Indiscipline cannot be tolerated - Minister Lokuge

by Lal Gunesekera

BODY BUILDING: Indiscipline, particularly thuggery, cannot be tolerated at any cost and severe disciplinary measures will have to be taken to correct this sort of behaviour before it spreads further to any other sports body.

In this incident, the Sri Lanka Body Building and Fitness Federation (SLBBFF) Interim Committee will have to take the necessary action.

This was the comment made by the Minister of Sports and Public Recreation, Gamini Lokuge, to the Sunday Observer when asked about the alleged assault on the Chairman of the Interim Committee of the SLBBFF, Jeff Schucroft at the Mr. Sri Lanka contest held last December at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH), by certain persons at the instigation of a former President of the SLBBFF, who also owns a fitness gymnasium.

This individual was removed as a member of the Interim committee of the SLBBFF by Minister Lokuge in September last year (2007) after he was openly engaged in a “slanging match” with another member of the interim body, who was also a former President of the SLBBFF.

The Minister dissolved the SLBBFF and appointed an Interim Committee only in August last year and the “slanging match” took place in front of a big gathering of media personnel at the inaugural media briefing. Both were removed by Minister Lokuge.

Schucroft had lodged a complaint with the Cinnamon Gardens Police who had reprimanded the person concerned, who was later found guilty at an inquiry conducted by K. S. Pieris (Assistant Director of Sports, Department of Sports Development), who had recommended in his report that disciplinary action had to be taken against this individual.

The Secretary to the Ministry of Sports and Public Recreation, S. Liyanagama, confirmed to the Sunday Observer that he had received the report from Pieris and will request the Chairman of the Interim Committee of the SLBBFF, Jeff Schucroft, to take necessary disciplinary action in this regard.

Schucroft told the Sunday Observer that he will have to appoint a Disciplinary Committee from among its affiliates and once he receives the letter from the Ministry of Sports and Public Recreation, he will send a copy of it to the Secretary-General of the Asain Body Building Federation (ABBF), Paul Chua, and ask for his advice too on this matter of alleged assault.