Three schools suspended by Education Ministry

By Shamseer Jaleel

Three schools, Dharmaraja, Trinity and Carey, were suspended by the Education Ministry two days ago after the inquiry held by its officials.

The questionable decision by the Ministry has rugby fans in the country up in arms.

Dharmaraja College was banned for nine months due the incident which took place in their encounter against Joes one month back at the Bogambara Stadium in Kandy. Dharmaraja took a quick decision by taking action against the involved players plus their head coach. In history none of the other schools have done this even before an inquiry was held. The slap on Dharmaraja for nine months will leave next year players unable to participate in school rugby. 

Rajans suspension is effective from yesterday till end March 2017. School sevens and Singer league will kick off before their suspension period is over. Further they will not be part of the Milo Knockout as well. 

C.D.B. Wijesinghe, N.P. Bandara, O.P. Ekanayake, M.C. Gayashan, T.R. Ratnayake, K.S.B. Dissanayake and S.S. Abragama all were banned for one year while their Head Coach Radhika Hettiarachchi was slapped with a life banwith assistant coach serving 6 months ban. Dharamaja being banned will give D.S. Senanayake one more chance in top division rugby in 2017.

The most one-sided decision is that of suspending Trinity rugby players for six months citing the incident that took place at the awards ceremony of the 72nd Bradby Shield encounter at Pallekelle. It’s very surprising how the decision was arrived at when both school boys as well as old boys were involved at the awards ceremony soon after the game which was a friendly encounter as well.

Trinitians ban will not affect them in a big way as the period ends in December 2016 and no major tournament will take place during this period. The only minus point for Trinity is that they will not be able to represent the country at the Junior Asian rugby tournament which will take place in Hong Kong end of this year.

Meanwhile, Carey College Colombo was also given a six-month match ban following the incident that took place in their encounter against Padukka Sri Piyarathna College. Their head coach Dharmapala Nimal too will not be able to coach till December 2016. According to reliable source at least two of the schools are likely to take legal action on these decisions. Trinity Board will meet soon and take a decision earlier next week.