IIT pursues firmer foothold in sports
In order to strengthen its success in the field of sports, the Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) is planning to offer scholarships for talented school sportsmen and women.
Basketball, rugby and cricket are the main sports at IIT and members of their present teams, apart from focusing on their academic work, are practicing for future matches and tournaments.
Basketball was the first sport in IIT in 2008. Today about 20 students are in the squad. Gimantha Ratnasekare( 21) is the present captain of IIT’s basketball team.
A third-year undergraduate student of Information Systems with Business Management, Gimantha said more students find sports a form of relieving the stress built up through academic work.
“Most of the players have not played basketball during college. But now we have training twice a week along with mercantile players of the Informatics Group. With the guidance of our coach, Mr. Ahamed, we are now a basketball team growing stronger,” he said.
Dinith Pathirana( 21) is the rugby captain of IIT. He is also a second year undergraduate student of the Information Systems and Business Management programme.
The two- year- old team has a 12- member squad and has been playing a number of games locally and internationally. Presently, IIT is training only for rugby sevens tournaments.
“We were the plate runner-up in the game of rugby with ICBT, Kandy this year. We also played with SAITM and a number of private universities. The importance of university level sports is that it helps students to focus, build team work, groom their personality and provides an excellent opportunity to meet fellow students from other universities,” he said.
Last year, IIT won their inaugural cricket encounter, the Clash of the Undergrads, against the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM).
IIT’s cricket captain, 21-year-old Rifad Rizan said that since 2011, the team has been playing a number of friendly matches with other private universities.
“Now the team is getting ready for more challenging games. We are hoping to play our best in this week’s Mora Sixes tournament organized by the Moratuwa University,” he said.
The cricket team trains twice a week at the Fingara indoor cricket pitches.
“The good thing about sports is that there are students representing various undergraduate courses and from different years. Training does keep us in great shape physically and mentally,” said Rifad, a final year Software Engineering student.
Sports Consultant of Informatics Group, Chinthaka de Silva said when he joined in 2011, there was a need to improve the sports area of IIT.
“Now the players get motivation and support as well as guidance in all three sports. The proposal to award scholarships to school sport stars has been forwarded. This way, IIT will lead not only in academics but also in sports,” he said.
According to Mr.de Silva, IIT is also hoping to participate and organize more inter- university tournaments among private universities and institutions.
“The players receive the best coaching and all facilities for training. The skills and fitness levels in players have also improved,” he added.
IIT is also planning a 15- a- side tournament among private universities next year.
IIT has produced more than 2500 graduates since its inception in 1990. One of the pioneer universities in introducing internal British degree programmes in Sri Lanka, IIT is now gearing up to take the lead in private university sports too.
IIT conducts undergraduate programmes in the discipline in Information Technology and Business. Among the most known degrees are the BSc( Hons) in Information Systems with Business Management, BEng( Hons) i n Software Engineering and MSc in Advanced Software Engineering in collaboration with both the Manchester Metro p o l i t a n University( MMU) and the University of Westminster(UOW).
– Nadia Fazlulhaq