From war games to sporting pride

Jaffna populace exposing the hypocrisy and corruption that led to Colombo's rotting Sugathadasa stadium:

by Callistus Davy

A rustic city once ravaged and battered by bombs and guns is now giving way to staking a claim to become one of Sri Lanka's major sporting venues that could even out-beat a rotting Sugathadasa stadium track in Colombo as scores of construction workers push to complete the arena over the next six months.

The venue under construction was known as the Alfred Durayappa Stadium in honour of the Jaffna mayor who went down in dubious history as the first politician in the north to be assassinated by the now obliterated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1975.

Since then the venue was reduced to a typical village public playground where even cattle could have roamed and hosted no major competitions apart from a local football match, a College sports meet or tennis ball cricket. But come April 2016 the Durayappa stadium will book its place as a possessive sporting venue no longer over-grown with weeds and grass or dilapidated to the point where cobwebs and ramshackle ceilings bore testimony to its neglect.

"This is going to be the pride of the people of Jaffna",said chief construction engineer GM Riyaz who directs the company Wahid Construction which is redesigning and upgrading the venue.

"When we commenced work it was anything but a sporting venue. Almost everything was aching and breaking", he said.

When complete it will have provision for further improvements by way of a 400-metre athletics track, floodlights, changing rooms, a gym and seating accommodation for nearly 7000 spectators.

The whole project is funded by the Indian government at a cost of Rs.170 million (Indian currency) which may work out to more than 350 million in Sri Lanka rupees.

But what could really be the eye-opener of Sri Lankan sports followers is that a revamped or new facility in the north will further expose the hypocrisy and corruption taking place in the power echelons of Colombo that has only led to what was once the country's premier arena, the Sugathadasa stadium, turned into a virtual ghost venue.

By the time the new look Durayappa stadium hosts an athletics meet or a football match, the fragmented Sugathadasa stadium track may be a hiding place for maggots and worms as not a single National level meet has taken place over the past one year.

Experts warn that the current state of the Sugathadasa track has pushed back the country's struggling athletics by miles.

"We only have ministers who are merely talking and doing nothing. So how can you expect the country to produce medal winners when the only place (Sugathadasa) that offered athletes such a guarantee is in an appalling state and not fit for running", said veteran athletics coach and a former sports director Yogananda Wijesundera.

The worn-off track at the Sugadasa Stadium, according to sports ministry officials, is bound by a so-called supplier agreement and cannot be replaced or redone until 2017. Analysts charge that the inferior track was a public rip-off done in 2012, a far cry from the acclaimed all-weather synthetic course made of polyurethane that is standard for international athletes.