Harshana Godamanne - only certainty for Lanka's Davis Cup team

by Lal Gunesekera

TENNIS: World ranked player Harshana Godamanne who is bassed in Bangkok, Thailand is the only automatic choice to represent Sri Lanka in the eight team Davis Cup (Asia. Oceania Zone Group III) tournament to be staged in Teheran, Iran for one week from April 7.

There are eight countries vying for honours: Sri Lanka, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Vietnam and Syria.

Godamanne plays in tournaments regularly in Thailand and other Asian countries and is being coached by Dominiq Utzinger the Swiss coach who is in charge of a Tennis Academy in Bangkok. He is also Sri Lanka's coach.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) Lt. Colonel (rtd) Chrys de Silva, told the Sunday Observer that eight players were involved in what he termed as "observation" matches based on their ranking points and performances.

They were Sanka Athukorale, Hewakapuwage, Gayanga Weerasekera, Michael Siyagune, Dinusha Wijesuriya, Udith Wickremasinghe, Sean Patrick and Dinesh Kanthan. These "observation" matches have been completed.

He further said that the national selectors headed by P.S. Kumara and comprising Aruna Seneviratna, Sanjay Wijemanne and Iqbal Bin Issac are also looking at the possibilities of Rajiv Rajapakse and veteran Rohan de Silva (who was last year's non-playing captain) being the doubles combination.

De Silva further said that the selectors have already informed Oshada Wijemanne and Franklyn Emmanuel who are undergoing higher studies in the USA, requesting whether they are available to play in the Davis Cup in April or not. If they are available, these two players will have to come to Colombo before February 15 and prove themselves.

The selectors had also met last week and decided that Sri Lanka's final team of four travel to Bangkok and be trained by Dominiq Utzinger at "The Academy" for two weeks in February-March. Further "trials" are to be held after Wednesday (January 16) and the number of players will be pruned down further and include a reserve player as well.

The eight players will be divided into the groups and play each other further from January 16 to 18 and again from January 20 to 24. They are Sanka Athukorale, Gayanga Weerasekera, Dinusha Wijesuriya and Michael Siyagune in one and the others are Sean Patrick, Hewakotuwage, Udith Wickremasinghe and Dinesh Kanthan.

Wasantha Wijesekera, a Vice-President of the SLTA, will continue to be the manager of the country's Davis Cup team, while the non-playing captain has not yet being decided by the SLTA General Committee, but players cannot dictate terms on whom they want as officials to accompany the team.