U-turn on Kandy and CR players’ national representation

Players from Kandy Sports Club and CR & FC will not be allowed to be selected for the National Squad tour of UAE next month. 

Though permission was granted for Kandy SC and CR players to pass the fitness test and go into the final stage of pool selection, it saw a U-turn when the majority of the other participating clubs objected citing unfair advantage for the two clubs. As a result the Ministry of Sports will not allow these two club players for selections. Due this Sri Lanka will be fielding a second string side for UAE tour.

The National Selectors headed by former Police SC, Kandy SC and national second rower, Asoka Jayasena and his team will break from dormant with the resumption of rugby when they pick the initial pool soon after the Warrior Rugby Sevens which will take place on 30 and 31 October at Police Park. 

The Head Coach of the Men’s unit was tossed up between Stefano (Fiji) and Gollings (England) but now arrival of both these top-class former players in doubt. 

Earlier Fazil Marija and Nilfer Ibrahim was expected to assist the overseas coach but now there is a glimmer of hope with any of those foreign coaching staff arriving here with time ticking fast on SLR and much-needed sponsor for this post.

Kandy Sports Club Secretary Sujeewa Liyanage told Daily FT: “We are very sad Kandy SC and CR players won’t be selected for this tour. Further this is not a recognised event and not organised by SLR. Our club is only involved in rugby football. Without rugby for the last 20 months it has hit us very badly, plus we were not willing to participate in this sevens tournament in an inadequate manner as professionalism in sports is something we believe in as the only A Division Outstation club. We allowed our players to team up as a separate unit for this tournament if they wished to since national representation was at stake.”

“We have already written to SLR on requesting for the rugby commencement dates of the League and the Club Sevens organised by them and we await their reply since we need minimum three months to prepare for the same,” Sujeewa added.