2005 not a good year for sports

Yet another new year has dawned. The year 2005 ended and 2006 began in an inauspicious note for Sri Lanka sports. Our cricketers lost back to back one day international (1-6) and Test (0-2) series in India while our soccer team suffered three humiliating defeats at the South Asian Championships in Pakistan.

Then the New Year began with our national cricket team losing two more one day internationals, the first two of a five-match series in New Zealand. Overall, the year 2005 could be rated as one of the worst for Sri Lanka sports. Except for a few achievements in a handful of events, including boxing and rugby, there weren't any significant achievements during the year, unlike the previous years.

But the year 2006 is going to be a crucial one for Sri Lanka sports as a number of key international events, including the South Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, VB one day cricket series in Australia, ICC Champions trophy cricket, ICC Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka and IRB World Cup rugby qualifiers are lined up for the year.

Hence, the destiny of Sri Lanka sports would be decided at these key events. The most important of them all, from Sri Lanka's point of view, would be the 10th South Asian Games scheduled for August.

Not just because Sri Lanka is hosting the South Asian Games, but as an event, which is the stepping-stone for international arena for most of our sportsmen and women, the eight-nation event has always been an important event for us.

It would be of double importance this time as Sri Lanka is hosting the South Asian Games, only for the second time in its history - that too after 15 long years. With a record tally of 44 gold medals, when Sri Lanka hosted the tournament for the first time ever in 1991, we have to make a huge effort to better that feat or to emulate it. Considering the present plight of Sri Lanka sports, that would be a tall order.

Our athletics has been in the wilderness and Sri Lanka will face a gigantic task if we are to come anywhere near the record 15 gold medals won in athletics at the 5th South Asian Games in 1991. With the retirement of Sriyani Kulawansa and controversial migration of leading long distance runner Anuradha Indrajith Cooray, Sri Lanka starts without three possible gold medals in the women's 100m hurdles, men's 10,000m and marathon.

Coming up in two month's time would be the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. But a big question mark hangs on our preparations for the Games. Customary, there will be a huge team of officials accompanying the contingent, but the participating teams have not made enough preparations.

Then there would be the 10th South Asian Games by the middle of the year but most of the 19 participating NSAs have not started serious training, though they have been talking about it for more than six months. On the other hand, there has been a delay in the Sports Ministry releasing funds. There again, the NSAs should not totally depend on the Sports Ministry and should have made every effort to generate their own funds through sponsorships to meet the demand.

The 15th Asian Games in Doha in December would also be an important one. We have won gold medals at the last two Games in Bangkok and Busan but whether Sri Lanka could maintain the same rhythm is doubtful. Sprinters Susanthika Jayasinghe and Damayanthi Darsha won their first Asian Games medals way back in 1994 (Hiroshima) but after 12 years, we have to still depend on them to win medals.

True Darsha could still be capable of winning her fourth Asian Games gold and fifth medal in her fourth successive Games. But that is not the only solution for the future of Sri Lanka athletics.

Our swimmers won a record 12 gold medals at the 1991 South Asian Games, thanks to the efforts of Julian Bolling and Deepika Chanmugam. But will there be anyone to better those feats? Very doubtful.

Our swimmers have been in wilderness with the union and Ministry officials pointing fingers at each other. But what is needed is a unified effort, not only to put our swimmers in the right lane, but to improve the standard in all our sports in general.

Our rugby and boxing showed a marked improvement during the past year and one hopes they would continue their good work and bring glory to Sri Lanka in the New Year. Our rugby team has a tight international calendar, starting from the Commonwealth Games, then the famous Hong Kong Sevens, World Cup qualifiers, IRB Singer International Sevens and finally the 2006 Rugby Asiad in Sri Lanka.