Mixed bag for sports in Kandy, what next?

by Hafiz Marikar

As another year comes to an end it is an appropriate time to take a look at sports development in Kandy.

Rugby has arguably become the king of domestic sports with Kandy SC no doubt taking centre stage and playing the leading role. They have been dominating the rugby scene for nearly two and a half decades which no other club has done so far with the most number of Sri Lanka players.

In the schools set-up teams like Trinity, Kingswood, St. Anthony's, Vidyartha and Dharmarajah are in the forefront.

The only other sport that has made an impact domestically is cricket especially at school level. The schools are giving a big hand for the game with Trinity, St. Anthony's, Dharmarajah, St. Sylvester's, Sri Sumangala, Kingswood and Sri Rahula doing well. Sad to say, the standard of club cricket has dropped due to poor organization in Kandy.

Football was once the most played game in Kandy for over a hundred years which has now taken a back seat. Today football is nowhere in Kandy at club level.

In Kandy hockey is catching up to be a popular sport where the girls' schools dominate and the boys schools striving to be on par.

But club hockey continues to be neglected.

Billards and snooker have crashed in Kandy and there are no tournaments as in those heydays. Of course a sport like swimming has surfaced and staying afloat to compete thanks to schools like Mahamaya, Hillwood and Trinity while boxing has not made any vast strides but is still able to find a place.

In netball schools like Girls High School, Hillwood, Mahamaya, St Anthony's Convent, Pushpadana, Swarnamali, Hemamali and all the International schools take the game very seriously while track and field sports can also boast of a slot.

Tragically sports like table tennis, cycling, badminton, tennis and the so-called national sport of volleyball are in the dumps while basketball has some dignity.