Unsporting behaviour

Wednesday, 23 May 2012 00:07 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

IT seems that the corruption in cricket is spreading to the rest of the sporting bodies in Sri Lanka. The 15th Asian Junior Athletic Championship 2012, which was scheduled to be held in Colombo from 9 to 12 June, has been cancelled by the Asian Athletic Association, the Sri Lanka Athletic Association said on Monday, revealing a deepening rot within the organisation.

The Sri Lanka Athletic Association said that the Secretary of Asian Athletic Association Maurice R. Nicholas had officially informed of the decision on Monday. Following the decision, Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage and Sri Lanka Athletic Association (SLAA) President Daya Ratnayake had made inquiries in this regard. Nicholas had informed the Minister that several former officials of the Sri Lanka Athletic Association had forwarded a petition against the recently-concluded election of the Sri Lanka Athletic Association.

However, the Minister and the President of SLAA insisted that the recently-concluded election was free and fair. It was held according to the rules and the regulations of the Sports Act 25 of 1973 (Section 41) and the SLAA officially informed the Asian Athletic Association in this regard. The Minister and the President of SLAA claimed that it was unfair to cancel the event without inquiring from the Ministry or from the SLAA. They requested the Asian Athletic Association to reconsider the decision and make necessary arrangements to hold the event as scheduled.

The Asian Athletic Association Secretary has requested a detailed report on the progress so far from Sri Lanka as the host country. The SLAA said that measures are underway to send the report immediately to the Asian Athletic Association. The SLAA claimed that it was unfair for local and international athletes who looked forward to participate at this event. The association also condemned the “disgraceful and shameless behaviour of the former officials of the SLAA who sent the petition”.

In Monday’s news reports there were also hints that the SLAA would carry out an inquiry to find out the signatories to the petition in what can only be termed as a “witch hunt”. Sri Lanka’s sports bodies are no stranger to scandal and subterfuge, with cricket, being the richest sport, also getting the lion’s share of it. In fact the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) in its recent report fingered Sri Lanka Cricket for being one of the most corrupt bodies in the country.

The recent developments of the SLAA suggests that it is not far behind and that the lack of good governance and transparency better known as simple honesty has brought SLAA to this state is indeed tragic. The SLAA assures that all facilities including venues and hotel bookings have already been made so one has to wonder how the bills will be footed when the promised revenue is lost.

When Sri Lanka lost the 2018 Commonwealth Games bid, after significant expense, the Government promised that other regional events would be staged to put Sri Lanka on the sporting map, but this cannot happen unless local sporting bodies clean up their act.

The championship was to showcase talents of over 900 Asian athletes from 36 countries in 44 track and field events but now all that they will remember is the infighting within the SLAA that led to its cancellation.