PresidentMercantileNetballAssociation)

SL has earned a reputation as a nation which always produced top class Women Athletes. Susanthika Jayasinghe’s Silver Medal in the 200 metres at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, is a classic example of this fact. True, Duncan White did win SL’s first medal at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, UK. No doubt, it was a great effort, but I believe there was no real competition at that time. In contrast, Susanthika had to compete against the world’s fastest Athlete Marian Jones of the US. We cannot forget this historic moment. In addition, SL is the only country to date, to have won the Asian Netball title on 4 occasions. Also, the Women’s Volleyball (VB) team won SL’s first Gold Medal at the 1991 SAG in Colombo. Before that, the SL Women’s VB team won a Test series against India in 1970, in India. The Women’s Basketball and Hockey teams have also beaten several top teams, although they have struggled to win a major championship. But sadly, today, Women’s sport has dropped well below standard in every discipline. Also, the Women have not won medals at Games level since 2000. The Women’s Netball team have also failed to make an impact since 2009. They have lost 3 successive finals to Singapore in 2012, 2014 and 2016. The Women’s VB team have always lost to India at the SAG. The Women’s Cricket team have been competing for more than 25 years, participating at every tournament, but have yet to win a major tournament. The situation in other sports is also at the same level. The main reason for this is because we do not have a proper long term Sports plan. SL emerged champions at the Asian Youth Netball Tournament held in 2015 in Hong Kong. As a result, we also qualified to compete at the World Youth Netball Championships in Botswana in July 2017 and the Asian Youth Netball Championships in May 2017, in South Korea. We were fully aware of these 2 events 2 years back but, I am surprised that the National Pool for this tournament was named just 4 months before the event. The National Youth Coach is also yet to be named. We have made it a habit of preparing for major events in the short term, which is not the proper way to march forward. This has been the practice of all Men’s sports events as well. Another aspect I noticed is that, we appoint officials of a touring squad, well before selecting the National Pool. I see that, they give more priority to the officials, not for the competitors. We have to give priority to local competitions, if we are to make progress. We should first try to get match experience before competing in these foreign tournaments. I have seen some National Sports Associations (NSA) have participated in overseas events, even without conducting their domestic tournaments. The 1990s and the 2000s were the best period for all sports in SL. All NSAs had their long term plans with necessary financial backing. All sports had its own official sponsors as well. As a result, Sports made vast strides during that period. But today, we are suffering without financial backing, without any sponsors and cannot see local tournaments being conducted as scheduled. We prepare for foreign competitions just 2 months before the event. The Coaches also do not get the required international exposure. We cannot blame the Athletes for poor performances at international level. The Sports Administration should take the entire responsibility for this setback.