At an event held at the HSBC head office, at Sir Baron Jayathilaka Mawatha on the 29th April, HSBC announced the arrival of George Gregan HSBC Rugby Ambassador and former skipper and scrumhalf of the Wallabies,
who is on a two day tour to support and engage in the banks propping up with the oval shaped ball locally, This was possible through HSBC Sri Lankas’ leveraging its global rugby association ast he official banking partner of the Quantas Wallabies.
Proceedings were kick started by Shanaka Amarasinghe who introduced the guest at the head table which consisted of the guest of occasion George Gregan , Sriyan Cooray Chief operating officer & acting CEO of HSBC Sri Lanka, Nilantha Bastian Head of retail Banking HSBC, Tharanga Gunasekara Head of marketing HSBC, Nasim Mohammed Secretary SLRFU and Rizan Nazeer Chairman of Bradby Fiesta of which HSBC is the principal sponsor.
Addressing the media first Sriyan Cooray – Chief Operating Officer & the acting CEO of HSBC welcomed the member of the media to the home of HSBC Sri Lanka & Maldives and endorsed the commitment towards rugby both internationally and locally. He added “We wanted to bring an international flavor to the local sports audience and we are happy to be able to leverage the partnership HSBC Bank Australia has with Quantas which has enabled us to get a legend like George to our Island ”.
Speaking next one of the main people involved in getting the Aussie legend down to Sri Lanka Mr. Tharanga Gunasekara – Head of Marketing HSBS Sri Lanka added that “Rugby is growing immensely as a sport and research done by HSBC shows that by 2026 there will be 15mn players playing the game with women’s rugby predicted to overtake the men’s game with the number of players taking up the game on the increase every year” further on the he stated that ‘150 countries are expected to be involved in the game with bigger audiences and Asia will be a focus’
It was time for the legend himself George Gregan the former Wallabie captian and the highest test capped player in the world , he mentioned that he was loving his time in the Island and was already looking forward to coming back for a longer stay , Commenting on the workshop he held with some A division Schools rugby players in the morning he mentioned that “there is immense talent in Sri Lanka from what I saw with the youngsters that I worked with in the morning, the game has evolved tremendously over the past few years , back in my time forwards wearing numbers 1-5 were not expected to pass but now all 15 players need to be skilled enough to offload the ball” he also added that “the gap between the superior rugby playing nations and the emerging nations are narrowing down rapidly and it’s important to instill belief in youngsters that they can compete at the highest level ”
Photo Album – Bradby Fiesta Media Conference
Also addressing the media Mr Rizan Nazeer the Chairman of the Brady fiesta of which HSBC is the principal sponsor, thanked HSBC for coming forward in financing Brabdy Fiesta from its inception and added that “It’s been a dream from wanting to just live stream Bradby for those who could not get a ticket to where Bradby fiesta has come today, we have a global superstar George Gregan gracing us this year at the fiesta and it has been an absolute dream come true made possible by the generous association of HSBC ”
Gregan will be gracing the blue ribbon of Sri Lankan rugby calendar ‘the Bradby sheild’ and will also be present at the Bradby fiesta where the fans will get the chance to mix and mingle with the legendary half back. Also this year HSBC & the bradby fiesta have partnered in bringing down never before seen rugby games to recreate an international rugby carnival atmosphere at the magnificent event.
