The Borneo sevens will kick off on the 30th of October and conclude on the 31st. The Asian games commences three weeks later in China on the 22nd and 23rd of November. Rounding-up the sevens season for Sri Lanka will be the all important Carlton 7’s tournament played on our very own square at the Sugathadasa Stadium on the 27th and 28th November 2010.
Fifty three players comprise of the entire club circuit. The Air Force seems to have produced big numbers with Radhika Hettiarachchi, Chanaka Chandimal, Mithun Chamil, Gayan Iddamalgoda, Fazly Mohamed, Rajitha Sansoni, Charith Seneviratne, Dilan Soysa, Lakith Perera, Prabath Jayalath and Milinda Jayasinghe while Saliya Handapangoda and Gayan Ratnayake represent the Army SC. From the CR & FC it is Ashen Karathelis, Dinusha Chaturanga, Ishan Noor, Lasintha De Costa, Reza Mubarak, Vishwa Mithra Jayasinghe, Dhanushka Perera and Srinath Sooriyabandara. Thusitha Somathilake is the only player from the Havelocks. Kandy is at full strength as usual with Pradeep Liyanage, Gayan Weeraratne, Saliya Kumara, Mohamed Sheriff, Sanjeewa Jayasinghe, Fazil Marija, Sajith Saranga, Roshan Weeraratne, Chamara Vithanage, Kasun De Silva, Dilip Selvam and Dharshana Ethipola. Nuwan Hettiarachchi, Niranjan Wickramaratne, Chula Susantha, Ravindra Pushpakumara and Kalana Amarasinghe are the sailors included in the pool. Romesh Archirige is the lone policeman in the squad.
Thirteen school boys who inspired rugby this season have also been included in the squad. Devinda Prasad (Isipathana), Mayura Sanjeewa (St. Josephs) Shenal Dias, Sandun Herath, Dhanushka Ranjan, Banuka Nanayakkara and Keith Gurusinghe (all from St Peters), Anurudhdha Wilwara, Shaveen Kapuwatte, Sudharshana Muthuthantri (S. Thomas’), Shehan Pathirana (Royal) Kanchana Ramanayake (Trinity) Chethiya Wadugodapitiya (Kingswood)
Christopher Jordashe will be the manager of this squad whilst Inthi Marikka and George Simpkin share the coaching duties.
All 53 players were notified by the SLRFU and been asked to attend practices at Havelock Park today. However 35 out of the 53 selected have notified unavailability for national duty sighting various different excuses, depleting the national squad yet again. The excuses vary from the very plausible injuries to not being allowed leave from their respective companies. Such a wave of pull-outs must have an obvious answer which is seen as the upcoming mercantile 7’s competition. This raises the question ‘is it fair that companies prevent their employees from representing our nation just so they can field a strong side for a intercompany tournament? ‘
This callous disregard to the national cause is disturbing especially because most of these players represent top corporates in the country. To be fair a paradox exists for the companies as most of the players are employed specifically for this reason and it is not fair by the company to have them missing at that crucial time. The SLRFU for their part has put out their tournament calendar ahead of time and has no choice but to go with the international agenda.
In a hopeful answer to this entire fiasco the SLRFU secretary Shane Dullawe has requested that the Mercantile sevens tournament dates be shifted at least till after the Carlton sevens tournament.
We keep our fingers crossed!!
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