‘I’d rather manage wild horses than dead monkeys’
Sri Lanka’s boxing chief Dian Gomes plans to continue with his prudent policy of investing on youth and lighter weight classes, parrying aside his detractors in a bid to battle for medals at the Commonwealth Games in 2022 despite a light heavyweight from Army Rumesh Sandakelum winning a boxing gold for the country at the 13th South Asian Games (SAG) after 15 years.
“When you look at our history, we have not been successful in the heavier weights. This is one of the few times that a heavy weight boxer won a gold medal even in the regional meet. We are giving them the opportunity but I would always invest on the first three weights (light fly, fly and bantam) especially for the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games, and those are the three toughest weights (under 49, 51 and 54kg) as well,” insisted BASL (Boxing Association of Sri Lanka) president Gomes.
2019 has been a successful year for boxing apart from winning a heap of medals at SAG numbering 11, in addition to a couple of bronze medals at the 23rd Indonesian President’s Cup, and a silver and bronze at the Eindhoven Cup in Holland.
But this is nothing compared to the long wait of 68 years before winning a bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.
Biggest victory
“I think our biggest victory was at the Commonwealth Games (2018). After 68 years we have been able to win three bronze medals which were very significant medals. I would consider that a great victory for Sri Lanka boxing because 68 years is a long time to win medals,” said Gomes, 63, who has been at the helm of Sri Lanka boxing for the best part of two decades.
“Also what we have done is not looked at the current medallists, but we have looked at the future, for 2022, for the Commonwealth and Asian Games. As a preparation we sent schoolboys to Sweden (King of the Ring), Kuwait (Asian) and UAE (Junior) championships. This is the first time that school boxers have taken part in three international tournaments,” he said.
“I have the vision to train the school boxers and got invitations from other countries to participate in these international tournaments which has been a great success in Sweden and other meets. Sri Lanka have actually fared very well at least winning few fights internationally. That gives us the motivation and we are picking up talent five years ahead like any other country,” said Gomes, a former junior national champion.
Long-term strategy
“But I won’t count medals alone as a success. It is the long term strategy that we need to enforce. We have a very strong selection committee headed by General Jagath Jayasuriya, Udeni Kiridena and Olympian Anuruddha Rathnayake. We have a fairly robust administration process and this is one of the few years we have taken part internationally both at the school and senior level,” said Gomes who does not believe in short cuts for success.
Amazingly boxing has soldiered on under the stewardship of Dian Gomes, fondly known as the
Godfather of Sri Lanka boxing, with almost zero support from the Sports Ministry or the National Olympic Committee (NOC) which pay lip service to ‘High Performance’ whereas boxing seems to be way ahead when it comes to achieving excellence.
“I think High Performance is especially important if you are going for international medals, especially at Olympics or Commonwealth Games, and even regional meets like the SAG. Actually some of our boxers have been put on to that High Performance because most of the clubs also have been assisted by foreign coaches. Earlier we have been having Cuban coaches and there are different types of high performance. For example people think to get High Performance you have to operate in high altitude but something like boxing can be simulated with the mask so that you can get the same benefit. So we have to look at all these new techniques,” he explained.
Asked what challenges he faces as BASL president, he said: “The biggest issue is in the government financing. Boxing is totally privately financed by one or two benevolent individuals and ofcourse A&E, our main sponsor. With the greatest difficulty we have been managing with this private funding where there has been zero funding from the government. Boxing is one of the few sports which has not been given government assistance although boxing was one of the two sports which won medals at the Commonwealth Games.”
Challenging transparency
“Unfortunately, the ministry does not have the capability to assist the boxing. NOC is worse. NOC is just a post box, favouring their own little associations. Since boxing has always been challenging the transparency, boxing is completely ignored. We have never got a single scholarship from the National Olympic Committee. The ministry is supportive but unfortunately they have cash constraints so therefore we don’t get the financial assistance. They have always said they have got financial issues and keep on deferring and deferring. This time the director (general) had assured us that we would at least get the money for the local meets,” he added without pulling his punches.
Why has boxing has not had a national coach or an ongoing national pool even for SAG?
“Earlier the national coach was Harsha Kumara but unfortunately he has not been allowed to continue because of his job in MAS Holdings. The next most senior person is Amila Aravinda who has showed some good results. Now we have two other people who are 3-star coaches Ravinda Wekadapola and Chamila
Abeyrathne, both from MAS. We have a mixed bag of fairly senior coaches to accompany a team,” he said urging the sports ministry to provide training facilities.
