The Sri Lanka schools rugby football association lifted the ban on Vidyartha College Kandy yesterday at an executive meeting held at St. Johns College.
Vidyartha College was levied with a one year suspension after they were guilty of fielding a player who impersonated another senior member by falsifying documents such as the National Identity Card in July this year. ThePapare.com spoke to the secretary of the Sri Lanka schools rugby football Association, Susantha Mendis who stated, “Vidyartha College sent us a letter requesting the schools union to reduce their punishment. And after speaking to the rest of the members of the association we decided to lift the one year ban” (The decision was taken on the 13th of November).
As per the earlier decision taken by the schools union, Vidyartha College was banned for a period of 1 year from all under 20 tournaments (league/sevens). They were only allowed to take part in the U-20 tournaments in 2014 from Division 2 group ‘C’.
However a decision was taken yesterday at the executive committee meeting to revoke the ban on Vidyartha. They will be allowed to play from the 2013 season in the Division 2 group ‘A’ segment.
“We have come to a decision after going through the case carefully and realizing that the boys are not at fault for this wrong doing. We have strongly advised the Vidyartha College rugby development committee and their principal that they take stern action against the coach and the master in charge. They are the ones who are responsible for this entire fiasco”.
According to reliable sources the Vidyartha Principal and the Management has decided to interdict the head coach and coaching team with immediate effect.
“We cannot bunk them up further, if we do so it will become a precedent and teams would purposely continue this. Therefore we thought that this was the best possible decision considering the circumstances”.
“Vidyartha College rugby has improved immensely over the last couple of years and it would be a shame to keep them out of rugby for a year”, ended Mendis.
He also said that the junior teams will be allowed to take part in ‘A’ division tournaments and their participation won’t be hindered by this.
