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| Sunday, 30 October 2005 |
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Straight talk by Lal Gunesekera Minister Jeevan to meet NSC officials regarding amended Sports Law The Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Jeevan Kumaratunga, is likely to meet the disappointed members of the National Sports Council (NSC) on either November 8 or 9 to discuss various issues, including bypassing the NSC on important issues. He has promised this in front of Prime Minister and Presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapakse to a member of the NSC at a function at Temple Trees last Saturday, October 22. Some members of the NSC, including its Chairman Saman Amarasinghe and two others too were present on this occasion. One member expressed his disappointment to Minister Kumaratunga, who first agreed to meet the NSC after November 19, but later consented to meet them on either November 8 or 9. The NSC are also to request Minister Kumaratunga to cancel the implementation of the amended Sports Law No. 25 of 1975 which allows only the President and Secretary (Hemasiri Fernando and Cmdr (rtd) H. U. Silva) of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Sri Lanka to continue in office for another unprecedented third term. The annual general meeting of the NOC is scheduled to staged on November 14. It does not seem likely that the letter to be sent to Minister Kumaratunga by the NSC will ever see the light of day. Apart from Hemasiri Fernando and H. U. Silva who represents the Archery Association in the NOC, there are six vying for four berths as vice-Presidents. They are - Deva Henry (Rowing), Sunil Jayaweera (Athletics), Maxwell de Silva (Tennis), Manilal Fernando (Soccer), Dian Gomes (Boxing) and Minister Dilan Perera (Volleyball). The posts of Treasurer (Gamini Jayasinghe - Hockey), and Assistant Treasurer (Pathma Gunawardene - Gymnastics) are uncontested, while two are vying for the post Assistant Secretary (Lakashman Ranasinghe from Archery and Riza Jumar from Badminton). There are 21 sports controlling bodies in the NOC, but Swimming, Cycling, Wrestling and Taekwondo are not eligible to vote at the annual general meeting of NOC as they are governed by Interim Committees. There is also a strong possibility of a court injunction against the holding of the annual general meeting of the NOC as well as that of amending the Sports Law No. 25 of 1975. With only two weeks remaining for the annual general meeting of the NOC, it will be interesting to see whether Minister Kumaratunga will cancel the implementation of this particular amendment to the Sports Law which he got passed in Parliament without any advice from the NSC or whether he will decide to ignore the matter completely. Let's wait and see. However, the persons who wrote to President Chandrika Kumaratunga about two weeks back on the same matter, are confident that she will take action even at this stage to bring about justice and fairplay. They say that President Kumaratunga is the only person who can intervene in this matter and conduct an impartial inquiry as they have no confidence on Minister Jeevan Kumaratunga. Imagine an individual holding office continuously for a period of 12 years (They have already been there for eight long years). Not even a President of this country had held the reigns for such a long time. But thanks to minister Kumaratunga, the President and Secretary of the NOC can stick on for a third four-year term and even go on and on. Straight Talk attacked The Secretary of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, S. Ranugge, made a scathing attack on my column titled " Straight Talk" calling it more of a "gossip column" and even accusing information been leaked to me by persons within his Ministry. He made these comments at a ceremony held to declare open a computer room at the Ministry's Sports Development School, and even went to the extent of saying that the decision to dissolve Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) by Minister Jeevan Kumaratunga was on the instructions of President Chandrika Kumaratunga. I would like to say Mr. Ranugge that as a journalist of over three decades, I have made "very reliable contacts" in various sports institutions and reiterate that my column contains news of public interest and not gossip. Soon after Secretary Ranugge accused certain officials of his Ministry of "leaking" information to my column, the Director-General of the Ministry, Milton Amrasinghe, who was also acting chief of the Sports Development School, tendered his letter of resignation. Amarasinghe is a public official for 32 years, and Ranugge accused that he was not even told about a certain meeting that took place, whereas the Secretary, he should have been kept informed. No rent again ? The Director of the Sugathadasa Stadium National Sports Complex Authority (SSNSCA), Cmdr (rtd) H. U. Silva, never paid any rent, electricity or water bills since he came into occupation of his official quarters within the complex for the past 10 years or so. However, since March this year (2005), rent, water and electricity bills for his quarters were deducted from his salary after Gamini Netticumara took office as Chairman of the SSNSCA, who followed the Establishment Code on this matter. However, I understand that the Sports Minister Kumaratunga has waived off the rent for Silva's quarters on the recommendation of the Ministry Secretary, S. Ranugge, but the electricity and water bills are to be deducted from his salary. What does Mr. Netticumara plan to do now? Will he at least take action to recover the electricity and water bills from the day Cmdr Silva came into occupation of his official quarters ? Brittle batting The likes of Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu etc are not going to be around for long in Sri Lanka's Test and One-Day sides. People like Mahela Jayawardena, Kumara Sangakkara, Thilan Samaraweera etc will continue to "pad on" for sometime more. Has the country got the replacements for these players from the crop that are playing for the Sri Lanka "A" side at the moment ? Certainly not, If one goes by the performances of our batsman in the recent "A" team games with South Africa and New Zealand. Apart from Jehan Mubarak, Avishka Gunawardene and Upul Tharanga to a certain extent, the top order batsman failed what are the reasons for the decline? There are many, and the Manager of Sri Lanka's 'A' side, Anura Tennekoon, hit the nail of the head when he blamed it all on the pitches prepared. He spoke of the necessity of pitches prepared with pace, bounce and grass. How true. Tennekoon was one of the most technically correct batsman to be produced by this country and I can remember his elegant knocks for S. Thomas' College, SSC and Sri Lanka too. He was a delight to watch and so was people like Michael Tissera, Roy Dias, Sidath Wettimuny, Ranjan Madugalle and Roshan Mahanama, to name a few who come to my mind. Stanley Jayasinghe, the former Leicestershire professional with plenty of experience on the preparation of wickets, always wanted pitches with more grass, pace and bounce in Sri Lanka. But the authorities then did not take any notice and his advice was not considered. If they had, it would have been a different story now. What is the talent coming out of the schools now? The coaching staff at school-level too have to take the blame. Except for a few schools, those who coach are not properly qualified. There is also too much of one-day cricket now been played and the present day points system too has damaged the game at school-level. Tannu yet in custody Tarannum Khan, the dancing girl of Mumbai's Deepa Bar, who was alleged to be involved in a cricket betting scandal, is in judicial custody till November 7 under the Gambling Act of India. She was arrested on September 16 together with Pradip Parmar and Milind Dhiraj Nandu. They were earlier remanded till October 24. the court rejected bail pleas from the trio. Apart from the Gambling Act, they are also charged under the Information Technology Act and Indian Telegraph Act. Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan too was alleged to have close links with Tannu and some other Indian Bookies, but he has denied any links. What power A long standing employee of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Sri Lanka seems to wield much power. In the presence of two of my colleagues from a Sinhala language newspaper, this individual had said that "I will not be given accreditation to cover the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia in March next year (2006), as I have been very "critical" about the NOC in my weekly column. What authority does he have to take a decision when ANCL themselves had nominated me to cover the Commonwealth Games? Manhandled A karateka who is in the national pool in training for next year's South Asian Games to be staged in Sri Lanka was manhandled by top officials of the Interim Committee of the Sri Lanka Karate Association (SLKA) last week when he went to attend a meeting meant for the national poolists at the Austasia Sports Centre. The reason seems to be that this karataka's coach had been one of the signatories to a letter addressed to the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Jeevan Kumaratunga, levelling various allegations against the Interim Committee and requesting the Minister to conduct the annual general meeting of the SLKA. |
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