Manager for Chinese Taipei rugby tour may resign

By Jatila KARAWITA

The manager of Sri Lanka national rugby team Colonel Sunil Ranasinghe, is mulling quitting his post if the ongoing Sri Lanka rugby crisis is not solved satisfactorily, within the next few days, he told Sunday Observer.

“I have not yet made a decision whether to resign or not”, he said.

“This is something that I will contemplate in the next day or two and inform the SLRFU Council.”

Colonel Ranasinghe, a former Sri Lanka and Army SC fly half who was a unanimous choice of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) Council for the post of manager of the national fifteen a-side team to the inaugural Asian Five-Nations in Chinese Taipei, next month said that with the current rugby impasse which has seen players being divided into camps over petty issues he was unable to take any firm decision.

He stated that as manager he should be allowed to manage players the way he wants but given the situation which has seen some Kandy SC players reporting for practices having sat out training for over a month while another group of players from Colombo clubs who were training during that period opted out before returning for practices has left him in a quandary.

Colonel Sunil Ranasinghe added that he was yet to meet the new rugby selection committee headed by Rohan Abeykoon for discussions on team selections and stressed that the ongoing dispute over the national team captaincy and the final selection of the team had to be sorted out if he were to remain as manager of the Sri Lanka National XV.

Minister of Sports Gamini Lokuge dissolved the previous rugby Selection Committee headed by retired Brigadier Jupana Jayawardene last Wednesday (Oct 22), and chose a new five-member panel of selectors to look into the issue of selecting the new Sri Lanka XV for the Asian Five Nations in Chinese Taipei from Nov. 12-15. Sri Lanka, Singapore, China, Thailand and host nation Chinese Taipei is slated to contest the tournament.

The new selection committee for rugby consists of Rohan Abeykoon as Chairman, Rohantha Peiris, Hafeel Marso, Nazeem Mohamed and Chaminda Rupasinghe.