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The oval Ball by Y.C. Chang

The articles to excellence in rugby took much of my time and space in my columns. As much as it may have been tiring to read it-for the not so many-my intention was to share with you the enormous responsibilities that a modern day rugby player has to undertake. If having read those and have witnessed the matches that concluded over the past two weeks, you will agree that there is so much more to be done if we are to raise our current levels.

It is fantastic for teams to play in A division. Then teams that played during the sixties, seventies, and eighties were formidable ones. No team could nose itself into A division without first having to first undergo the rigours of a second division tournament. Teams to succeed into A division first must satisfy the Union with their consistency.

They have to play for couple of years and eventually prove their superiority. Because of these checks and balances we found that each division had balanced teams. In the Unions desire to accept teams having no past record or background is indeed brave but to the point of ridicule.

Those who entered the fray have to suffer the consequences by conceding large margins to the superior teams. Whilst pitying teams like the Kurunegala Sports Club, Kandy Youth Club and the Old Zahirians for taking on the Goliaths, we must discourage them from feeling demoralised, but encourage, that they have met better rugby players and hope they emulate them in the second round. Teams in this league will be of equal strength. With time we hope that the new clubs will be able to sustain themselves financially and continue stronger in their quest to match the big leaguers. No doubt, there is an unseen hand giving them all the encouragement, and if I am to hazard a guess, it must be our young Sports Minister at the bottom of it.

Digressing from rugby to leisure, I have been waiting for an opportunity to comment on the number of holidays that we are enjoying. Last month we had the New Year celebrations. That largely affects the whole nation, as no decent Sinhala Buddhist will work for ten days as he or she endeavours to practise their cultural values. This month it is the Wesak and Prophet Mohammed's birthday.

If one takes two days leave; it will entail them a whole weeks holiday. Since the beginning of this year I have wondered how I can avoid a holiday. Its not because I do not like it - I love it. But since of late I have come to like it less as I do not have a chance of enjoying the open spaces and the jungles, but am cloistered in a hotel room eating my guts out at all the three meals. The abundance of holidays makes me wonder why it is not exploited for our benefit.

The leisure industry! We are all experts at being on holiday because we have the longest number of holidays in the world. Encourage this. In this land of all smiles, song and dance encourage holidays and encourage holiday makers from all parts of the world to visit us because we have the time to spend on them.This means the leisure and hospitality industry must boom. The whole Island is a paradise.

The sea that rings the island has the most beautiful beaches. As we have the experience on being on holiday and equally very apt at hospitality, we can surely make our visitors happy. Unemployment will decrease; people will be richer with dollars in their pockets and with permanent smiles. Living in a Eco friendly environment will not cost the country money on infrastructure development.

When I think of the open air and jungles my mind wanders to my days playing for Kandy Sports when Maurice Perera had a stint as coach and I as his Captain. After a match it was not unusual for us to commute in his car for a shoot. On this occasion Kingsley, his brother also opted to join us. Maurice being an expert racing car driver brought us to Dambulla in next to no time. In the mid sixties the areas I am relating to was all thick jungle. Luck was not on our side. Maurice then said that he would like to try the Mannar jungles. We were all keen as mustard to try this new location.

True to Maurices capable driving, we were at the Madhu Rest House like a comet. This was when Maurices stomach started it's fits - could possibly have been the dinner we had after the match. However undaunted with the change of drivers (Kingsley at the wheel) we had to now get the Tracker. On a moonless night navigating a jungle road is tricky. So on and on we went with intermittent stops for Maurice to relieve himself, until we found that we had lost our way. Being rugby men we don't panic. Stock was taken without the modern day global positioning satellite instrument.

The car was turned a 180 degrees. Maurice's white toilet paper waving gently in the breeze acted as markers until we retraced our way to the rest house. The tracker was eventually found.

We kept vigil the whole night driving through the jungle roads, when we spotted two sets of eyes in the dense jungle. Shots were fired. One animal was dead. The booty was packed with ice and loaded for transport to Kandy. Tired as we were after the safari we made our way to the Madhu rest house for breakfast.

The smiling and ever talkative rest house keeper whilst laying our breakfast table commented that he had information that the Madhu church's deer were missing and had escaped to the jungles. You would have heard a pin drop from our deathly silence and a hasty exit after breakfast.

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