National pool
“The ministry of sports if they are going to have a national pool, first of all they need to have accommodation and a training facility. Any other country be it Cuba, in Europe or even places like Thailand, the national pool has a centre. Unfortunately we don’t have a centre. The only place where athletes are given lodging is the sports ministry building. That cannot accommodate all sports. The majority of them are athletes who are in track and field, and a few weightlifters. Sri Lanka football has a facility. Sri Lanka cricket has a facility. But none of the other sports have any facilities,” he pointed out.
“Therefore if we were to put the national pool, we have to look at two centres. One is for women in Slimline at Pannala and for the men, Army camp in Panagoda. But the clubs are a little apprehensive when we pick people because they have difference of opinion on training. Unfortunately, because the boxing association or the ministry do not have the funding or the place to base them, we have allowed them to be trained in two separate places,” he said.
Asked whether Sri Lanka’s leading boxers such as Dinidu Saparamadu and Keshani Hansika who had to settle for bronze at the SAG were over the hill, Gomes said their failure is the result of squabbling which has plagued boxing in the recent past.
“Both of them have absolutely good talent but I think the situation of not allowing them to take part in few of the international meets by the internal administration of their organization has led them to their downfall. When Saparamadu was given the opportunity to fight in Indonesia and Eindhoven Cup which as pre preparation for the SAG, he was not allowed to take part because their organisation felt he would not need it and in the last minute they kind of withdrew his entry. In addition to those two meets we had organized fair amount of sparring sessions after the international meets both in Holland and Indonesia which they were deprived of and that is the biggest issue that this year the MAS boxers have been facing. Hansika unfortunately with the Ukraine coach, has not been able to deliver the results which they expected,” said Gomes.
Gomes has his fair share of critics largely because of his leadership style but like a pugnacious boxer has emerged unscathed thriving in the challenges.
“It’s the few individuals like in any other sport. We can have difference of opinion. Even I have differences of opinion with the selection committee and sometimes with the administration. I take it as part of the democracy and the challenge in the process. For example, the selection committee wanted to send SAG medallists for the Olympic trials. I wanted to have fresh trials but they were not in
I believe in having critics. If you are a real leader, if you do not have critics, I think you have failed because if I take ten decisions and if I get seven right, I think I have done well. But you have to understand three decisions might always go wrong,”
agreement with me. And I respect that decision because they feel that the medallists have to be recognized more than trialling out new candidates. I agreed with that but there has always been a challenging of the process,” said Gomes who is the Honorary Consul General of Georgia.
Boxing needs a strong leader like Dian Gomes but how does he tackle critics?
“I believe in having critics. If you are a real leader, if you do not have critics, I think you have failed because if I take ten decisions and if I get seven right, I think I have done well. But you have to understand three decisions might always go wrong,” explained Gomes crediting his boxing guru at Royal College for the lessons which he applies in his corporate and personal life.
Meritocracy
“You are not going to win everything. As a boxer taking part and giving a good fight is the most important thing, rather raising your hand as the winner. I learnt it in school. That is one of the best things that our coach Danton Obeyesekere taught us. Fight well, win on meritrocacy. I believe in that,” he said.
“When there are critics, some of them have their own grievances which are very personal to them because why they were not picked, etc., to go on a tour. That is the biggest grievance that anybody would say. It is always on international trips. They have never criticised me on selections because selection is under the committee,” he pointed out.
Striking a decisive blow at his critics, he said: “As the president (of BASL) I’d rather be a dictator than not do anything. I always believe specially in a sport like boxing, I would rather have wild horses than dead monkeys. Wild horses are difficult to manage. But when I managed 70,000 people, I always used to tell them ‘look I’d rather manage wild horses than dead monkeys’. At least wild horses you can drive them, dead monkeys they won’t do anything. Boxing with all these issues we have progressed because specially in a sport like boxing, you will have lot of wild horses. It’s how your leadership manages a wild horse.”
“I have run one of the country's largest organisations and held senior positions both in the government and private sector. Unfortunately, lot of them don’t understand the vision and the strategy that we are enforcing. They are trying to create something which is advantageous to individuals for their personal gains. Every sport has that and relatively boxing has a greater set of good guys who are interested in the sport which is what I can be proud of. I have looked at other sports as well having been a founder of the Fencing association. But it has always been a pleasure to be the president of Sri Lanka boxing,” said the former Managing Director of MAS Intimates and chairman of Hela Clothing.