The chances of school rugby resuming in the first week of December are getting better with A/L Exams to end in the first week of November and O/L to begin in the third week of January 2021. It will not be a full-blown schools rugby league however, but a ten-a-side competition to give final year students an opportunity to play for their school one last time, which will make the schools and the players happy. The mentality that a certificate is the most important document is now complete.The more critical would be to have a plan for the 2021 school season which cannot start in March as has been in the past. The schools will have to formulate a different calendar after an insignificant schools rugby 2020 affected by COVID -19. Rugby starved fans are waiting for the game to resume, even if it is behind closed doors. The opportunity is ripe to televise matches using more than one broadcaster. For a start play the Bradby behind closed doors before the tens and sell the broadcasting rights. Then the tens too can follow on the small screen.The game, I predict, will be slower and prone to errors – causing frustration among players as well as spectators. The recalcitrant match officials will be at the receiving end if there is no thought given to this area.
Club Season
The club season tapered off without the knock-outs and no international commitments. The maligned Referee’s Society survived the attacks it was facing as there was no rugby. The clean-up, upliftment and uniting all factions promised by Tony Amit will be another pipe dream, because by November it will be time for a new Rugby Referees Committee to take office. Delayed almost by five months the new SLR Committee took office last week. Rizly Ilyas assumed office as President of Sri Lanka Rugby on 19 August. Ilyas has extended his hands to those in the rugby community and to those whose network is essential to make his tenure a successful one.
Present at the post-Annual General Meeting lunch were many of his networks. It extended to the two schools he was associated with, namely Isipathana and St Peters College, and to the clubs, Peterson’s and CH and FC. Not limited to those of his immediate circle were many of prominent personalities involved in rugby. Ilyas has left no room for tongues to wag as he had financed the expenditure beyond the SLR invitees.
Ilyas has inherited a ship on a rough sea that will take much skill and time to charter to safe shores. Having said that and wishing his team the best to charter a beneficial course, finance and match officiating are two issues that are within his control.
A report elsewhere indicated that the net worth of SLR is being affected as bad debts are shown as receivables for many years from the school section. Since the writer has not seen a set of financial statements to comment on the significant impact on the net worth and the implication on the solvency, he will not comment on it. It is, however, mystifying how what is impaired was shown as a receivable for over three years despite the comments in the audited financial statements of previous years. These are questions for governance in a year that is not going to be easy.
The tiny coronavirus heaps millions of tons of danger and is well outside the control of the SLR. Yet one has to be vigilant and beware of people who tend to say: ‘I am doing this because the President wanted me to do it.’ When in troubled times, the President needs attention, direction and guidance. When there are uncontrollable elements in the environment, one does not need ‘yes sir’ or ‘as you say sir’ and put another problem on the plate. Looking at names in various committees, one sees characters that have such a history.
By – Ceylon Today