Get competent officials to administer and hockey will improve

Pavilion View by Leslie Fernando

The standard of hockey in the good old days was world class, "in fact Sri Lanka was ranked number three in the Asian region behind India and Pakistan. However, the standard dropped drastically and now it is at a low level due to poor administration and wrong men being in charge of very important aspects of the game," said Dennis de Rosayro, one of the living legends of the golden era of Sri Lanka hockey.

The 70-year-old Dennis, the President of the Mercantile HA since 1978 and still going strong was the first captain of hockey at St. Benedict's College in 1954. He played for BRC from 1954 to 1978 and All-Ceylon as a schoolboy against the Indian Olympic team in 1960 and against Pakistan in 1961. He said that cricket has taken centre stage over all sports, especially hockey.

There are no facilities to play hockey at BRC, Colts, NCC and Tamil Union (where so many international hockey matches were played those days). Thanks to C.T.A. Schaffter, President of Tamil Union, Mercantile hockey matches are now played on Mondays and Tuesdays after 25 long years.

Mention the name of Wijekoon in hockey and prompt will come the question whether one is referring to the Wijekoon brothers in Matale who have been champions in the game of hockey for a long, long time.

Four brothers

Four brothers - Herbert, Douglas, Ranjith and Chandra were household names among the men while two sisters - Mrs. Manel Wimalaratne and Sujatha Randiligama held their own on the women's scene.

Ranjith said that hockey is a 'hard game' and players must study the rules and how they are applied.

Ranjith a product of St. Thomas' College, Matale who was also attached to Kandy MC said that Sri Lanka had a good side in the 1970s. It was a real and superb team work that took Sri Lanka to great heights.

The players' commitment, responsibility, skills, devotion and dedication were superior than the present day players. True in the past there were several top Indian and Pakistani coaches in J.V. Peter, Gihan Singh and M. Parki who really moulded me to become a fine inside - right player. There were many others who benefitted by this trio of coaches.

Ranjith played in three Asian Games, pre-Olympic Tournaments, 34 international matches said that he remembers when he captained the Sri Lanka team in 1973 that beat the powerful Mysore side 3-nil in the popular Corea Cup hockey encounter. Fernando brothers Subash and Stanley and myself scored the goals for the great win.

My opinion is that we should get national teams like India, Pakistan and Malaysia to play in Sri Lanka at regular intervals in Sri Lanka so that the Sri Lankans will be able to improve their game. Ranjith's wife Pushpa, two daughters Nilu and Nadeera also played for Sri Lanka.

Get more Astro Turf pitches

Those were the days when Sri Lanka hockey team had the opportunity to compete at Asian Games straightaway. But now, Sri Lanka has to play in the qualifying round to gain a place to enter Asian Games. So one can judge the standard of hockey in general.

"I am somewhat sorry that the standard has dropped drastically and this is due to the wrong men being in charge of the vital aspects of the game," said Jayampathy Perera number one national Sri Lanka hockey umpire and reputed international umpire.

Jayampathy captained Nationalised Services hockey team in 1971 while employed at Insurance Corporation.

He said that Sri Lanka's ranking has dropped to nine or ten in the Asian region. So, it is up to the Hockey Federation of Sri Lanka to raise the standard of the game. Most important factor is that Sri Lanka should have five Astro Turf pitches at school level and write off playing on grass courts.

The game of hockey at present is not what it used to be some years back. It needs a very attentive extremely strong effort to revive it and get it back on track. This is what Iqbal Jumar commented, a former Kingswood, BRC, CR FC, Malays and National hockey player who excelled in the forward line in Sri Lanka side for several years. He was Chairman, Selection Committee of Mercantile HA.

Jumar who first played at the Nationals in 1958, and went on to play in three Asian Games in 1966, 1970 and 1974. He said that the game has now completely changed. Those days the players fought bravely and outclassed the foreign opponents in every department of the game.

Improvement of skills necessary

"Sri Lanka hockey team finished third at the 10th South Asian Federation Games held in Colombo but they should continue to improve their skills in all departments of the game and improve on the new techniques. Then Sri Lanka are sure to obtain better results in the years to come," said G.H. Rupasinghe, who has represented the country from 1957 to 1968. Rupasinghe started his career at Zahira College, Matale and represented SLTB. He was the national coach from 1987 to 1997 and he is the present Air Force coach.

Rupasinghe added that for the improvement of the game, the SLHF should obtain the services of a competent foreign coach and also send outstanding players abroad for short stints to play with players of higher standard.

Rupe, who has played in two Asian Games and pre-Olympic Tournaments and with India, Pakistan, Iran, Singapore and Thailand, said that a junior pool should be formed for ages 17 to 21 years. They should be identified from school tournaments. These players should be found suitable employment and they should be taught the finer points on the game.