CT Sports: Minister of Sports and Tourism, Navin Dissanayake, emphasized that there will be no personal agendas in Sri Lankan sports, while he will guide the island nation to be a sports loving nation in the future.
The Minister said this as Sri Lanka celebrated the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace 2015, “National Sports Day” event held at Race course premises Nuwara Eliya.
“Sri Lanka is naturally gifted with talented athletes in any sports, be it cricket, rugby, athletics, or Wushu, as we saw today. The government is going to spend a colossal amount of money to develop sports in the country,” the Minister added.
The Minister said his ambition is to convert Sri Lanka into a sporting nation, and by doing so he expects every student to take up a sport, and at least master one with the help of their parents, as he emphasized the importance of building up a healthy nation through sports.
The Minister also made another promise about infrastructure development, adding one more to his handful of promises which have been given prominence throughout the last few days.
“I want to upgrade this indoor stadium as an International Sports Complex. We have already taken steps to build a complete International Sports Complex at this venue,” Minister Dissanayake told his constituents, whom he represents in Parliament from the Nuwara Eliya District.
With the recent developments in the sporting arena, the Minister said some of the sports administrators got on the wrong foot with him regarding some of the decisions he took, but he is in no position to look at those matters from their perspective other than the sports perspective, and will not tolerate any personal agendas.
“As the Sports Minister, I am ready to take bold decisions on policies for the betterment of sports in this country.”
“I appointed an immensely talented Interim Committee for Sri Lanka Cricket. I have given full authority and independency to the committee to take any decision in relation to cricket,” said the Minister, while thanking the sponsor, World Health Organization (WHO), who is said to have plans to help and largely sponsor Sri Lanka in the arena of sports.
