Rugby selectors resign over exclusion of Imran Bisthamin

By Jatila KARAWITA

RUGBY: The five-member rugby selection panel appointed by Minister of Sports and Public Recreation Gamini Lokuge on October 22 under the Chairmanship of Rohan Abayakoon tendered their resignations to him yesterday (Nov 1) as they said the Minister has made a change to the original 24-member squad forwarded for his ratification last Friday (Oct 31).

“The Minister has made a change to the squad of 24 by bringing in Nilusha Fernando at the expense of Imran Bisthamin”, Abayakoon, told reporters at a media briefing held at the CH & FC club house on Saturday.

“From the squad that we discussed and sent to the Minister for ratification Imran Bisthamin has been excluded.

“And we feel that he has to be in the squad for this tour of Chinese Taipei. “We opposed the omission of Bisthamin but we know the Minister has the final say.

“However, we have decided to tender our resignations with immediate effect as we feel the squad chosen by our panel has been tampered with”.

The Rohan Abayakoon led selection panel also consisted of Hafeel Marso, Rohantha Peiris, Nazeem Mohammed and Chaminda Rupasinghe.

Abeyakoon, stated that the choice of his committee to captain the national team for the HSBC Asian Five Nations Division One tournament in Chinese Taipei was Dilanka Wijesekera.

And he insisted that Dushanth Lewke being retained as skipper had nothing to do with the panel of selectors as he had been ratified as captain based on recommendations made to the Minister by the previous selection committee headed by Brigadier Jupana Jayawardene.

Continuing further former CH & FC and Trinity centre Abayakoon observed that if the Minister had ratified the 24-member squad chosen by his panel sans any change then Sri Lanka could have stood a good chance of winning the upcoming tournament which is to be played from November 12-15 in Taiwan.

Asked for his views on the importance of the forthcoming tournament for Sri Lanka rugby in general, the former Chairman of Selectors was of the view that if the national team were to come unstuck then they could face the possibility of facing a demotion to the bottom tier of Asian rugby by the sport’s world controlling body the International Rugby Board (IRB).

Airing his opinion on the team he noted that the best team chosen by his panel is not representing the country hence they had decided to leave their posts not wanting to be a party to it.

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Chaminda quits as team manager

Former Sri Lanka, Havelocks SC and S. Thomas’ second row forward Chaminda Rupasinghe who was one of the selectors in the Rohan Abayakoon led selection panel that resigned yesterday, also tendered his resignation as Manager of the team in addition to being the Tour Selector.

Rupasinghe, who was also a participant at the press conference convened by the Ex-Chairman of the panel Rohan Abayakoon stated that he had resigned from his post of Vice President of Havelocks SC and he had intimated this decision to the Minister of Sports and Public Recreation, Gamini Lokuge.

“I have no dealings with the SLRFU”, he told reporters. “I was appointed as a selector by the Minister and I only deal with the Minister.

“The SLRFU cannot interfere with my duties”.

Rupasinghe stated that he had only come to know that he had been appointed as Manager through the press only yesterday and that he was taken unawares about it. He further stressed that he had resigned as Vice President of Havelocks SC with effect from October 23. Hence there were no valid ground for the SLRFU to state that he was to function as Tour Selector while being the Vice President of the Havelocks Sports Club. (JK)

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