Colombo (LNW): The unfolding truth unmistakably uncovers that the hate policy carried out by the head of Asia Rugby in relation to Sri Lanka Rugby, as well as the sports authorities of Sri Lanka who have contributed to it, have done so in a shameless cloak of transparent. The proceedings directed against Sri Lanka by the Asia Rugby President are becoming increasingly evident, particularly with the involvement of Vinod Tiwari, the acting head of the Asia Games.
This stems for this is that Lasitha Gunaratne, who participated in the election for Sri Lanka at that time, did not vote in favor of him when he became the president, and later, despite the independence of the Sri Lanka rugby administration, by Rizly Illyas, the Asia president blamed for the decisions made by the Sri Lankan Sports Minister with the Sri Lanka Rugby.
The issue of non-voting and the letter sent by Asian President to then former Minister warning Sri Lanka in this regard have now become hidden facts because Lasitha is also a member of the National Sports Council of the current Sports Minister who allows the stupid behavior of the Asia President.
The Asia President’s animosity towards Sri Lankan rugby has led him to employ his Sri Lankan associate, Asanga Senaviratna, a former rugby president, as a conduit to tarnish its reputation. During his tenure as the President of Sri Lanka Rugby, he was responsible for Sri Lanka incurring a fine of £50,000, which is still being paid in installments, imposed by World Rugby for permitting foreign players to participate in Sri Lanka without following the requisite procedures.
Despite the individual’s role in the incident that led to Sri Lanka paying the fine and potentially damaging the country’s reputation, Namal Rajapaksa, who had previously held leadership positions in Sri Lanka rugby and later became the Sports Minister, nominated this individual as the chairman of the Rugby Advisory Council alongside the Asia Chairman.
It is an embarrassing situation that the Sports Ministers of Sri Lanka are camping to facilitate the Asia president to ban rugby in Sri Lanka on the challenge of Rizly Illyas personally made to the Asia president for the independence and pride of rugby in the country without being a part of this mafia. It’s indeed unfortunate that even the Sri Lankan Parliament representatives, who have been active in cricket – a significant source of wealth, have not been responsive to the efforts of the Sri Lanka Rugby administration to elevate rugby nationally and replenish its depleted funds and the Sri Lanka Rugby administration, which was contributing to that task, did not wake up from the measures taken to protect the pride of the Asia Rugby president.
There have been not even requests for debates. What they did was allow Roshan Ranasinghe to make absurd accusations in Parliament and wait silently.
At this moment, the activities of the Asia President, who was behaving proudly with all those silences, have become questionable through the Asia Olympic Committee. The political parade of the Asia President and his assistants in charge of the Sri Lankan sports show that they are marching proudly, but they are wearing transparent shawls and are walking naked. It was with the announcement that Rizly Illyas, who held the position of president who was under the wrath of the political power within Sri Lanka Rugby, as well as with the Asia President, would be stepping down from his position.
If the problem so far has been Rizly Illyas, now he has stepped down from that position. If so, now as the Sports Minister said, as the Asia president also pointed out, the Sri Lanka sevens rugby team should be given the opportunity to represent the Asia rugby Tournament under the Sri Lankan flag, not under the Olympic flag of Sri Lanka. But the Sports Minister now has to understand that the Asia President is also angry with Lasitha Gunaratne for not coming forward to vote because of the new story told by the Asia President.
Also, Asanga Senaviratne does not need to worry about it. He was the President of Sri Lanka Rugby at the time he was fined £50,000 for the notable black stain in the history of Sri Lanka Rugby.
The Asia President has now gone to tell Tiwari through his executive officer Benjamin that he has the power to decide to the how rugby should be in the Asia Games, and is working to take rugby to a risk of withdrawing from the Asia Games. If so, the Asian president will have to incur the wrath of the rager nations of Asia itself.
If the issues have been primarily attributed to Rizly Illyas, as stated by the Sri Lankan Minister, then it’s possible that the Asia President may no longer have problem about the participation of Sri Lanka rugby. But now the Asia President’s opinion is that Sri Lanka should pay a fine of $10,000 for the non-participation of a Sri Lanka women’s team.
The Sri Lanka women’s team had to face that fate due to unforeseen circumstances such as the disappearance of the team captain during the Korean Tour. In that regard, the Sports Ministry also brought the opinion that a women’s team should not participate again.
By the time the inquiry was completed, there was a period of about 20 days for the respective tournament, and if the situation is taken legally, it is a period of two months.
Also, the power and authority over the women’s team was not delegated to Sri Lanka Rugby. When you define two months as 60 days, 20 days represents one-third of that time frame. Accordingly, proper time has not been given to this team to prepare for the tournament.
