Rizly ‘Dida’ takes over Sri Lanka Rugby

Rizly Illyas

Former Peterite and Petersons number 8 Rizly Illyas took over the post of President at Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) at their Annual General Meeting (AGM) which took place in Colombo last weekend. He will hold this position from 2020 to 2022.

Rizly speaking to Daily FT said: “There are corporates who are willing to sponsor rugby which is only the second in popularity to cricket in the country. You need to present a proper marketing budget and tell the how we are going to spend the funds and the return each institutions are going to get out of it.”

Rizly speaking further said: “All three boys of the Prime Minister represented their school, club country and led their teams which gives a huge advantage as their interest for the oval shaped ball game will be immense and we need to use it positively. Since rugby is a contact sport we need to wait for health authorities for approval and sometimes need to play in front of empty stands not allowing crowd for some time till the situation returns to normal.”

Rizly who will have an uphill task in collecting sponsorship first to cover the previous debts have former Science, CH & FC and national sevens skipper Nazeem Mohamed as his Deputy President with former Antonian and CH & FC player Jude Pillai as the Secretary of SLR for two years starting from 2020.

11 former players, officials of rugby were awarded life membership. Life members were awarded to DIG (Rtd) Hafeez Marso, Air Force Marshal Roshan Goonatilleke. Senior DIG (Rtd) Nimal Lewke, Arjun Dharmadasa, Rear Admiral (Rtd) Harsha Mayadunne, Asanga Senevirathne, Priyantha Ekanayake, Kishin Butani, C.P.P. Abeygunawardena, Mohan Samarakoon and Cicero de Fonseka. (SJ)