Niluka and Chandrika should push Sri Lanka ahead

Sri Lanka's world ranked shuttler Niluka Karunaratne, presently attending a two-year training programme at an International Badminton Federation (IBF) centre in Germany and the undisputed national Champion Chandrika de Silva, with lot of international experience, are tipped to perform and bring credit to Sri Lanka in badminton at the 10th South Asian Games to be held from August 16 to 22 at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium

A pool of 24 shuttlers were in the earlier pool and it was pruned down to 20 and at the final trial conducted by the Sri Lanka Badminton Association, 8 men and 8 women players were selected, Niluka Karunaratne (in Germany), Diluka Karunaratne, Dinuka Karunaratne, C. N. John, Chameera Kumarapperuma, Thusara Edirisinghe, Duminda Jayakody, R. S. Dahanayake (men), Chandrika de Silva, Naddesha de Silva, Thilini Jayasinghe, Rasangani Ranatunga, Dayani Perera, Lakshi de Silva, Subodha Dahanayake, Sulochana Ariyadasa (women) are the players to represent in badminton.

Except for Niluka, all other 15 shuttlers are in a residential coaching camp at the Sri Lanka Badminton Association headquarters at Maitland Place under K. D. Nallathamby (Consultant Coach) and K. S. Pushpakumara (Head Coach) both former national champions. The squad trains in the mornings and evenings. Perera said that two weeks prior to the games proper, the 16 shuttlers will have training at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium rubber mat on the wood, to get accustomed to the newly laid rubber mat.

Our players have been exposed to international level, Commonwealth Games in Australia, Asian Shuttle Championships in Malaysia this year. Presently the players are being motivated, so for them it will be a pride to play for the country and bring honour. The players to have self belief among the players that they can perform well. In fact, I have introduced code of conduct for players, and coaches. The aim of the Sri Lanka Badminton Association is that first the badminton goes at the South Asian Games and by 2010, badminton to be the best racket game in Sri Lanka, added Perera, who is the vice-president of SLBA and a former Chairman of the selection committee.

Players from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives will play in the tournament. It is very likely that two men's players from Afghanistan will also play.

Events to be worked off are: Team - 3 singles and 2 doubles, Individual - 2 singles, 2 doubles and 2 mixed doubles.

Team events will be played on August 16, 17, 18 and the Individual events on August 19, 20 and 22. At the 2004 South Asian Federation Games, Sri Lanka women players won the silver in Team events and 6 Bronze medals in the individual events. India carried away major honours, lifting both the Team event and Individual event in Islamabad, Pakistan in 2004 while Pakistan were runners-up in both sections.

(L.F)