CSN Champs to be found in Kandy

S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Correspondent

Carlton Sports Network in association with the Ministry of Sports, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Youth Affairs will conduct a massive sports programme for over 1,500 youths from the Kandy District at the Bogambara Stadium and Police grounds, Kandy today commencing at 9 a.m. This programme is titled "CSN Champs" and will cover six sports.

Minister of Sports Mahindananda Aluthgamage will be the Chief Guest and the opening ceremony will be at the Bogambara Stadium.

This is the fourth in the series covering the 26 districts in the country and already similar programmes had been held at Matara, Badulla and Kurunegala which has been a tremendous success with the youths displaying tremendous enthusiasm and in everyone of these programmes the participants exceeded 1,300. This project will be handles by Creative Director Saddamangala Suriyabandara, Chief Executive Officer Nishantha Ranatunga, Ms. Yasara Abeynaike, (Channel Head) Prasanna Jayasundera, (Director Marketing) Janaka Ranatunga (Director Finance and Human Resources) and Malcolm Perera (Project Consultant).

Project Consultant Malcolm Perera said that this programme will cover six sports such as cricket, rugby, netball, volleyball, hockey and soccer and will be directly handles by the National coaches and selectors of the respective sports.

For example he said cricket will be handled by former national players Ravindra Pushpakumara and Lanka Silva along with Sunil Fernando, Rugby by Sarath Martis and Ananda Kasturiarachchi and Rohan Gunaratne, Hockey by former National Captains Dharshana Wijesinghe and Sarath Wimalasinghe and similar arrangements have been made for other sports as well.

Malcolm Perera said that this programme is open to boys and girls between the ages 15 to 22 and they need not have achieved any standard and anyone wishing to improve their skills could into one of the venues on Saturday morning and register themselves and no pre-requisites are required. The objective behind this massive programme is to harness the hidden talents of the youths and identify the best sport they are suitable and in which way they could make the grade. For example a schoolboy may try to bowl fast but he could be a better spinner or a batsman.

Their skills will be sharpened. He said this programme will also give the schoolboys and schoolgirls to make into the school side when they had given up hopes without trying. They will told of the suitable sport for them and from here they could make the start with their schools. This is identifying their hidden talents.

Having covered the 26 district, this programme will boil down to provincial level where the number of participants will come down to 500 and they will be helped to further improve their skills through various programmes. Another important aspect of this programme is that fifty schoolchildren will be trained on relaying commentaries on various sports and while this programme is on they will be tested for their ability in broadcasting and corrected and they could build up a career in this where there is a big scope.

So youths here is your chance and you make the best use of it on Saturday.

It is also reported that over 300 schools have been invited for this programme and every participant will be provided with refreshments and meals.