Sports Minister’s Oct.10 meeting should settle rugby crisis

By Jatila KARAWITA

RUGBY: Former Sri Lanka Fifteens and Sevens rugby skipper Sanjeewa Jayasinghe, who is at the centre of a furore, involving the national selectors over the selection of Dushanth Lewke as captain of the national team, ahead of the inaugural Asian Five Nations Division 1 tournament in Chinese Taipei next month, welcomed the intervention of Minister of Sports Gamini Lokuge, to settle the issue. “I welcome the intervention of Minister to solve this crisis”, he told Sunday Observer.

“So far, I feel the Minister has been kept in the dark as to what has happened with regard to the choice of the captain of the Sri Lanka side.

“I think it is good that he has called for a one-to-one meeting with SLRFU and the selectors with whom my grouse is”. The meeting is scheduled for October 10. Jayasinghe, who sensationally walked out of national fifteens pool practices back in early September, voicing his protest at the appointment of CR&FC ‘number eight’ Dushanth Lewke, later decided to withdraw from representing the country at all international rugby tournaments for the remainder of the year.

His exit was soon followed by the departure of another 12 Kandy SC players, thus reducing the practices to a joke in the minds of the rugby analysts. He alleged that a grave injustice had been meted out to a player like him by overlooking him or any other deserving player for the captaincy an it has to be notified to the Minister, hence it was apt of the Minister to have called for a meeting next week.

The explosive wing three-quarter stated that his decision to quit pool practices was a unanimous and a personal one, and that the involvement of another of his 12 club colleagues had nothing to do with the decision taken by him.

Asked whether he would promptly return to pool practices if Minister Gamini Lokuge were to bring about a settlement to the issue of captaincy, the ex-Sri Lanka captain cum winger said that it was premature to comment on it, but was quick to emphasise that nothing less than a change of skipper was unlikely to diffuse the crisis. Jayasinghe added that he has only voiced his protest and displeasure at the selection of Dushanth Lewke as captain for the said tournament in Taiwan in November, hence the question of handing out any punishment to him or any of his mates from Kandy SC would not arise in the first place. He further said that the sooner the Minister is able to settle this issue which has been raging for over a month now, the better it will be for Sri Lanka rugby and stressed that the ball was now firmly in the court of the Minister.

“It is now up to the Minister to mete out justice”, Sanjeewa Jayasinghe said, referring to the meeting covened by the Minister with the selectors and the SLRFU.

Besides Sanjeewa Jayasinghe, the others who have continued to boycott pool practices are: Anuranga Walpola, Sumedha Jayasinghe, Sean Wijesinghe, Jeewa Galgamuwa, S. Jehan, Fazil marija, Saliya Kumara, Radhika Hettiarachchi, Pradeep Liyanage, Sameera Silva, Imran Bisthamin and Gayan Weeraratne respectively.

The four-nation Asian Five Nations-Division 1 tournament is to be contested between hosts Chinese Taipei, China, Singapore and Sri Lanka from Nov. 12-15.