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| Sunday, 25 July 2004 |
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Straight talk by Lal Gunesekera Boxing or street fighting? Boxing in Sri Lanka is not what it used to be in the years gone by. Then it was a sheer delight to watch the pugilists ... scientific boxing it was. But now what do you see? Street fighting is what I would describe this blood sport now. No more scientific displays ... Its just throwing your fists around, hoping and praying that they will land in one's opponent's face. In the good old days, there were the Burghers, descendants of the invading Portuguese and the Dutch. Henricus', Bulners, VanCuylenbergs, Pakstan, Van Sanden, De Kauwe's, De Zilwa's, Marshall, Speldewinde, Koch, Jansz are some of the names that readily comes to my mind. They were classy boxers. Then there were also Mahroof, Karunaratne etc. Fighting spirit was in their blood. Schools like St. Peter's, Arethusa, St. Mary's, St. Sylvester's, St. Michael's, St. Anne's from Kurunegala, Wesley, Trinity, Royal and S. Thomas' had English medium, and had a lot of Burgher students. Most of them did not go in for higher studies and went on to join the Armed Services, Police, Railway Department and Prisons. Then these Burghers migrated to Australia and the game of boxing suffered. FASHIONABLE ATTRACTION The Burghers were the dominant factor in boxing. When they fought, there was plenty of female attraction coming to see them in action. Burgher ladies and young girls flocked to see these bouts and cheer them on. They were in their Sunday best. Once horse racing was banned, these lasses came for boxing to display fashionable clothes too. Massive crowds came for these meets then, but now what does one see? Hardly any spectators, and the Amateur Boxing Association (ABA) of Sri Lanka has suffered. There is no money in their coffers, and for the last three years or so, there has been no grants coming in from the Ministry of Sports. BURGHER CLOUT LOST Burghers were involved in the administration too in the ABA. There were people like Vandendriesan, Eddie Gray and even people like Paddy Silva comes to my mind. They did helleva lot for boxing and Sri Lanka's standards were very good. There were a lot of spectators at meets which brought in the money for the ABA. There were Dual Meets, Quadrangular Meets, Triangular Meets - plenty of international contests annually. How is it now? Schools were the cradle of boxing. That is the right stage to mould boxers. There were some top coaches in the schools who had their own rings ... people like Danton Obeyesekere, a Cambridge Blue, who coached Royal for 55 years, L. V. Jayaweera (Carey), St. Mary's had Joe Rodrigo, St. Michael's Anton John, St. Mathew's had T. G. Somapala, Wesley had A. B. Henricus (snr.), Trinity possessed R. V. Routledge and Sgt. Major Jobson, St. Anthony's had John Gaye, S. Thomas' had persons like Cannon de Saram who was an Oxford Blue, A. C. Dassanayake and Wolsey Fonseka, who later coached Zahira too who had David, St. Sylvester's had Derrick Raymond, D. C. A. Wickramasinghe was at Ananda, Merry Pieris at Christian College in Kotte, Thurstan had D. C. Jayatilleke, while Arethusa had Subramaniam and Donald Munasinghe. CREAM TO ARMED FORCES The Armed Forces and Police simply grabbed the top boxers coming out of school to strengthen their boxing teams. The clubs too possessed top coaches. The Army had Larry Foenander, Colonel Kandiah and Major Basil Henricus, Navy had Mahesan, Welivitigoda and Malcolm Marshall, Police had G. C. Pigford, McRobinson and J. P. Ekanayake, Singha Amateur BC possessed D. C. A. Wickremasinghe, H. P. and C. P. Jayasuriya, Sumith Liyanage, Dr. Jayasinghe and Dr. L. P. V. E. Jayaweera, Henry Young was at Straight Left BC, Alex Obeyesekere and Albert Perera at Colombo YMCA, Bradshaw and W. K. Somapala was at Tokage. Who are the top coaches Sri Lanka has now? WANED Most of the experienced coaches have either migrated or are not in the land of the living. What one gets now are inexperienced coaches, who themselves have not been exposed. There is no person coming forward to promote or sponsor boxing and the ABA has no funds let alone crowds and the selling of tickets. Schools like S. Thomas', Trinity, St. Peter's, Wesley, Ananda, Nalanda and Thurstan have given up the sport. When the University banned boxing in the late 1950s, a lot of schools too gave it up and today, find it difficult to revive it. Small schools like St. Mary's, Arethusa, St. Mathew's and St. Michael's just cannot afford to hire a coach. Parents are not keen for their sons to join the Armed Forces and sent to the conflict areas in the North and East. Students prefer to compete in glamour sports like cricket and rugby. They are also sent for tuition classes after school and have no time for sports activities with schools being virtually empty after school. Someone or some organisation has to come forward to promote the sport. A junior pool has got to be picked and be in training throughout the year like during the days of Kandiah and Donald Munasinghe. It's not happening now. The National Championships is scheduled for November, and I understand that the ABA proposes to pick the national pool at its conclusion. This too is not sufficient. They too must be in training throughout the year. There must be a pool in Kandy and Colombo and give them proper training under proper coaches. It's not happening. Coaches should be dedicated and not think of financial gain. What has happened to the Cuban coach? He was brought down on the advice of Donald Munasinghe. It's understood that he is at Pannala and coaching the Slimline boxers. When will Sri Lanka see good scientific boxers again? There are no good fights now - just slugging away for just two minutes. There has to be a revival and there has to be someone to start it. Who is it going to be and when will this happen? SOCCER PROMOTION? Over the last four years (2000 to 2003) over Rs. 21 million (Rs. 21,323,715.19) has been spent by the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) on promotion. Even after this massive amount has been spent, can the show results? During the same period (2000 to 2003), Sri Lanka has been playing in various tournaments overseas in six age groups (under-19, 18, 17, 16, 15 and 14), but fared disastrously. In the South Asian Region alone Sri Lanka, are even below Bhutan. SILLY BILLY These statistics itself speaks for itself of the standard of the country's junior soccer, but FFSL's Director for Youth Development, Mahindapala, says on the famous 'Soccer Show' on national television, that 'it's not the winning that counts, but the taking part and experience that matters most'. What a silly comment to make by this particular individual. Yet another big official has gone on record saying that in 2008, Sri Lanka, will be among the top 10 in Asia. This was said in 2000 too. THUGGERY AGAIN Once again thuggery was seen at a rugby match. This time it occurred at the Army vs CR & FC game at Galle Face on July 16. Mind you, this was an 'A' Division game involving soldiers, and again, a member of the opposing side had to have several stitches on his scalp. Earlier, it was in a 'B' Division game and involving service teams too. This type of unruly behaviour has to stop ... it's disgraceful, and it's the duty of the SLRFU to step in. Only severe disciplinary action against the culprits involved can check it. Remember the European Cup soccer competition, with hooligans being identified and kept out of venues? The SLRFU too should follow suit. WHY THE JEALOUSY ? A former member of the staff of a leading school in Moratuwa, who holds no office in the Sri Lanka Schools' Cricket Association, but continues to gather the statistics of all school cricket matches, is refusing to divulge information on school cricketers needed for the very popular 'Observer-Bata Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year' contests, which has been going on for the last 25 years. However, this person, has not been co-operating with the organisers of this contest for the last two years. Over to you, President of the SLSCA. |
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