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| Thursday, 30 December 2004 |
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Leave it to the experts An official of a leading rugby playing school recently criticised the selection of the Sri Lanka Under-19 rugby team for the Youth Asiad in China. But his baseless allegations came after the completion of the tour. The said official had criticised the role played by the national rugby selectors and claimed that the association should have been given the right to pick the Sri Lanka Under-19 team. Firstly, what the schools rugby officials should understand is that this was a 'Sri Lanka Under-19' team and not a Sri Lanka Schools or Sri Lanka Schools Under-19 team. Any Under-19 player, whether he is a schoolboy or not, was eligible for selection. Hence the selection of the Sri Lanka Under-19 team is entirely a business for the national selection committee, headed by Dr. Maiya Gunasekera, the former Royal, CR & FC and Sri Lanka player. Secondly, one wonders what credentials the schools rugby officials have to question the qualifications and rights of the national selection committee. The national selectors are experienced and knowledgeable enough to identify a talented player. Dr. Maiya Gunasekera is undoubtedly an experienced person who has mastered all trades of the game, as a school, club and Sri Lanka player, then as an SLRFU President, Sri Lanka team manager, coach, team doctor, selector, chief selector and even as the chef de mission of the Sri Lanka contingent for the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games. As the President of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union, Mohan Balasuriya has rightly stated, the schools officials should stick to the trade they know. Let the experts handle the game. Most officials at the schools rugby association do not even know the basics of the game. Then how come they evaluate the technical plus and minus points of school players and select a team? One thing is clear. These schools officials are asking the control of selections to cater to their own needs and to suite their schools. Even the said official had only questioned about non-inclusion of a particular player from his school and that too came even after the Sri Lanka Under-19 team completed their mission in China. Why did he wait so long to question selections? History will give enough instances where selections by schoolmasters and teachers, most of them with virtually no knowledge on the technicality of the game, led to controversial selections to suite their schoolboys. This was evident not only in rugby but also in many other school sports teams, including cricket. Large-scale selection blunders had been made when schools officials were selecting cricket teams in the past. But that too was understandable because schoolteachers are qualified mostly on academic/co-curricular side. But those selection errors have not been repeated in recent times after Sri Lanka Cricket actively came into the promotion of junior cricket tours and selections being done by a junior national selection panel. We do not in any mean try to disrespect schoolteachers and principals, who are masters in their own trade. Academically, they are highly qualified and are brilliant teachers and able administrators. There are many teachers, principals and masters-in-charge of sports doing a good job to promote sports as administrators. Whilst appreciating the role played by them to promote sports in schools, we would like to request them to know what their limitations are. Selection of school sports teams has not been on merit on many, if not most, occasions. Even the opinions school coaches put a little weight on final selection of teams, to which old boys, teachers and principals have a big say. This unfortunate situation has been one of the major reasons for the downfall of our schools sports activities. If we are to concentrate on future, we must tap school talent. With a good national pool for the 2006 senior Asiad in Sri Lanka in mind, we must immediately form an Under-23 youth pool, which should be given continuous training. |
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