Sports watch:Shameless and disgraceful!

Shameless and disgraceful! That is the shortest and the simplest manner in which I could describe the high drama in the local rugby area during the last couple of weeks.

The biggest rugby joke was witnessed when the new rugby selection committee, headed by Rohan Abeykoon tendered their resignation and called a press conference. During the press briefing, the new selectors said they have tendered their resignations as the Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge has made a couple of changes to the squad they named for the forthcoming four-nation tournament in Taiwan.

It was indeed a slap to the person who appointed them. In doing so, the agenda of the new rugby selectors was clearly evident as the cat was let out of bag. The five-member selection panel appointed by Minister Lokuge on October 22 under the Chairmanship of Rohan Abayakoon tendered their resignations to him yesterday on November 1, as they said the Minister has made a change to the original 24-member squad forwarded for his ratification last Friday (October 31).

"The Minister has made a change to the squad of 24 by bringing in Nilusha Fernando at the expense of Imran Bisthamin", Abayakoon was quoted as saying.

"From the squad that we discussed and sent to the Minister for ratification Imran Bisthamin has been excluded. We feel that he has to be in the squad for this tour. We opposed the omission of Bisthamin but we know the Minister has the final say. Hence, we have decided to tender our resignations with immediate effect as we feel the squad chosen by our panel has been tampered with". That's how Abeykoon showed his displeasure on the Sports Minister's decision.

The agenda of the new selection committee was very clear. They apparently wanted nothing but to have the blue-eyed boy included in the tour party to satisfy the godfather of Kandy rugby. The script of the high drama was written to make sure the boy's returns to the team in the final episode. But the series did not go according to their plan in the final lap as Minister Lokuge smelt the fishy deal. Ultimately, the selectors let the Sports Minister down.

On the other hand, the Sports Minister says Bisthamin was removed from the team in consultation with the selection committee and the Minister has all the right to do that. Abeykoon and his men must keep in mind that they were brought in by none other than the Sports Minister himself.

Then came the most shameless and disgraceful return of the selection committee. Abeykoon and his men who make a big hue and cry and declared that they have resigned, and made an 'U' turn to return to their seats. The other surprise was the resignation of tour selector Chaminda Rupasinghe, who earlier claimed that he stepped down from his post of Vice President at the Havelocks Sports Club to take the new position. In order to support that, he even presented a copy of a letter sent by the Park Club accepting his resignation. But we now hear that Rupasinghe has not resigned and want to make the tour as Manager.

Abeykoon's committee ruled that Rupasinghe should be sent as the tour selector and would be solely responsible for picking the team on tour. That alone is a joke as a team on tour is generally being picked by coach, manager and captain. The Abayakoon-led selection panel included Hafeel Marso, Rohantha Peiris, Nazeem Mohammed and Chaminda Rupasinghe. Abeyakoon, stated that the choice of his committee to captain the national team for the HSBC Asian Five Nations Division One tournament in Chinese Taipei was Dilanka Wijesekera.

The Chairman of Selectors insisted that Dushanth Lewke be retained as skipper had nothing to do with the panel of selectors as he had been ratified as captain based on recommendations made to the Minister by the previous selection committee headed by Brigadier Jupana Jayawardene.

Then why did Abeykoon and his men put their signatures on the controversial appointments of Dushanth Lewke as the captain of the Sri Lanka team for the first match and Wijesekara was picked to lead in the second match? Isn't it the biggest joke which makes our rugby football a laughing stock?

Perhaps the selectors would have done this to satisfy both Lewke and Wijesekera. If that was the case they could have taken the joke further and still given opportunities to two more senior players by appointing separate captains for the first half and second half of each game.

If the selectors are only too keen to iron out the rugby animosity between the senior players and selectors, they could have still got a Kandy SC players to lead during the first half and named a Kandy SC player as captain in the second half. When considering the manner in which the present selectors have made mockery of rugby selections, I won't be a surprise if they appoint two separate captains for one match even - for the two halves!

Kandy players continued to throw their weight about, tear discipline and break the code of conduct to pieces when they pulled out of the squad for the second time. Five players - Pradeep Liyanage, Sanjeewa Jayasinghe, Anuranga Walpola, Sean Wijesinghe and Radhika Hettiarachchi have withdrawn from the squad citing various reasons. But two Kandy SC players have withdrawn from the squad after open protesting the appointment of Dushanth Lewke for the first match in Taipei. Who is going to discipline them? Now that the Sports Minister tolerated their nonsense when they initially boycotted practices for six weeks and were later absorbed to the team without any fitness, the Sports Ministry and the SLRFU will be compelled to dance to their tunes.

It is high time the SLRFU stands firm and maintain discipline. Without leaving disciplinary matters to the Selection Committee, the SLRFU Council must meet immediately and ban the players who try to hold the Union and the game to ransom. Maintaining discipline is of the utmost importance, irrespective of the outcome of the tour. It's not winning or losing that matters but how one plays the game!