Punish the guilty ones

WHO is going to pay for the sins of power-hungry and selfish athletic officials who are responsible for depriving the golden opportunity that three of our budding athletes got to compete at the top-most international youth meet?

Whoever should be held responsible for the biggest ever-administrative blunder in Sri Lanka's athletic history, those who committed the sinful act of shattering the life-time dream of the three unfortunate teenage athletes, should be punished.

Lahiruni Peiris of Devi Balika Vidyalaya, Colombo (Girls high jump), Uditha Gayan Wickremasinghe of St. Anthony's College, Katugastota (Boys 400m) and K. T. M. Harris of St. Joseph's College, Trincomalee (Boys 100m and 200m) were to fly to Morocco last week but the officials who handled their travel arrangements knew little on the subject.

The travel arrangements of the team for the World Youth Championships were handled by the AASL Finance Committee, headed by Vice President Ashley de Abrew.

It was only a couple of weeks back that they claimed the responsibility of handling the travel arrangements and taken over such duties from Secretary Prema Pinnawela.

On a directive made by the AASL Ex-co, treasurer H.W. Nmalasiri was handed over a subject in which he is not familiar with. But at the end, it was the poor teenage athletes who paid for the sins of inefficient officials.

Nimalsiri has already admitted that they have made a mistake. Further, he admitted that the task of handing the travel arrangements of the team was entrusted to him on July 1.

Then why could not he do a proper job when he had 12 days to work on the matter. Instead, the incapable officials sat on the platter and shattered the dreams of our poor athletes. What a sin!

Furthermore, several leading travel agents have indicated that they could have done the ticketing and confirmed the seats in less than 48 hours, while a few needed just one working day to do so. How come Nimalsiri could not do that even after 12 days?

On the other hand, Nimalsiri tried to put the ball on to the Sports Ministry courts when he said the Ministry of Sports & Youth Affairs should also be blamed for delaying to ratify the team.

But what Nimalsiri should realise is that Minister Jeewan Kumaranatunga and Ministry Secretary S. Ranugge could not personally look in to each and every matter and deadlines.

It is the duty of the respective national sports association officials, in this case the AASL officials, to present their case and expedite the matter.

Now that Nimalsiri and the Finance Committee of Ashley de Abrew has made a blunder, they are trying to put the blame on someone. But the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Jeewan Kumaranatunga played with a straight bat when he vowed to take those responsible to task.

Even the AASL President Janaka Bandara Tennekoon should fully support his Cabinet colleague in finding out the culprits and punishing them.

Minister Kumaranatunga, a star in the Sinhala silver screen, has often played the role of a hero who fights against injustice on behalf of the poor and those who are victimised. He must play a similar role in real life to make justice to the three athletes.

Nobody could ascertain the mental agony they underwent with a life-time dream of competing at the Youth World Championships being shattered.

Unconfirmed reports said one of the three athletes even thought of committing suicide, after the frustration and mental imbalance that the athlete underwent after being asked to go back to their home towns, instead of flying to Morocco.

That's not all, there is also a human angle of this episode as the mother of the said athlete was reported to be suffering from a cancer and was dreaming of her child competing in the big league. That particular athlete could not bear the pain and was about to commit suicide.

What a big impact the innocent schoolchildren have had in their lives after being made to understand that they could not fly to Morocco on the eleventh hour.

The sports loving public should commend the bold decision taken by Minister Kumaranatunga to investigate the unfortunate drama and punish the culprits. The Minister categorically denied any delay in ratifying the names of the team due to a fault of the Sports Ministry.

In the meantime, the AASL has hurriedly appointed a one-man commission to look into the matter. But we could not totally depend on the AASL's probe by a committee appointed by them.

Hence, it's the duty of the Sports Minister to make an immediate inquiry and punish those who are guilty. In the past years, track and field has suffered enough due to the sins of selfish officials, who have worked only to suit their personal agendas.

Some aging officials still hang on to their posts. Until we force all of them to retire and clean those associations, our sports would stagnate at the same place.