• Plans afoot to set up HPCs in Torrington and Diyagama 
• Country lacks role models in sports for younger generation

An inability to expose national players to high-level overseas domestic competitions has been a primary reason for the decline in sports in Sri Lanka, according to National Sports Council (NSC) Chair Priyantha Ekanayake.

He said that compared with other nations, all sports had failed to move forward in Sri Lanka in the aspects of technology and science, noting that standards had deteriorated markedly after the early 2000s as a result.

Ekanayake, a double international for Sri Lanka in rugby and basketball, made these comments during a live weekly discussion focused on the current state of sports in the country, aired on a television channel on Wednesday (14). 

“When I played the game in the 1980s and ’90s, I had the opportunity to ply my trade in places like New Zealand and Wales,” the former rugby skipper said. “But a present-day player finds it difficult to get that type of opportunity anymore. The reason is that the sport has become professional. 

“Nowadays, sport is treated as a profession, but when we played it was not so; it was at an amateur level. And I don’t think our athletes have still reached that level.”

Ekanayake said that sports in general had not embraced professionalism in Sri Lanka, maintaining that this was a core reason for the steady decline in standards of all popular team sports in the country. 

“Previously, athletes mostly focussed on their own strength and the skill factor. But today, the aspect of technology has also crept into sports, which has transformed it into a professional state. That is the stark difference between then and now.”

The former President of Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) stated that the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has already formulated plans to build two High Performance Centres (HPCs) with a view to absorbing the twin aspects of technology and science into the local sporting arena.

He expressed hope that by the end of the year, the ministry would be able to construct an HPC at Torrington before setting up a similar structure in Diyagama next year, enabling local athletes to hone their crafts in keeping with modern-day requirements.

Ekanayake identified shortcomings in sports IQ as being a stumbling block for sportsmen and women in team sports when it came to performing consistently on the global stage. He noted that striving to achieve success via senior teams without addressing inherent weaknesses in junior teams would not guarantee success either on a short- or long-term basis. 

He added that at present, the country was devoid of iconic role models in the sporting sphere from whom the younger generation could learn, unlike in the past when the nation was replete with such stars.

“In those days we had Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena, Susanthika Jayasinghe, and a few other athletes. But who do we have now? None, I suppose, with the sole exception of Rumesh Tharanga,” he said.

The NSC Chair stressed that if the aspect of sports science could be introduced through the HPC, hiring professionals would not be a difficult task.

Ekanayake added that a joint venture between the State and private sectors was being contemplated with the aim of setting the stage for local athletes to become professionals in their respective sporting disciplines.