Sri Lanka High Performance Rugby Director Inthi Marikar resigns

By Shamseer Jaleel

In a shocking move, Inthi Marikar has tendered his resignation as the Sri Lanka High Performance Rugby Director to Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR). 

This will affect the preparation of the Sri Lanka Sevens outfit at the Asian Games 2018. The team will be looking for a medal in Jakarta in August this year which could be a first time for the country’s rugby.

Former Marikar was a Trinity Rugby Lion and a Sri Lanka Sevens and Fifteens player. He also donned the CR&FC and Kandy SC jersey as a club player. As a head coach he has guided the Air Force, CR&FC, Sri Lanka Sevens and Fifteens teams.

Marikar, who is a no-nonsense man when it comes to work ethic, has taken Sri Lankan rugby, especially Sevens rugby, to another level. For the first time in Sri Lanka rugby history, he started the High-Performance program along with his coaching staff where he studied the game’s basics back in New Zealand. While insisting on the age grade development, supported by his team, he generated quick success by winning the Under-20 Asian Sevens championship under Kevin Dixon’s leadership, which was a first for Sri Lankan rugby.

They followed this up with another sensational Sevens win at the Under-18 level under Navin Heenakankanmge. He continued this good work along with the coaching staff, seeing the Sri Lanka nen’s outfit finish as runner-up in the Sevens series.

The coaching staff, along with Marikar, implemented a structured program throughout the year and monitored the Sevens athletes without any break or off-seasons to develop them into top-class players in the Asian region. 

They rendered yeoman service for the women’s outfit who were left in the lurch. He took them to an unthinkable Borneo Rugby Sevens championship in 2017. An improvement in performance was witnessed when he took a young men’s outfit to Borneo this year. Sri Lanka beat Fiji 12-0, which was a significant improvement in their game from when they were beaten 30-0 by the same team two years ago. At the same tournament, Sri Lanka was edged out by a slim 20-17 by Hong Kong and beat a top New Zealand team in the quarterfinals.

Following Marikar’s resignation, and with Sri Lanka Rugby’s Annual General Meeting taking place this month, the future of the country’s rugby looks very uncertain.