The new development regarding country’s sports law has come into question with the depth of its restriction, which will leave out a number of veteran officials in the sports field who have enormous experience behind them out of governing, which could put the future administration of sports in Sri Lanka in jeopardy.
The question arises whether Sri Lanka could move forward with its heavy international sports calendar without these veteran professionals of sports, who have done all the hard work to uplift the country’s sports throughout all these years.
This occurred after Sports Ministry sought Attorney General’s interpretation regarding the sports law, where AG has got back to the ministry stating not to give permission for re-election for any official who has served four years as a major office bearer (President, Vice President, Secretary, Asst. Secretary, Treasurer and Asst. Treasurer) of any of the 52 sports associations.
“Yes, it’s true, and we will follow AG’s advice” said Secretary of the Sports Ministry M.I.M. Rafeek confirming that there won’t be any chance for officials who have exceeded four years of their term to come back to contest in forthcoming AGMs.
But will these sports associations be able to carry their annual heavy work load without these experienced officers? Will inexperienced office bearers at this level be able to handle international relations and uplift sports? Or will they fail, putting the country’s sports in jeopardy? Only time will give answers to these questions. Yet past experience in similar situations gives nothing but negative answers to these questions.
During the period 2012-2013, a number of veterans of the Athletics Association of Sri Lanka (AASL) who were not allowed to contest, is a prime example of such a scenario where poor handling resulted in the further downfall of athletics at that time.
Sri Lanka couldn’t send a team to the IAAF world cross country championship in early 2013 due to the lack of knowledge of officials, where they couldn’t complete a simple task such as applying for visas on time, which almost resulted in the retirement of the country’s top athlete, Geethani Rajasekara, who had now qualified for the Rio Olympics in the marathon.
Two National athletes, Sachith Maduranga and Nadeeka Lakmali, who won two silver medals (Javelin Throw) in the Asian Championship held in late 2013, were left out from the National squad in 2012, which almost resulted in their retirement due to disappointment.
Officials could not make proper plans to save medal winning athletes of the Asian Junior Athletics Championship held in Sri Lanka, as the athletes were left disappointed after being promised the sun and the moon after their medal winning efforts, and only one out of those six athletes could go on to be National champion after that.
Above all, contacting the Secretary was harder than finding a diamond back then, even for officials inside AASL.
Those are a few blunders of that period which gives a prime answer as to how the country’s sports will be if veterans of the field are left out of important roles.
Apart from that, a small country like Sri Lanka mostly kept their relations with the international community through personal connections, and it’s debatable whether officials of sports associations who have such strong connections will use those for the development of sports where Sri Lanka were granted much needed funds, coaching and training facilities which ultimately helped the country’s sports, and losing such officials will be an irreplaceable loss to the country.
Sri Lanka has a number of main international events lined up this year, such as Commonwealth Youth Games, IAAF World Championship, Asian Championship, Youth Asian and World Championship, and run-up for the 2016 Olympics. Preparation for these events and athletes who have high hopes of being selected for these events could be in jeopardy through these new developments regarding AGMs.
On the other hand, it’s true that there are officials who misused their power to run dictatorship and misconduct in these sports associations. But sports Ministry should address those issues in some other way, where they could prevent those dark characters from contesting and allow those who are much needed for the field to stand for election and let affiliated associations to approve or disapprove of them through votes in a democratic way.
