Sports in a mess

Sri Lanka sport is currently experiencing a bad period with no signs of a possible recovery in the near future. From the sub-continent's glamour sport of cricket to our widely spread and only Olympic medal winning sport of athletics, everything seems to be in a mess.

While the problems in cricket went from bad to worse, followed by a humiliating innings defeat in the second cricket Test in New Zealand, the appointment of new executive committee of the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka (AASL) has been challenged in Courts by the unsuccessful presidential candidate Dervin Perera.

Accordingly, an injunction order has been served on the new AASL Ex-co, headed by the Minister Janaka Bandara Tennekoon. While the administration battle in cricket has gone to courts, a similar power struggle is emerging at the track and field headquarters.

Apart from cricket, there are four more interim councils amongst other sports without a mandate from member clubs and associations. In the 'so-called' well-organised aquatic sports body, there are empty coffers with regular begging for funds from the Sports Ministry.

They are not ashamed to tell that they run from 'borrowed funds' and that the Sports Ministry should reimburse them.

Which national association would pray for an interim council to take over the functions of their executive committee? Believe it or not, there is just a solitary one, which internally begs for funds from the Sports Ministry.

This shows how good their administrative skills are and how well they have marketed their sport to secure sponsorships. But the biggest joke is that such a bunch of inefficient officials, who eternally point their fingers at other sports associations, have requested for the management of the Sugathadasa Stadium swimming pool.

The problems in Sri Lanka sports continue from cricket pitch to athletic track, to the swimming pool and to the rugby scrum. Bad management has made the governing body for the sport played with an oval shaped ball, a white elephant. True that they have a green elephant on their jersey as a crest, but it has now become white after that infamous Rs. 7.5 million 'loss' (or 'unaccounted for, whatever they call it).

All these sports have vital international assignments ahead - 2007 Cricket World Cup, 2006 South Asian Games and 2006 Rugby Asiad in Sri Lanka. Hence, it is high time for Sri Lanka sports to get out of the present mess. Local standards in several other sports too have deteriorated significantly and Sri Lanka sport is currently experiencing one of its most unfortunate periods both on and off the field.

With no signs of a scheduled start of the official pool practices for the 10th South Asian Games in Sri Lanka, we are getting closer and closer to the South Asian version of the Olympics.

When we last hosted the South Asian Games, way back in 1991, Sri Lanka underlined it's supremacy with a rich haul of 44 gold medals, including 15 in athletics.

One wonders whether we could ever go closer to that, even after 15 years. There is no point in spending millions and going ahead with some makeshift preparations. There are no crash courses to success, which could only be tasted with hard work and dedication. Unfortunately, our officials have not understood that.

The Indians were nowhere near our track supremacy at the 5th South Asian Games and could not produce an IAAF World champion or and Olympic medallist, until our own Susanthika Jayasinghe achieved both those feats.

But India worked with a vision and a mission with a long-term plan. Unlike in Sri Lanka, there were no interruptions to Indian sports development program, irrespective of change of Governments or change of their athletic officials. That was because they had a greater national interest and did not believe in cheap publicity for personal glory.

"Make Mother India proud!" has been their motto, irrespective of their political, social or club affiliations.

We are not telling that there is no club politics in India. Being a developing country in South Asia, the typical political roles are common in India too. But the difference there is that none of them would deviate from their national sports policy to play to the gallery.

Do not be surprised if India makes a clean sweep at the next year's South Asian Games in Sri Lanka. They have been working hard with a vision and the emergence of long jump champion Anju George is just one indication what the Indians have in store.

Definitely, there are many more emerging champions in India who are set to blossom at the right time.

In the meantime, we continue to boast of the handful of international class athletes we have with no solid program to groom stars for the future. We could learn many lessons from India because they have similar political and social culture to that of ours.

But the Indians beat all odds to reach their target with a broader national interest.

We have been talking of a national sports policy for several years. One wonders whether it would continue to be a proposal forever!