiad.

Benedict told he Sunday Observer that upto now there has been no official communication from the SLRFU informing the selectors that the five players will be away in France for the World Cup final. He said that the Minister has the right to include whom he wants, and if the Minister overrules the selections made by he Selection Committee, he (Benedict) is willing to resign as Chairman.

The five players are scheduled to return to the country only tomorrow (Monday).