KDSDF set to take over management of Bogambara Stadium

S. M. Jiffrey Abdeen, Kandy Sports correspondent

The Kandy District Sports Development Foundation is all set to take over the management of the Bogambara Sports Stadium in Kandy in due course. This course of action will certainly benefit the sportsmen and sportswomen of Kandy.

This Stadium is at present managed by the Sugathadasa Stadium Complex. This discussion took place at the Office of the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Kandy recently.

Those present on the occasion were Minister of Sports Gamini Lokuge, Chairman Kandy District Sports Development Foundation General Anuruddha Ratwatte, DIG - CP Kingsley Ekanayake, District Secretary - Gothabaya Jayaratne, SSP Jagath Abeyasirigunawardena, Vice Presidents of KDSDF Maurice Perera, Deva Amunugama, Upananda Jayasundera, Sunil Munasinghe, Sena Dissanayake and Sarath Wijesinghe.

General Anuruddha Ratwatte said that the Kandy District Sports Development Foundation developed the old Bogambara Stadium by adding several infrastructures in 1998 which cost the Foundation nearly Rs. 90 million.

This was not State funds but from the funds generated by the Kandy District Sports Development Foundation.

The idea was to have a fully fledged Stadium for Kandy to stage International and important sports events and also to help schools, clubs, sportsmen and sportswomen in the area.

But since the take over of the Stadium by the present management many years ago it has not seen any improvement.

Apart from this there are serious allegations that the charges for the hire of the grounds are high and varies from the facilities allowed to be used.

It is the idea of the KDSDF to allow the use of the grounds at a reasonable rate which will help the sportsmen and sportswomen and utilise the facilities available to the optimum.

Minister Gamini Lokuge expressed his consent and happiness to hand over the management of the Bogambara Stadium to the KDSDF and requested that a Committee be appointed to work out the modalities.

The following officials were appointed to the Committee to look into this matter and submit a report to the Sports Minister within a given time frame to facilitate an early handing over of the grounds.

The committee members are: Donald Abeysundera (Chairman - Sugathadasa Stadium Sports Complex), Jagath Abeysirigunawardena (SSP Kandy and Secretary KDSDF), D.G. Dahanayake (Director General - Ministry of Sports), B. Sugathadasa (District Secretariat, Kandy), Maurice Perera (Vice President - KDSDF), Sunil Munasinghe (Vice President - KDSDF).

The Vice President of the Kandy District Sports Development Foundation and former All Ceylon ruggerite and old Trinitian Maurice Perera told this correspondent that the Foundation has been agitating for some time the take over of this Stadium for developing the stadium itself and promoting sports in a big way.

At present the prohibitive hire charges imposed have resulted the grounds being under utilised while sportsmen and sportswomen look for other venues to practise and stage their sports events.

There are open spaces in the periphery of the grounds which need to be covered with a parapet wall to prevent the watching of gate matches without payment from the roads.

When the Bradby Shield encounter between Trinity and Royal was played here last year, they had to lift the roof of the covered terraces so high as to prevent play being watched from the roads.

Maurice Perera in conclusion said that he was confident that the Kandy District Sports Foundation could manage the facilities available at the Bogambara Stadium successfully and add additional facilities which are in urgent need in the hill capital at present.