American Football gradually catching up
Prior to year 2012, though many Sri Lankans have watched the game of American Football, over the Television, never realized that the game would have a firm footing in Sri Lanka. Now the game is turning out to be very popular among the youth here with many in Colombo, Kandy, Anuradhapura and Jaffna taking into the game. Most of the youth playing the game have a rugby back ground, though the two sports, Rugby Football and American Football, it’s rules are totally different to each other.
The man who has taken the daunting task of popularizing the game of American Football, to every nook and corner in a rugby craze country, is none other than Dilroy Fernando, a famous figure in the game of rugby football locally. Fernando, the only IRB qualified referee in Sri Lanka, is the director of Elite Football League of India (EFLI),is taking great pains to popularize the sport here. Firstly, the game was established in Sri Lanka in 2011, and for the first time a tournament involving eight teams, including two teams from Sri Lanka, participated in the following year.
From Sri Lanka, the two American Football franchise teams was, the Colombo Lions and Kandy Kings. Meanwhile Fernando, further opted to popularize the game in the Universities by organising, University Flag Football League, which was a success. Many higher educational institutes such as Universities of Jaffna, Peradeniya, Rajarata, Sabaragamuwa, Kotalawela Defence Academy, NSBM, NIBM, BMS, Informatics Institute of Technology and Auston Institute of Management took part. American football, referred to as football in the United States and Canada, also known as gridiron elsewhere, is a sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goal posts at each end.
Dilroy Fernando
The offense, the team with control of the oval shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with or passing the ball, while the team without control of the ball, the defense, aims to stop their advance and take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs, or plays, or else they turn over the football to the opposing team. If they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs. Points are primarily scored by advancing the ball into the opposing team’s end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponents goal posts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins. Now the game of American Football is sure to get a sound footing in Sri Lanka. A special mention should be made of sponsors SAGT (The South Asia Gateway Terminals).
They announced the renewal of the sponsorship of EFLI –Sri Lanka for the 2 successive year. With the strong financial assistance from the SAGT, it will be a fillip for the sport in the island nation. Also WALKAHEAD sports based in UAE, headed by Old Trinitian Aaron Vedasinghe, too is a doing a yeoman service by arranging American football teams in UAE, to have fixtures against Colombo Lions, for them to further improve on the game. Last week a team from Abu Dhabi, The Falcons played against the local team at the Race course. Though the local team lost badly, the Colombo Lions put up a strong display. Finally Dilroy Fernando, will carry out his mission to make the game of American football very popular in this country in time to come and par with Rugby Football.