Basketball worm out of can
Some stunning selection discrepancies for a junior tour has opened a can of worms in basketball and Sports Minister is set for an overhaul of the sport by sidelining an all-powerful official who is allegedly calling all the shots.
Sources said that this official with strong connections with powerful elements is pulling strings at all levels and controls every aspect of basketball in Sri Lanka.
While the Basketball Association president Sarath Ekanayake who is the Chief Minister of Central Province is based in Kandy, this official is allegedly controlling basketball set up from Colombo and surprisingly he holds a top office in the Association also holding a top coaching job. While this clearly creates conflict of interest, the problem goes deeper as he is also coaching a few schools himself.
As this official is keeping an iron grip with his rule of terror, the lid on the real situation had artfully been kept tightly sealed for a long period of time by this official who even handles all local and foreign correspondence of the Association and the Association letterhead gives his residential address as their official address. The strange selections came to light when the Association picked 12 players for the Sri Lanka girl’s team for the Under 16 Asian Basketball Championships which is to be played in China in the first week of December.
The Association had picked 60 players for a preliminary pool and then pruned it down to 16 and conducted regular practices for more than six months before naming the final 12 players for the tour just a few weeks before the tournament.
This meant that the four players who were dropped had been attending practices regularly for six months for no reason. It was even more tragic as most of these players are facing their ordinary level exams shortly.
In the pool of 16, there were three players who had represented Sri Lanka Under 19 team previously and if you thought they would be automatic choices for the Under 16 squad, you are mistaken. One of those players has been appointed captain of the Under 16, the other the vice captain.
But the strange case is the third who the selectors strangely thought is not good enough even to be among the final 12!
This player is the only left hander in the squad giving her a special advantage for selection.
Strangely in the touring squad are six players from one school from Colombo suburbs where the powerful official coaches. (Interestingly there are only five players in a basketball team!)
The Manager for the tour also comes from this school while the manager for the previous junior tour to Italy also came from this school.
The powerful official’s interference and influence is so much that several schools including a strong girls’ school team from Bambalapitiya named after a Saint do not send their player for selections due to selection manipulations by the said official.
Sports Minister immediately ordered a re-trial after getting to know the selection trouble but the junior player had graciously refused it saying she could not grab the place of another player who had been with her as a friend at practices for more than six months.basktball officials have offered to send all 16 players on the tour but it is learnt that the four players who were dropped had also refused this offer.
This is a very sad state of affairs, Sports Minister should kick these officials out who are upto all these malpractices.
They are killing the younger generations enthusiasm to a sport. How could Mother Lanka produce winning sports outfits with this calibre of people,
Shame, Shame, Shame on you the coach. Resign from your post as coach and everything else immediately
why dont you people look at the otherside of this story. normaly the said school wins matches by a margin more than 20 points. so it is fair to have 6 players on team.it looks like the one who wrote the article does not have a knowledge about the game or he has been adviced by someone else. if there is any problem with selection you should put the blame on them rather than using one incident to blame someone who is trying to keep the game alive. and if you are certain about this why dont you mention his name? now every time they select a team a droped players parents goes to the minister. This is the latest trend in basketball. so this is what you call politics in sports.