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by Dinesh Weerawansa

Sri Lanka is to revive its development rugby pool soon, the new chairman of selectors, Dr. Maiya Gunasekera said yesterday.

The Sri Lanka Development pool, a feeder pool for the national squad, was the brainchild of Dr. Gunasekera when he was heading the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union five years ago. But in recent times, concentration on the Sri Lanka Development pool faded away as the SLRFU was more interested on junior rugby development at grassroots level.

"I feel concentrating on the development squad is very important. The performance of the national team is the yardstick of development of rugby in any country. Hence, we must focus on the development squad and try to produce suitable replacements for the national team," said Dr. Gunasekera.

He said the present day club rugby players must feel the pride of playing for Sri Lanka and must work hard towards that goal.

Commenting on the recent developments which saw top ruggrites showing more loyalty to their club teams rather than the national team commitments, the former Royal, CR & FC and Sri Lanka player Dr. Gunasekera said its up to the players to differentiate the priorities.

"We have to take note of the less affluent players, who are being looked after by their respective clubs. Naturally, they have an obligation to their clubs.

But at the same time, they must feel the pride of playing for the Sri Lanka national team.

On the other hand, clubs too should encourage their players to go for this goal, because it is an honour for the clubs as well to see their players fostering the national tea," Gunasekera said in an interview with the Daily News.

However, Dr. Gunasekera said the SLRFU, in future, would try to make sure the international commitments have the least effect on the domestic premier division competitions. "We can not blame the players for honoring club commitments ahead of national duty. At the same time, clubs which invest considerably on their boys welfare would expect their services in the important domestic games. The best we could try out is to reduce the overlapping of domestic calendar with international commitments," he said. Recalling his days as a player at Royal College in 1969 to 1971 and later as CR & FC captain, Sri Lanka university player and Sri Lanka national player, Dr. Gunasekera said the ultimate goal of the players was to play for the national team.

"You cannot play rugby when you are old. Your best could be given when you are between 21 to 29. So my advice to the present day players is to do a dedicated job. Put all your efforts, heart and soul, for the game as feel the pride of playing for Sri Lanka," he said.

The rugby selection committee chairman also pointed the limitations in their selection process. "Unlike in the past, not many players continue and concentrate after schooling.

So we have limited pool for selections. If we broad base the system and maintain a good development squad, then the selectors would have greater options to pick a team to suite our game plan against each country," he explained.

Dr. Gunasekera said the new selectors would give equal opportunities to all talented players, irrespective of what team they play for. "I would not have played for Sri Lanka if the selectors at that time had not given enough concentration on players from lesser known clubs. I was playing for Colombo University in the 'B' division and a few games for CR. But the selectors of that era - William Molligoda, Summa Nawaratnam, Kavan Rabukwella, Mahes Rodrigo and Denzil Kobbekaduwa, went out of their way and witnessed odd matches to identify talent, " he said.

The selection committee chairman, a consultant surgeon by profession at a leading Colombo private hospital, said the selectors' job is not an easy one.

"It's a tough task. We must give everybody a fair lookin. Everybody should be given equal chances but only the best is given a place in the national team," he added.

The national selectors would keep a close eye on the forthcoming matches between the Western Province and Central Province on Saturday (at Longden Place) and on April 12 (at Nittawela) to finalise the Sri Lanka national pool for the IRB Asian qualifying round four-nation tournament staring later this month. Sri Lanka will be playing against Japan, Arabian Gulf and Hong Kong.

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