Rugby Bosses Blow Up League in Foul Start

By: Callistus Davy

In a lightning move the newly elected administration of Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) has gone against tradition and possible fair play and converted the Premier League, giving it a knockout blow that has agitated the country’s most soughtafter entity, Kandy Sports Club. 

Under the new stance of SLR, the team that finishes on top will not be given the league title and will have to play against the second-placed team in a playoff for the prize. 

Kandy SC, which has been the undisputed top-placed finisher for nearly three decades, has fired its guns on SLR, accusing it of dictatorship without taking into account the views of all nine participating clubs in the decision-making process. With just four days to go before kickoff, the sudden change of the tournament’s format is likely to expose the high-handed nature and amateurish behaviour of the new administration of rugby, contrary to its pompous boast of professionalising the domestic game. 

“Changing the format of the League tournament one week before the commencement of the tournament is certainly not good governance,” Kandy SC’s president Mahesh Weerasinghe has told SLR’s head Pavitra Fernando in a hard-hitting letter. 

Although Kandy SC has been the number one rival of the rest of the clubs, none would be able to hide the fact that it kept the domestic flame burning more than any other promoter, and independent analysts contend they deserve to be heard. 

Kandy SC said it will contest the league but would not subscribe to a knockout or playoff match even if they end second in the points table. In a further shot at SLR, Kandy SC has also conveyed to Fernando that the best way to enhance rugby’s domestic image is to improve refereeing and coaching standards and not dilute the league format. 

The unsupervised mindset of SLR could not have been clearer, as one of the correspondence letters to Kandy SC gave the date of the decision to change the tournament format as November 16 when it should have read November 6. Fernando has told Kandy SC that the ruling to change the league format has been put down to falling in line with the tournaments of the best rugby-playing nations. But Kandy SC has told SLR, in no uncertain terms, that it will have none of it.