Country or club?

Representing the national team at international level is undoubtedly the ultimate goal of a sportsman or woman, engaged in any sport, at any level. Playing for one's country at the highest level is a great honour and a feeling that is hard to beat.

In the good old days, people indulged in sports purely for glory and satisfaction. The feeling of representing their school, club or country was so precious to them. But with professionalism invading the sports arena, such values are fast fading.

The most recent occasion was when the Sri Lanka rugby pool was to begin practices for their World Cup qualifier against Singapore. Sri Lanka coach George Simpkin was reported to be disappointed over the absence of several key national players, from three leading clubs, in the team's practice session last week.

The said players have given the easiest of excuses, that they are nursing injuries. Another club said some of their players attended Provincial team sessions against a visiting public schools team.

Now the question is which duty is of utmost importance? National duty should come first! That is an undisputable fact to any level of player from any country, whether it is in rugby or any other sport.

However, the pure satisfaction of playing for the national team is not going to help many of our less affluent Sri Lanka rugby players. Their bread and butter are the annual contracts they secure from a club, as they are not richly rewarded for their sweat in representing the national team.

Representing Sri Lanka in cricket is a big bonanza for a player and the perks that international cricketers get are an inspiration for younger ones to take to the sport. But the rest of our sports have not developed to such levels, to be engaged as a profession. Rugby is no exception and all that our national rugby players get is a negligible allowance when they are on tour.

Hence, it is not fair enough to put the blame on the players totally for their extraordinary club loyalty. Many of them are forced to do so, whether they like it or not. Perhaps, they would still value the honour of playing for Sri Lanka, but the financial constrains and attractive contracts with their clubs would force them to forget their national pool's training sessions and do what their club authorities want them to do. Poor players are sandwiched in the episode.

This is not the first time that clubs have forced their top players to attend their club training sessions at the expense of national team's practices. In a bid to overcome that, the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union even decided to stop premier league tournament matches for two successive weekends, each time Sri Lanka is down to play in a rugby Union Test, mostly World Cup qualifiers during the domestic season. Despite this move, some clubs have still been reluctant to release their players.

Perhaps, the club officials must be thinking that their team's position in the premier league has a greater significance than the glory their players bring to the country by playing for the national team. If not those officials, many of whom are spreading the virus of club politics to ruin the sports area, must be thinking that they must get the maximum out of what they have paid for their contracted senior players.

It is the duty of the clubs to think in a broader way. Club officials must think wisely in the best interest of the game, not just their club agendas. Since the contracted players are sandwiched in this episode, it is the duty of the patriotic club officials to think wisely in the best interest of the country. They must not hesitate to release their national pool players as and when they are picked by the selectors to be on national duty.

At the same time, the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) should be firm on clubs which restrict their players from attending national pool practices or instruct their key players 'to fall sick' when they are called on national duty. Even if a player forwards a 'sick note', there should be a proper SLRFU medical examination to determine the case is genuine and not that the players are 'forced to be on the injured list' by their club officials.

Some affluent clubs also contract top national players in excess. Perhaps they may be doing so to prevent a rival club 'buying' a player of similar strength and thereby get a distinct advantage in the 'A' division league championship. But those clubs would then have top national players in their reserve bench as they have too many stars to fill the 15 places in a team. This could ruin the skills of top players, though their clubs reward them financially.