Football, Hockey and Athletics badly affected in Kandy due to lack of proper grounds

By hafiz Marikar

FOOTBALL: The time has come to unfold memories about the gradual rise of sportsmen and sportswomen from the Kandy district despite several hardships that faced the development of sports in the heritage city of Sri Lanka. The main problem of increasing popularity of the sport is the lack of proper playing grounds for the sports of football, hockey, athletics in Kandy, thanks to the rugby promoters of the yesteryear who introduced the Nittawela rugby grounds which left the Bogambara grounds the headquarters for Football, hockey and athletics. In the good old days, when people like late Leslie Handunge was in charge of the Peradeniya Campus grounds, hockey, football and athletics had no problems, the game was given top priority despite the distance. Cricketing venues are confined to the Police grounds and campus grounds. One ground a matting wicket and the other is a turf. If not for these two venues schools such as St. Sylvester's, Kingswood, Vidyartha and Sri Sumangala will face major problems due to lack of grounds to continue their sport.

On the other hand, Dharmaraja has their own grounds at Lake View, and Trinity at Asgiriya, which is a International Stadium, they help all schools to play their 'Big Games' at this venue and even help schools whenever they need the grounds for cricket.

St. Anthony's have their own grounds at Katugastota, in addition the Pallekelle ground is also taking shape. There is a cricket playing grounds at Pallekelle Open Prisons this ground too which is being used for school matches, but the distance is the growing issue. Sri Rahula has their own ground at Katugastota. Vidyartha has a pint-sized ground at Nittawela, where they have their practice sessions and play junior cricket, St. Sylvester's ground at Asgiriya can be used only for practices. Kingswood ground which is known as Randles Hill was re-developed, but still to accommodate matches.

Due to the available facilities, today rugger has become the major sporting event in Kandy, both at school and club level, and rugby is blessed with invaluable sponsorships from advertisers. But football and hockey are the sports that run with much difficulties due to lack of facilities and support to improve the sport, but thrive only on the keenness of the clubs and individuals. Sad to say if football and hockey, too, have the facilities enjoyed by cricket and rugby, they will also be a sport to reckon with honours.

Three sports lack facilities

The three major sports of International status of the past lack proper ground facilities for training in Kandy are football, athletics and hockey. The headquarters of football was at Bogambara, whereby first priority was given to football in the past, including hockey and athletics. Now most of the school rugby matches are played during their season and deprived of grounds for training and matches. When January comes, all the boys and girls schools reserve the ground for their annual sports meet practices and sports meets. During these days football, athletics and hockey cannot take place.

Self-help basis

Here most of the clubs are running on a self-help basis with sports loving individuals with compassion, kindness and friendliness to promote the game. Some are lucky to have patrons and supporters who, with their good connections, manage to generate some funds to keep these clubs alive and kicking. But generally the picture created is very sad.

But football at league level, has many benefits and privileges to support the game, thanks to the generosity of king maker of the game Manilal Fernando who lends huge support to the game. Kandy League gets the necessary backing to play their domestic tournaments. At present they have paid the ground fee in advance, but the Bogambara Stadium is under repairs in preparation for the National Sports Festival, therefore, all matches are held up. There are no other grounds to play the game which has become a serious concern.

The Bogambara grounds, which was converted from a lake in 1897 is one of the oldest in the country, with a long history. During the early days it was the site for carnivals, games of skill, circuses, political meetings etc. Gradually football clubs, Kandy Sports Club and schools like Trinity, St. Anthony's, Sri Rahula, St. Paul's, Dharmaraja and Kingswood made it their venue and staged football, cricket, rugby, hockey and athletics. It was also at one time used for the national games like elle, chakgudu etc. In 1972, when the Kandy Municipal Council was under the Special Commissioner M.B. Samarakoon, under the premiership of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, with the backing of people like E.L. Senanayake MP, Noel Wimalasena MP, M. Shanmugam - the Police Chief of that time, E.W. Balasuirya, Dr. C.D.L. Fernando, Amin Marikar, Shelton Ranaraja, the Daily Mirror Stalwart M.E. Marikar was the Reporter got things moving and Bogambara grounds was turned into a stadium and tiers were put right round the grounds, the biggest donor at that time was E.W. Balasuriya.

