Sports Minister Aluthgamage sanctions allowance for coaches with results

Coaches in luck's way ... Minister of Sports Mahindananda Aluthgamage has decided to give a special allowance to coaches who train talented provincial level athletes to perform competently at both national and international level.

The Minister expressed these ideas at a meeting held on Friday to explain about the Kreeda Shakthi programme to Sports Officers from the Central Province at the auditorium of the Kandy District Secretariat. Expressing his ideas at the meeting, Minister Aluthgamage stated that there seems to be reluctance among the provincial coaches to hand in talented athletes they have trained from provincial level to the national coaches when the athletes are selected to the national squads. The attitude such as this by the provincial coaches becomes a barrier towards selecting good athletes who can perform well at both national and international level.

Therefore, the Minister said that at the ministry they decided to implement a programme to encourage the provincial coaches by providing them with a king of sponsorship. Minister Aluthgamage said that the Ministry of Sports would give an allowance of Rs. one lakh (Rs.100,000) to encourage the coaches who mould athletes to the standard that they would represent Sri Lanka at national and international level competitions.

Speaking further Minister Aluthgamage said that an athlete who is selected to the national squad is a national treasure and should be taken care of and should not be kept at provincial level.

The athletes that show promise should be trained properly so that they would be able to win at international level.

Taking this into account and with regards to the National Sports Policy, the Ministry of Sports will register all the coaches of Sri Lanka and grade them according to their skills.

Mrs. Ranjan Jayakody - Director General of the Department of Sports Development, Shantha Weerasinghe - Director (Sports) and Sajin Jayalal - Deputy Director (Sports) of the Department of Sports were associated at the meeting with Minister of Sports Mahindananda Aluthgamage.