Mayor Ratwatte out to promote sports in Kandy

Hafiz MARIKAR

Mayor of Kandy Mahendra Ratwatte is all out to promote sport in a big way in Kandy and is a firm believer that sport is the great leveller.

In the early days Mayors such as E. L. Senanayake, Noel Wimalasena, Tilak Ratnayake, Don Edmund Pathirane, Harindra Dunuwille, Kessara Senanayake, L.B. Aluwihare and acting Mayors Suminda Wickremasinghe, Raja Pushpakumara did their best to promote and develop sport.

When Don Edmund Pathirane was Mayor, the Council had the Bogambara Stadium in their custody and the ground was leased at nominal and affordable rates and sports such as football and hockey were played here. Now the Municipality does not own the grounds and leasing the ground is not cheap.

Junior level

Ratwatte who started his schooling at St. Thomas Prep, later joined Trinity College, Kandy where he continued his sports activities with a special love for boxing at junior level. He is a very likeable person, and knows how to cope with his responsibilities.

As Mayor, he has the ability to progress and the focus will be to coordinate and rally round the volunteers to assist him in his endeavor to take Kandy to a higher level.

His wish is to see everyone in Kandy become a stakeholder in future victories that will follow under the guidance and influence of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

It will be one of the greatest acts when there is a change of scene in Kandy.

Towards achieving this he is very keen to follow the concept of the 'Tharunyata Hettak' concept islandwide which is promoting the future for the youth. This concept is the brainchild of Member of Parliament Namal Rajapaksa. The former Rugby skipper of St. Thomas College and dynamic Sri Lanka Youth Captain and third row forward's main idea is to promote sports in the outstation, through the Tharunyata Hetak program.

Great success

Namal has already started from Kandy with the introduction of the Rugby Carlton Super 7's - 1st leg which was a great success. This program will be strengthened next year with the addition of Mini Rugby and Women's Rugby to promote the concept through sports.

While viewing on TV the Sri Lanka Vs Pakistan one day International at the Kandy Club last Sunday, Mayor Ratwatte promised to promote and take sports to the highest levels along with the concept of Tharunyata Hetak of course, with the guidence of Namal Rajapaksa and the Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage, a product of Royal College.

I then told him, as the first Sports Committee Chairman of the Municipal Council, I had played a leading role in all sports, providing men and women an opportunity for the development of body, mind and spirit, as well as training in leadership, sport in general and moulding the character of an individual.

Playgrounds Department

Sports have created wide interest in the people in Kandy, with more youngsters actively participating in it. In the early days, sports was promoted through the Playgrounds Department in a big way. It was football, hockey, Iron sports, lawn tennis, volleyball, table tennis, cricket, rugger, badmintion etc. There was no standing committee for Sports, it was during the Mayorship of Harindra Dunuwille, and under his guidance that the first ever Sports and Youth Affairs committee was formed in the Council.

It's first Chairman was this writer and the other Council members who were in the inaugural committee were Tikiri Kobbekaduwa the present Central Province Governor, Chanaka Ailleperuma the present Central Province Councilor, late David Perera , Hashai Mohamed and Vipula Ranasinghe.

This committee was given the fullest support by the then Municipal Commissioner Mrs. Jayantha C. Bulumulla a top class sportswoman, together with the then Secretary of the Council Mrs. R.M.N. Ratnayake, now the Deputy Commissioner of the council. She too was a fine netballer during her school days.

In the past, the Sports Council has been providing necessary equipment, encouragement and backing to develop sports, which brings unity amongst everyone and emphasizing that victory is secondary to participation.

Pint sized

The Council has 21 pint sized play grounds, in which most of the youth perform their sports activities. These are no grounds where games like hockey and football can be played due to the size, but however, it provides facilities for their basic training. What the new Mayor should do is to immediately put a stop to playgrounds being hired for tamasha's like plant exhibitions, furniture sales, electrical items etc, sales. Grounds are meant for sports.

The Rakade play Grounds (Mahiyyawa) which is now named as the P,T.Rajan play grounds, for which a member allocated money from his allocation for the re-development, but to date the people concerned have failed to do the re-development instead this grounds looks more a dumping grounds or a private sales promotion venue for business organizations. The Council also has 51 community centres, where indoor sports in promoted, and they are blessed with some of the best sportsmen as sports instructors.