In the early days all the names were displayed in front of the pavilion, but when the renovation took place the nameboards went missing. The Kandy Municipal Council owned the Bogambara grounds until 1989 when it was taken over by the then government under Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga took over the grounds for development and had plans to hold the Independence Celebrations there, but due to the Dalada Maligawa bomb blast the celebrations were cancelled.

FOOTBALL: is perhaps one of the most popular games in the world, which was introduced to us by the Europeans. From early days of barefoot competition to the present age of sophisticated football, Kandy has played a vital role in its growth.

A look back at Kandy football the Association was founded in 1920s and were the founder members of the controlling body (FFSL), The main hit for the game is dearth of grounds, is a hindrance to its activities. The only public football ground in Kandy was Bogambara, now appeal has been made to the Sports Minister to look into this matter.

HOCKEY - A look back into Kandy hockey reveals that the game was introduced by two veterans, namely the late P.T. Rajan who was backed by the late V.D. Paul Raj of Kingswood fame. They were assisted by late the J.O. Mendis also of Kingswood and M.S. Jainudeen the doyen for the promotion of Hockey. Before that in 1907 hockey was played in Kandy at the Military Barracks now known as the Police Grounds, by the Rajaput.

The three major sports which lack proper ground facilities in Kandy are football, athletics and hockey. The headquarters of football was at Bogambara, and first priority was given for football in the good old days, and also for hockey. Now most of the school rugby matches are played there. When January comes, all the boys' and girls' schools reserve the ground for their sports meet practices and sports meets. Then football, athletics and hockey cannot take place.

Hockey 'died'

The Antonians who were housed at the present St. Sylvester's premises, played with the regiment. In 1909 when the Indians left, the game was dead and there was no hockey.

After the formation of the Kandy District Hockey Association, only a handful teams took part in the early tournaments. The teams were Indian Students Hostel (Now Known as Asoka Students Hostel), St. Anthony's College under the name of Hotspurs, Kingwood College, Trinity College under the name of Rabbits, the Kandy Rovers and the Imperial Motor Garages Sports Club.

As the years went on, hockey flourished in Kandy, the hill capital and schools in and around Kandy took to hockey. During the Second World War a large number of clubs and schools including foreign teams played in Kandy. It must be recalled that late M.S. Jainudeen as Hony Secretary of Kandy District Hockey Association, went all-out to popularize the game in Kandy along with the late P.T. Rajan. Mention must be made of great players like the late Philip Buultjens, Boby H.W. Jayaweera and Sam Elhart of Trinity fame, Robert Wright, P. Thangaveloo, A.L. Permumal, George Mackey and Lionidas James of Kingswood - all of whom had the opportunity of playing against the Indian World Champion and Olympics champions led by the Hockey Wizard Dyan Chand.

The oldest trophy in the field of hockey in Kandy is the P.T.Rajan trophy, which may be the first. At present R. Maheswaran is the President of the Kandy District Hockey Association, and he is doing a grand job with limited facilities. What they lack is proper playing field and sponsorship to keep the game going. At one time Kingswood fame Roy de Silva was the President of the controlling body and he gave his best to promote the game.

ATHLETICS The early history of Kandy's athletics is lost in the midst of time. Records are unavailable and people associated with the early years are long since dead. Almost up to 1925, athleticism as such, was not given as much importance as it is today nor did our athletes were interested. The biggest athletics events in schools were the sports meet, a occasion of general entertainment, almost excuses for social gatherings with the events arranged in order to provide fun and relaxation rather than for the purpose of establishing records.

There are two possible explanations for this attitude both of which were possible. On one had, it was a period when the competitive spirit and had not entered into athletics in the way it has today. Secondly, the schools had no grounds of their own sufficiently large to pay the extra attention to athletics.