Chathura leads Sri Lanka team for AFC Challenge Cup

Bernard Perera

The national soccer team led by Chathura Maduranga will leave the shores of Sri Lanka on Monday to participate in the AFC Challenge Cup to be held in Hyderabad, India. The team comprises 22 players and six officials.

Lankan soccerites are grouped with North Korea, Myanmar and Nepal in Group B. The Group A consists of Afghanistan, India, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. The tournament gets underway at the Lal Bahadur Stadium on July 30 with the opening game between Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. On the same day India take on Afghanistan. Both games are from Group ‘A’.

Sri Lankans open their fixtures on July 31 playing against North Korea. This clash will also be the first occasion that the Sri Lankans meet North Korea in a game of this nature. In their next game they confront Myanmar also for the first time.

Jan Jung the national coach said that the best available team is making the tour and is of the view that they give their best for the country. He said that many young soccerites are on the tour party. They are good as the seniors. They will have to co-ordinate well to get the good results. If they do so they are sure to achieve the best in the near future for the country through the experience they gather from this tourney.

Chathura Maduranga the skipper said that at the SAFF championship the top strikers failed to deliver the needed results. That was their bad period where they could not live upto expectations, but some others performed. But I am confident the seniors are ready to come out with a better performance during this championship.

Answering a question he said that there are instances where we did not make use of the advantages we got. We got to correct these to make things come right for us.

Manilal Fernando, Chairman, Management Committee, FFSL, said that he was happy with the performance during the SAFF championship, though we could not enter the final. But this is a much tougher tourney than the SAFF tourney.

The coach and the selectors are given a free hand to do their job properly. I am happy with their selections. If they can reach the semis it is a great achievement.

The players too are given everything they need and it is upto them to perform well according to their best. This will pave the way for the soccerites to show their keenness towards the game. They also must maintain good discipline as a team, to bring honour to their country.

He also noted that Rawmy Mohideen and Asmeer Ali, the two top class mid fielders had to be left out of the team due to two reasons. Rawmy pulled out of the pool as he had to take up an appointment abroad while Azmeer Ali had to be dropped for disciplinary reasons.

The officials on tour are: Clement de Silva (SSP) Manager, Wasantha Wickremasinghe (SP) Asst. Manager, Jang Jung coach, D. Chandrasiri Asst Coach, Mahinda Galagedera goal keeper trainer, S. N. K. P. Silva masseur.