Sanjeewa Jayasinghe final inquiry on Jan.20

By Jatila Karawita

RUGBY: Former Sri Lanka rugby captain Sanjeewa Jayasinghe, who was hauled before the Disciplinary Committee of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) over the remarks he made to the press regarding the appointment of Dushanth Lewke as captain of the national fifteens team last year, has been told to report on the 20th of this month with a show cause letter, before subjecting him to a final inquiry on Jan 22nd.

This was told to the Sunday Observer by Ibrahim Hamid - Chairman of the SLRFU Disciplinary Committee.

Hamid said that Jayasinghe, who was told to report for the initial inquiry on Dec 20th, had failed to turn up on the set date, saying he had to accompany his sick mother to India, which made the Disciplinary Committee to fix January 5th as the next date of the inquiry.

The former Kandy SC skipper had then appeared with his lawyer on Jan 5 at 5.00 p.m. for the inquiry, and the Disciplinary Committee had drawn his attention to the International Rugby Board (IRB) Player Code of Conduct, which Jayasinghe seemed to have flouted, Hamid noted.

Jayasinghe had then given his reasons for his outburst at the choice of Dushanth Lewke as captain and the circumstances which prompted him to go before the press. The Disciplinary Committee had handed him a copy of the IRB handbook which deals with player conduct.

The SLRFU Disciplinary Committee Chairman said that Jayasinghe had promised to delve into the IRB Player Handbook and give his response through a show cause letter on Jan 20th before the matter is taken for a final hearing two days later.

Ibrahim Hamid said that as of now it was difficult to say as to whether Jayasinghe could be found guilty of the offence of speaking out of turn to the media, while being bound by the IRB Code of Conduct for Players, as the explosive winger’s contribution to the game has also to be taken into consideration. If the player is found to have gone against the code of conduct, action will be taken as no player is bigger than the game.

Jayasinghe’s comments over the choice of Dushanth Lewke as captain of the national 15-a-side team around September-October last year, stirred a hornet’s nest as over 12 Kandy SC players withdraw from pool practices ahead of the Asian Five Nations Division-1 tournament held in Chinese Taipei, last November.

A severely weakened national team led by two captains Lewke and Dilanka Wijesekera fared badly in the tri-series which also had Singapore.

Sri Lanka rugby continued to be caught up in controversy in view of the action taken by Kandy SC players showing solidarity with the former club captain Sanjeewa Jayasinghe in protesting the selection of the CR & FC number eight as skipper by the Jupana Jayawardena led selection committee.

Besides Ibrahim Hamid, the others in the SLRFU Disciplinary Committee were: Brigadier M. Z. R. Sallay and Commodore Ravi Wijeguneratne.