Dialog pulls out of 7’s, SLR to plan shortened tourney?

By Harsha Amarasinghe

As exclusively reported in the ‘Daily Mirror’ yesterday (16), the wait for competitive club rugby in Sri Lanka continues as the realization of the proposed inter-club 7’s tournament looks even more unlikely after the main sponsor Dialog decided to pull out in the eleventh hour having re-evaluated the sponsorship request submitted by Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR).

SLR was to organize the tournament under the title ‘Commander’s Cup’ in collaboration with Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF). However, since SLAF opted to postpone the particular tournament on Monday (15), SLR had to send a revised budget for a new inter-club 7’s tournament.

As exclusively reported in the‘Daily Mirror’ yesterday, the main sponsor Dialog indeed made a call on the sponsorship after re-evaluating the new sponsorship request.
“Revised budget sent by SLR was not a commercially viable option. Management Committee of Dialog had not sanctioned the revised budget submitted by SLR,” a representative of the company told ‘Daily Mirror’.

The ‘Daily Mirror’ learns that the figures the revised budget were much higher than the initial figures submitted for consideration. It will be interesting to see if SLR would go ahead with the others sponsors.

However, it is reliably learnt that SLR is still hopeful that they would be able to organize a shortened version of the planned tournament with Daraz looking set to be the main sponsor. It will also be interesting to see whether a ministerial intervention could lead to a change of heart of the telecom giant.