Five parties blamed for Lanka’s netball debacle

YASARATNE GAMAGE

Five parties were responsible for the unprecedented defeat of Sri Lanka in the Asian Netball Championships 2012 , reported the Sajith Jayalal committee appointed by the Sports Minister to probe into the incident. Sri Lanka netball team lost to Singapore by one point in the final after having being undefeated in the tournament until the final.

The coaching team including then coach Haysinth Wijesinghe, assistant coach Deepthi de Alwis, specialist coach hired from Australia Sue Gorden have been blamed for the defeat. Further more team manager, selection committee and the interim selection committee and the senior players should also bear responsibility, the committee reported .

Deficiency in decision making as a team in the final was the main cause for Sri Lanka’s defeat the committee learnt. The chairman of the committee, Deputy Director of sports Ajith Jayalal addressing the media yesterday at Sports Science auditorium said that based on their committee report complied after investigations , important suggestions to develop netball have been forwarded to Sports Ministry.

The committee had recognized that lack of proper procedure in the selections, improper substitution making in the final, coach and assistant coach failing to perform their duty, experienced and veteran players left out from the team during the final have been major causes and issues that resulted the defeat in the final. Appointment of co captains in the team has also make chaos when making decision during play.

Based on the evidence from players of the team in the lost final we paid attention to three main points, there were contradictions due to the appointment of two captains, the team for the final had not been nominated by the eve of the final as used to be in the previous games, had caused the players to be nervous and affect their mental fitness. The head coach had banned the players from contacting their family members before the finals which had been a catalyst for players’ weak mentality Sajith Jayalal said.

Sri Lanka netball team received a 45 day training in Australia prior to the Asian Netball Championships with the sponsorship of a Rs 5.5 million from a firm and further sponsored another Rs 5 million for the championships.

The Sports Ministry also spent a large sum of money to host the event in Sri Lanka where many expected Sri Lanka to grab the trophy. Sajith Jayalal further said that the then netball interim committee has not submitted the final accounts and the budget report of the concluded event as yet.