Shedding more light on the sacking of Imthi Marikar from CR&FC :

Was coach removed for one club’s domination ?

The sudden removal of Imthi Marikar as head coach of one of the top rugby clubs in Sri Lanka – CR&FC has led to a lot of speculation among the rugby fraternity whether it was done to allow another club to dominate the local rugby scene or was it due to personal jealousy

Marikar’s track record as coach of CR&FC to say the least is nearly faultless, so his unexpected removal from the post after taking the club from sixth to third position in the Dialog league championships and to the final of the Clifford Cup knockout after a lapse of ten years has really raised a hornet’s nest.

To achieve these goals Marikar had to undergo many hardships when he took over as head coach of CR in 2014.

“I undertook this post after the club’s rugby chairman Ajith Abeyratne and club president Christopher Jordash approached me and said they needed my services as coach for a period of three years on a yearly renewal basis,” said Marikar.

“Initially I was reluctant considering past issues I had with the club where I was announced to captain in 1992, but just before the season it was changed. However, Ajith and Christopher both persisted with me, promising they would give any support I want for rugby. I highlighted that previously CR had issues with players leaving due to too much interference by the committees, I named many players who left due to this and Abeyratne agreed that it won’t happen again.

“I also said if I am the head coach, I should be able to select the team, as I am the one working with them and training them and I have the technical, tactical and physical knowledge of the players. The final decision should be mine to which they agreed. It was under those terms that I undertook the post.”

Substantiating Marikar’s statement Christopher Jordash, the former CR&FC president said, “In 1987 under my captaincy after four long years I brought back a cup (Clifford Cup knockout) to my beloved Longden Place club the CR & FC. After I took over as the club president in 2013/14 season I had the same mission of getting back a cup to my club which had eluded us for almost a decade.

“It’s correct that myself and the rugby chairman Ajith (Abeyratne) along with a few other members of the club persuaded Imthi (Marikar) to take this challenge as we felt that Inthi was the most structured, experienced and up to-date coach who could bring back a cup to CR.”

“When I took the job, the captain appoint had moved to Kandy and another 17 players had gone to CH & FC. We had only 12 players and I had a daunting task of recruitment as I somehow wanted to finish in the top 4, the team was ranked 6 when I took over,” Marikar explained.

“I went along finding players and recruited another 12 players, who could make a difference, of the 12 players at CR only a few were good, the others were very ordinary and injured as well. There wasn’t hardly a pre season, the club appointed Ashan de Costa as captain. We trained really hard and started off positively and went about quite well. As planned we finished the season within the top 4 and although it was not the best, but with all the difficulties, I believe it was quite an effort by all,” he said.

“In the 2015/16 season; we recruited some good young players from other clubs and also some top school boys, I wanted a trainer from New Zealand to come and do a study on the S&C (Strength & Conditioning) levels of the boys.

This was done and Dave Murray was quite happy with the strength levels but not the conditioning levels. He also screened all the players and adviced them on proper training and techniques. This was really helpful and I thank the committee, headed by Mr. Jordash for this support.”

But where things started to go wrong for Marikar was when Jordash moved out as club president when he did not contest and a new committee became elected under the presidentship of Ravi Goonaratne with Sriyan Cooray as Deputy president.

“Two weeks prior to the inter-club 7s tournament, the committee headed by Jordash suddenly changed, We had issues with funding and due to lack of sponsors I was told that we may not be able to put up a side for the Sevens tournament. Though I was really upset kept it unaware from the players and the captain. The boys kept on training and worked really hard since I didn’t want the players to lose their morale mentally and physically,” said Marikar.

“However we took part in the Sevens and after a very close game we only lost to Kandy SC in the semi-finals and finished 3rd overall, which I personally thought was a good start considering where we were before the commencement of the tourney. To go along with it our centre Rochana Hettiarachchi was adjudged the most promising player of the tournament,” he said.

“In the league we played the pre season games and won all very well. The season kicked off well although we lost the second game to Havelocks. Overall we did creditably well to finish third in the league considering the squad we had. We had only one current national player in centre Kanchana Ramanayaka, whereas Kandy had close to 15, Havies about 8, Navy 8 and Police about 6, all of them had more than us.

“The committee is also aware of how we were robbed by very poor referee decisions in many games. The day of the final league game, the team was all alone by themselves and not a single newly elected committee member was there to say ‘well done boys’ for the improved progress we achieved.”

There were several managerial issues that cropped up which could have been detrimental to the team’s performance but Marikar put aside all of them to concentrate on winning the knockout.

“I had a meeting with the coaches and the players the night the league ended and I said we were heading in the right direction and that we can win the knockout.

“I personally funded the nutrition for the team through the three weeks. We won the quarterfinal beating the no 6 team in the league whom we had already beaten twice in the league,” said Marikar.

“Next up semi-finals and we had to play the number two team Havelock’s. In the league we had lost both games to them. Some people wanted me not to change the team for the semis but to go with the same team that beat the No. 6 team in the quarterfinal. This was shocking but i somehow did the changes and we won the semis and entered the final after 10 long years.

“With lots of hardships we prepared for the final - some days no pain killers for training, the players were at the end of a long and hard season, the whole season we had taping and plaster issues as a result the training was always delayed.

“In the final, we played really well in the first half and the first 20 minutes of the second half. After that we made two silly errors the sin bin and penalty try given to go along with the poor exit kick, which landed in the safe hands of a Kandy player who scampered through for an easy try, which cost us the game in the end. However I am very proud of this young set of players we got.The saddest part is that coach Marikar and the newly elected committee never saw eye to eye on many things and this led to a great deal of apprehension and suspicion which did not augur well for the club.

“The committee did not understand what I had planned, I repeatedly said be patient, but we were scrutinized with videos and many questions after every game, it was more of a case of no support but more of finding fault. Even when we watched videos and clarified points it was taken wrongly by the committee. Even when we stated that the game has evolved and things are different now, it was taken wrongly. With all these issues and the manager not supporting was simply undermining our efforts,” explained Marikar. (WAI)