By now, the Asia Olympic Committee, the main Asia Tournament Organization, has become aware of the hateful and idiotic nature of this illogical behavior in Asia rugby. The legal time frame and related constraints have been explained communicated by Sri Lanka Olympics. Earlier, the tournament sponsored by Sri Lankan sponsors, which involved the participation of Minister Namal Rajapaksa and the issues surrounding it, are currently being discussed at the Asian level.
The World Rugby expressed displeasure with the way the current Asia Rugby president came to power, and did not provide funds to organize some tournaments.
At that time, the Sports Minister of Sri Lanka tried to eliminate Sri Lanka by defeating the Philippines in the tournament held with the sponsors of Sri Lanka.
If the Philippines had indeed confirmed their defeat, and Sri Lanka did not win, it would have resulted in the Philippines winning the international match while Sri Lanka would have been considered a defeated team in that particular match.
With all these issues, the Sri Lankan Sports Ministers were pushing the Sri Lanka Rugby President to resign for standing up for the independence and pride of the country’s sport and making him take the blame. It appears that the Asia President continues to meddle in Sri Lanka rugby even after the departure of the Sri Lanka Rugby President. Also, the Asia President informed Harin Fernando, a former Sports Minister, about not voting for Lasitha Gunaratne in the election. Another important aspect to consider is the country represented by the Asia President.
Along with the hatred towards Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka is also an obstacle for the Asian chairman to win some place for the country he represents. Excluding Sri Lanka from the Asia tournament will create a good opportunity to potentially be seen as a way to avoid certain situations or conflicts within the organization.
Therefore, if the Sports Ministers of Sri Lanka who went to his procession really have any feelings about Sri Lanka, they should understand the truth that they have not been shown as kings. They had gone to the procession naked, dressed in transparent shawls.
When individuals who don’t bear the responsibility for a country’s sport, and who have historical issues such as a £50,000 fine, they also wore transparent cloaks as royal clothes.
Even now, if the intelligence has grown to the point where they feel naked, they should raise the voice of the sports politician who becomes the voice of a country and address the Asia President. The World Rugby should be accused of violating the independence and pride of the country’s sport and violating agreements. Namal Rajapaksa’s appointment of the individual who was the President when Sri Lanka was fined £50,000 as the chairman of the Sri Lanka Rugby Advisory Committee is seen as a contributing factor to the issues within Sri Lanka rugby, it may indeed be appropriate for him to address the rugby community and express his apology and regret.
Taking the evidence that is very clear about those facts, the current Sports Minister of the country should withdraw the permission of such people to hold any sports-related responsibility on behalf of Sri Lanka.
But the current Sports Minister is trying to slap the “treasonous” label of treason on the people who are trying to protect the independence and pride of the country’s sports and not on the people who are humiliating the country in front of the world. He is putting the label of ‘treasonous’ on true patriots by appearing in photographs together with the people who affected the pride and independence as well as the people who created the biggest black spot. The photograph here also shows such a situation. But now people are getting to see the truth in front of the Asia Olympic Committee. It is felt that they are not wearing royal cloths but transparent cloaks.
It is important that someone gives the Sri Lankan Sports Minister the wisdom to get rid of the formality of that naked parade and fight for reality.
The behavior is enough now to realize that the problem is not just Rizly Illyas, but the Asia President’s hatred of Sri Lanka and removing an obstacle to the advancement of rugby in his country. Indeed, it’s crucial to recognize that there can be individuals or entities that may support actions that appear to undermine the independence and pride of a country’s sports for their own personal interests rather than the best interests of the country’s sports community.
With Vinod Tiwari coming forward to dedicate himself for the vitality of the Asia Games by raising these questions for the Asia Games, many people were looking at the ‘Nilames’ in the parade of the Asia President as majestic images dressed in royal clothes, but now it is becoming clear that they are transparent cloaks.
So it is a matter of one’s intelligence to decide whether to take on the clothes now or to continue moving forward in the parade of transparent cloaks lined up by the Asia Games organization.
In the same way that the sports leaders of Sri Lanka joined this parade and did not respect the independence of Sri Lanka rugby and hindered the Sri Lanka rugby, now the Asia President Qais al Dhalai has also brought forward his personal agenda in a way that hinders the Asia rugby.
Currently, the seriousness of the narrow interests of the Asia President has affected rugger widely, to the point of whether Sri Lanka will play in the Asia tournament or whether the rugby will be held.
Rizly Illyas’ resignation letter is also attached to this article.
*Adapted from original article titled “ආසියානු රග්බ් සභාපතිගේ සීතාම්බර සළු පෙරහැර පෙන්වන ආසියානු ක්රිඩා උළෙලේ සංවිධායක මණ්ඩලය” published on 03.09.2023.
