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| Sunday, 29 June 2003 |
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Niluka Karunaratne to Bangalore for badminton training by LAL GUNESEKERA Reigning national men's champion Niluka Karunaratne, will attend the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bangalore, India for a period of two months and later have a short stint in Denmark too. The President of the Sri Lanka Badminton Association (SLBA), Riza Jumar, told the Sunday Observer that young Karunaratne was "frustrated" as the plans made for him by the SLBA to undergo training at an Academy in Denmark failed due to financial difficulties. He said: "The Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Johnston Fernando, promised the SLBA a sum of money to send Karunaratne overseas for training, but it was not forthcoming. Now, the SLBA are sending him to Bangalore at a cost of Rs. 2 lakhs and after a "feed back" from the Padukone Academy, will decide on Karunaratne's future plans". The SLBA are also making a determined effort to get down an Indian side (not the national outfit) to play a series of "Test matches" in Sri Lanka in August or September and former Indian maestro Prakash Padukone is assisting the SLBA in this venture. He said: "There is a lull on the international scene at the moment due to the SARS scare, and this is one of the reasons why we are trying to get down a top Indian side to play in Sri Lanka". Besides this, the Nationalised Services BA Open Championship, too, is scheduled to be worked off in August and like last year (2002), they are expecting to invite players from South Asia for the event. The final rounds of the Junior Nationals are scheduled to be staged in Colombo in July, while the junior pool training in the districts and provinces are now under way and the SLBA hopes to conduct inter-pool matches every three months and also for the coaches to submit progress reports of all players coming under them. An Umpires Association too, is to be formed to develop and upgrade the local umpires under the auspices of the SLBA. |
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