CR sacks coach who took them from 6th to 3rd slot

CR & FC one of the leading rugby clubs in Sri Lanka has sacked their head coach Inthisham Marikkar two weeks after the club season ended in March.

CR finished third in the recently concluded Dialog Rugby league behind Kandy SC and Havelocks SC, were runner up in the knockout to Kandy SC and ended up third in the Sevens. At the end of such an impressive season

Marikar said that he was called up by the CR &FC hierarchy president Ravi Goonaratne and vice president Sriyan Cooray and told that the club no longer needed his services anymore. “They told me, we want to take CR rugby to the next level, hence we don’t want you, we are getting down a foreigner,” Marikkar told the Sunday Observer.

“I was simply shocked, no review process, no warning, nothing. So I asked them, ‘After all the hard work I have done for the last two years, now you want me to go and someone else to take the cream?’

“The same day I asked them for my contract copy which I had not been given and also for the letter of termination of my services. But none have been forthcoming so far,” said Marikkar. Marikkar took over as head coach during the 2014-15 season and CR at the time was ranked sixth. The two years he handled the side the club showed remarkable progress. Critics who have a favourable opinion of the head coach said that the efforts Marikkar took to guide the side this season were genuine. The team didn’t have luck coming its way and lost some crucial matches due to poor refereeing. However despite these setbacks the team turned itself into a feared unit as the club rugby season progressed largely due to the contributions made by the head coach and his two assistants Shamly Nawaz and M.J.M. Mushtaq.

“We did not sack Inthi, he didn’t have a contract and it was not renewed,” said CR&FC president Ravi Gooneratne. “At this present moment I cannot comment who will take over from him.”

Member of the General Committee and the Rugby Board of CR & FC Mangala de Silva said, “We have not yet appointed a new coach for the upcoming 2016/17 season. A decision on that will be taken on May 12.”

However De Silva who is also a qualified trainer admitted that it would be a foreign coach and that he would be assisting him.

It is reliably learnt that former Army Sports Club and St. Peter’s College rugby head coach 38-year-old Scottish Ben McDougall is being tipped to take over as the head coach of CR and FC. He is expected to be in the country by next month to take over the team and to prepare them for the inter-club Sevens starting in July.

- WAI