Colombo International Container Terminals partners Wheelchair Tennis

SLTA President Iqbal Bin Issack (third from left) holds Partnership token with CICT CEO Nelson Liu, (from left): CICT GM-Marketing and Commercial Tissa Wickramasinghe, SLTA Vice President P.S. Kumara, CICT Asst. GM-Marketing and Commercial Catriona Jayasundera, SLTA General Secretary Pradeep Goonesekera and CICT GM-HR and Admin Manjula Karalliyadde 

Colombo International Container Terminals Ltd. (CICT) together with CMHI have embarked on this journey to develop and strengthen the Wheelchair Tennis (WCT) program initiated and organised by the Sri Lanka Tennis Association. 

SLTA said having identified this great game CICT has come forward to sponsor WCT for the next three years. “This will lead more championship and world ranking players to appear in the future,” SLTA said.

CICT together with its parent China Merchant Holdings international (CMHI) is committed to providing support to diverse community projects and is proud to be a partner in the development of Wheelchair Tennis in Sri Lanka. 

PS Kumara is the Chairman while Col Shiran Abeysekera is the Secretary of Wheel Chair Tennis Committee SLTA.

CICT said the value of this project to the community is priceless. IT primarily involves providing an opportunity to the armed forces personnel, left differently abled, due to their involvement in protecting the community during the long drawn war in Sri Lanka, by taking part in sports activities which were beyond their reach, they are once again given the opportunity to proudly serve their country. 

CICT expects this project will further reach out to the differently abled civilians and children. The goal of this project is to provide the differently abled society a fully sponsored opportunity to participate in a sport that can not only provide physical and mental stimulation, but also an opportunity to further develop their passion into a professional sport that can serve Sri Lanka internationally. CICT will support wheelchair tennis on a long term basis to ensure it grows to its full potential and reach out to all differently abled persons interested in being a part of this team.

CICT is the local arm of CMHI and is responsible for establishing and executing its culture of Corporate Social Responsibility in Sri Lanka. CICT has also worked alongside many projects that have provided support to all areas of society. 

CMHI has a global CSR policy of supporting diverse projects which contribute to the upliftment of all factions of society. 

CICT is one of the largest foreign investments in Sri Lanka, and is the only Deepwater Terminal capable of handling the largest ships afloat in the whole of South Asia, offering state of the art port facilities to shipping lines calling the Port of Colombo. Operating on a 35 year B.O.T, CICT is owned and managed by China Merchant Holdings international, better known as CMHI – is the second largest Port operator in the world. CMHI owns and operates 27 Ports in 14 countries, all which complement the volume flow through the Port of Colombo, hence linking the Port of Colombo to the global network of CMHI.

CMHI being a global operator has a strong view on the policy for corporate social responsibility and inculcates the sense of responsibility amongst all its employees and stakeholders worldwide. CMHI has been instrumental in supporting in a sustainable manner, all segments of society throughout the countries in which it operates.

Origins of wheelchair tennis

Wheelchair tennis was started in 1976 and caught on rapidly. To participate in this sport, a person must have been medically diagnosed, permanent physical disability which results in the substantial or total loss of functioning in one or both lower extremities. Wheelchair tennis has thus opened to millions of disabled persons, and face participate huge physical, psychological and social benefits. 

The rules of Wheelchair Tennis are the same as those for able bodied tennis except that the Wheelchair tennis player is entitled to two bounces of the ball. The simple rule change means that Wheelchair Tennis can take advantage of existing tennis infrastructure, equipment and rules, and this has doubtless been another contributing factor to the sports explosive growth over the past 25 years. Today Wheelchair Tennis is by far the fastest growing Wheelchair sport. 

Wheel Chair Tennis was introduced to Sri Lanka Army in 1997 however with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) Wheel Chair Tennis was properly integrated in 2001 to differently abled soldiers under the International Tennis Federation Silver Fund Project. With this project Wheel Chair Tennis was able to get quality trainers from ITF to improve the standard of international level and skills of players. 

Today there are 20 Army players in the world rankings and two top players are in the rankings of 60’. Sri Lanka has performed well in the International competition and beaten world top class players in ranking such as 17,24,35 in recent completions to prove their standards. The national pool maintain at the SLTA whom all are Army players and also training conducted for differently able children. 

SLTA has further expanded facility of this game to all other disabled personal and those willing to continue training free of charge. 

– Pix by Daminda Harsha Perera