With the conclusion of the Interschool division rugby league, once again controversy struck.
In the recent past the schools league has faced many controversies with ridiculous accusations, atrocious refereeing continuous miscalculations and repeated court cases. Time and again the so called governing body of the Schools union have pointed fingers and made horrific decisions in response to these controversies.
Isipathana College lodged a complaint against Vidhyartha College citing they had fielded an over age player in their game in the first week of the tournament. The Schools Union made a statement that they had conducted an investigation and cleared Vidhyartha of all accusations made. The Isipathana College administration, insisting they had evidence took up the issue with the Minister of Education who the SLSRFA answers to. The Minister called for an inquiry which was eventually held on the 25th of July at the Sports Ministry with attendance of the Director Sports Mr. Rohana Karunaratne and all parties concerned which included school principals, Mr. Susantha Mendis from the schools union etc. At this meeting Vidyartha College are said to have submitted a written document admitting to having duplicated the credentials of the player in concern.
The question still remains as to how Vidhyartha College managed to forge credentials. No comment has been made by the VC camp to date and the School and Master in Charge have received a one year ban from rugby.
The SLSRFA supposedly have a system in place to identify players prior to all games. Players must be registered by their School prior to the season along with their Original Birth Certificates. Once this registration is complete players are provided with a photo- identification card of the SLSRFA which is certified with the signatures of the School Principal and Master in Charge along with the signatures of the President and Secretary of both the Provincial Union as well as the SLSRFA. In addition to this the seal of the SLSFRA is placed on the photograph to prevent forgeries.
If the VC master in charge who was accused has somehow figured out a method to forge this document it would mean that he has forged the signatures of five senior officials and it is the belief of this writer that such a crime is classed as identity theft which is considered a felony.
Another method for this to have not been noticed is that the ID card was passed through the system with falsified details and the said five officials have signed this document without verifying the truth-fullness of particulars in the ID card. This would mean that these officials have not honored the post they hold and should resign immediately.
A third method for this to have escaped the system is that the so called match commissionaires present at the games have not checked all the players properly and the identification with false particulars has not been noticed. This too is understandable as majority of the match commissionaires of the SLSRFA preset are never paying attention to their duties at the game. It is this writers belief that majority of these so called match commissionaires do not check the identification of the players.
The player accused of having falsified documents is said to have played over six games this season which raises the question as to how this went unnoticed on 6 different occasions. If VC could figure out away to field an illegal player on 6 occasions it shows that the so called system the SLSRFA has in place is seriously flawed.
Of course after all this chaos and mayhem the SLSRFA would have to sit down and figure out what steps to take to revise the issue at hand. After an internal meeting the Schools Association came to a decision to Suspend VC from all rugby for one year and demote them to the lower division. In addition to this all games played against Vidhyartha would be made null and void and all points scored by either side would be deducted from the final points table.
At the end of the league TCK were named league Champions on 45 points and IC were in second with 43 points. According to the SLSRFA calculations after the points earned against Vidhyartha were made null and void Isipathana and Trinity were tied on 40 points. No revised league table was presented to the public and ThePapare.com is lobbying to be given access this table. Sources inside the SLSRFA state that the table has not been completed and amendments were made only to the top two teams.
According to the SLSRFA calculations Isipathana will move into first as they have scored more tries than Trinity who lie in second with six tries less than the Greens. Based on these calculations the SLSRFA decided to strip Trinity College of the championship and hand it over to Isipathana. IC officials who went on record prior to the inquiry that they will not stake claim to the title have yet to make a statement. If it is true that the SLSRFA have come to this decision prior to completely revising the table this proves how unprofessional the officials are.
Having had a closer look at the unrevised table, I have come to the conclusion that the calculation the SLSRFA has provided is incorrect.
My calculations are as follows:
•TCK earned 5.5 points vs VC. TCK have 45 points in the unrevised table, therefore TCK points should be 45.00-05.50=39.50
•IC earned 3.0 points against VC. IC have 43 points in the unrevised table, therefore IC points should be 43.00-03.00=40.00
This begs the question as to how on earth the SLSRFA found that both teams had 40 points. (All the above calculations have been made using the weekly league tables provided by the SLSRFA)
According to the SLSRFA the league is run according to guidelines in a handbook, a hand book that has not been released to the media. This begs the questions as to who has written this hand book and if it has been vetted by either officials from a proper rugby governing body?
The SLSRFA officials claim that their members have been running this tournament for many years now and they have all the experience needed to run the Schools league. It is my belief that School Principals and Maths teachers do not have the knowledge of rugby and the qualifications required to conduct a tournament at a professional level. Just because they have been doing it for many years does not mean they have been doing it right.
The Sri Lanka Schools players train at a professional level and dedicate all their time in preparation for this league but because it is not run in a professional manner the players do not gain the experience of playing a professional tournament. Although it is just a School boy tournament most of these players eventually make a living off the sport. The game is currently in a transition stage from semi-pro to professional and if players are not groomed at a young age the process will get delayed even further.
If we take the top sporting nations for example athletes peak in their careers in the age range of 19-24. Sri Lankan Athletes do gain enough experience and professionalism to compete at an international level at least until they reach 24. The main reason for this is because they are not exposed to professionalism till they leave schools.
In the case of Rugby if the SLSRFA were to organize the schools rugby season with a certain level of professionalism players would have the experience of competing in professional competitions. It is not just about running a interschool tournament any more, it is about creating professional athletes and preparing them to compete at the top level.
