Open discussion at highest level should put rugby house in order - Kishu Gomes

By Ranjan ANANDAPPA

RUGBY: An ambivalent Kishu Gomes, the Managing Director/CEO of Chevron Lubricants Lanka PLC, while savouring the recent rugby success achieved in Singapore has smelt something sinister among the stakeholders in the Lankan rugby arena.

Kishu Gomes appealed for more companies to rally around to promote and develop sports in the country and to shell out petty differences among stakeholders in the rugby arena for the betterment of the game.

“Sadly the situation we see today in rugby is not very good. We see various stakeholders within the rugby fraternity pulling in different directions. Every single stakeholder, let it be Clubs, Provincial Unions or the main Union itself, Interim Committee, the Council, past players, different stakeholders, all have very good views about the whole set up. When you have discussions with these parties they sound very rational, very reasonable. But we know overall there is something drastically wrong in the whole affair,” said Gomes.

Having been with the game for so long and spending a lot of time with all these different stakeholders, listening to various stories, I believe that someone has to intervene at the highest level, may be even President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself or the Sports Minister, talk to everyone and have an open discussion, get everyone to agree to a common plan for the sake of the sport.

If you just let the normal process to go on, I believe we will never be able to resolve all these issues that have been floating around for some time. It is high time that someone came in and put his foot down firmly and tells those people enough is enough and show them the right path where every stakeholder group will not be able to achieve their motives. I humbly request the authorities to intervene and sort it out once and for all . If not there is no solution for this problem, and that is crystal clear.

I am pleased that the President of the country is taking a lot of interest in the game. It may be due to various reasons and, one, obviously because his sons play the game. His entire family follows rugby and that it self is enough for the other stakeholders to basically have the right focus and the attention being given to do what is right for the game.

Kishu Gomes also made an appeal for more companies to rally around to promote sport.

Saying that there were over 500 companies who are members of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and over 240 companies listed publicly. All these companies are large ones with big turn outs and who are making very impressive bottom lines.

But, if you see the actual number of companies helping sports, it is just a handful. “There could be many reasons for this, but the way we at Caltex look at it, is there a social responsibility in respect of sports sponsorship?

What I believe is for any country to achieve economic prosperity you need to have a very productive and efficient nation. To build that you need healthy people who could synchronize your body with your mind. If you don’t inculcate the discipline, skills, that sports can offer to people you will never be able to build a strong nation with the right attitude. You just look around the world and this region, if a country has achieved economic prosperity that country has had the right focus in sports.

If you look at emerging economics take China, India, Singapore or Malaysia all those countries are paying attention to sports. Personally Caltex likes to see an environment where the stakeholders of the country understand this reality and business organisations supporting sports to create that sustainable environment which different stakeholders can achieve their different goals and objectives. That is why Caltex took a decision to support sports.

Since 1966 Caltex has been sponsoring various sports from Indoor cricket to outdoor cricket, motor sports, volleyball, boxing at Seevali, Ratnapura and volleyball at Dammisara, Nattandiya. In 1999, Caltex took over to rugby and sponsored the knock-out tourney and the following year they sponsored the league championship. Since then it has been a continuous process of sponsoring the game which no other company would have done for a such long period of time at the highest level.

I expect the other companies too,to take a cue from us and honour their social commitment in the first place. Sports basically provides the opportunity for the organization to promote their corporate brand and product and delivers the social responsibility and the commitment as well.

Switching back to the game, Gomes said that the biggest disadvantage that we have is the physique and the weight too is a major disadvantage.

“We definitely have big boys available in the country. Some really lack interest in the game, may be to lack of awareness. We need those boys coming and joining the force”.

Sri Lanka is known as a nation for cricket, but if we can count rugby as the second or third sport, surely it will help the country to build the right image. As within the Asian region, we are known for rugby as well,” added Kishu Gomes.