We hope to bring back foreign players - Rizly Ilyas

By Shamseer Jaleel

Former Peterite, Petersons SC player and current Deputy President of Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR), Rizly Ilyas who is tipped to be the next President of the governing body, informed a few changes he expects

Rizly tipped to take over  Sri Lanka Rugby as President

to bring to Rugby from September 2020 onwards with the support of majority of the clubs.

Rizly said, “We hope to bring back the foreigners for all format of the games. League, Knock out and even Sevens. Any team can bring in any number of players, we will allow two of them to play at a given time. This will attract the missing spectators towards matches. Further we will give a shot in playing majority of the games under flood lights which will attract more spectators to witness the matches live after their work.

“We want to give more importance to Sevens with the 2022 Asian Games in focus and later on the Olympic Qualifications in 2024. Further we want to see if we could keep the league only for Sevens games for each team and then go for the knock out. If the majority of the clubs agree then we can concentrate more on the shorter version of the game in which we have the potential to go the next level.”

Rizly added, “We will start a Rugby Foundation as well. We will appoint a former stalwart to be part of this. One of them would be a former national player, administrator, referee and national selector; Brig. Japana Jaywardena. We will add a few more in to this committee and give equal opportunity for all clubs to be part of this.”

Rizly, expanding on his thoughts on SLR said, “We need to take out the toxic mentality within SLR and bring about positive culture with the stakeholders, provincial unions, schools, universities and clubs. SLR Head Quarters should be an open house for all involved in Sri Lankan Rugby. We will need to maintain high values on national players and representation to the teams. They should be looked after well as they are national assets.”  

Rizly ended his statement by stating, “We will continue to use the new grounds or may upgrade the existing ground to top qualities for the hill capital boys. There are 6 leading schools that play rugby in the top division and each year nearly 50 to 60 players leave school. We want one or more clubs to play B Division rugby in the Central Region. 

“Eventually in about 2 to 3 years they will end up in playing A division rugby among the top clubs in the country. With the new generation taking over the administration in Central Province Rugby Football Union (CPRFU), the transformation of rugby development will take place at a lightning fast pace and the game of rugby will grow in the outstation areas around Kandy in the near future.”