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Sports

Discipline is a must
By Shamseer Jaleel
For all sportsmen/women discipline is a must. Unlike cricket, rugby or football matches played here do not have TV replays.

In a recently concluded football match at Bogambara Stadium the referee was mercilessly assaulted and had to be taken to the emergency ward. Serious punishment should be given to this kind of activities. Last month the Boland Rugby Union has placed life ban on 19 players for assaulting a referee that left him with a broken jaw. This ban prevents them from playing in any part of the world.

Our authorities here should take this as an example and punish the players if they are found guilty without showing sympathy towards them.

Tennis goes to Jaffna
Tennis is set to return to Jaffna after the near two-decade war. Two SLTA officials who made a week-long inspection tour of Jaffna last month are presently putting the finishing touches to a five-year plan to take the game from resurrection to tournaments.

"Before the war, Jaffna was an active tennis centre, holding tournaments of their own and fielding some top players to the National level. But the game died with the war. Now that the peace talks have begun, we are using the opportunity to restart the game. And we were delighted by the spontaneous response from the schools - they just can't wait to start'', said Boshan H. Dayaratne, CEO of SLTA, who was one of two on the inspection tour. The other was K Y D Pathiraja, the Mini-Tennis co-ordinator.

The two SLTA officials went with an inventory of Jaffna's pre-war courts, but evidence of them was hardly recognizable. "At first sight we couldn't say these were tennis courts - they were so overtaken by vegetation.

Obviously, many in Jaffna are not likely to know anything about the game because they've never seen it. We're looking at the project as a job that begins from zero level, requiring huge investments", said Dayaratne. "The investment is a good one because its benefits go beyond tennis".

The inspections tour, arranged and coordinated by Brig. Madura Wijewickrema and Capt. Prasanna Liyanage, included a meeting at Jaffna Central with the AGA., T Vythilinkam and representatives of ten schools. "All of them were excited with our presentation of the Mirinda Mini Tennis Programme. All the equipment for this programme will be provided by the SLTA, and with courts not required, the schools were impatient to have the programme started," said Dayaratne.

For a start, the programme is assured of the 10 schools present at the meeting with the AGA. They are: Jaffna Central, Vembadi Girls' School, Chundikuli Girls' School, St Patrick's, St John's, Jaffna Hindu, Hindu College, Union College, Jaffna College Vadukoddai and Jaffna College Uduvil.

The Mirinda Mini Tennis Programme has met with tremendous success in the outstations where it was introduced with thousands of 5 to 10 years participting. "We expect about 4000 to 5000 to be involved in the programme in Jaffna and have already identified a person from the area to be the development officer in the North. He in turn will recruit teachers to the programme," said Suresh Subramaniam, President SLTA. "Hopefully, the programme will get off the ground in October."

Royal wins All Island Junior Tennis Tournament
Royal College Colombo emerged under-11 and 13 champions in the Mirinda All Island Boys' Schools Championship, defeating St. Peter's in the finals of both events at the National Tennis courts at Green Path this week.

The under-13 Royalists swamped the Peterites 3 matches to one, but their under-13 team was made to work hard before winning 3 matches to 2. Six schools competed in both events. St Michael's, Batticaloa did well to earn a play-off for third place in both events. They finished third in the under-13, defeating S. Thomas, Mt Lavinia, 3/1, but lost to Ananda, 3/0 in the under-11.

Under-13 Final: Royal beat St. Peters 3/1 Singles: Roshan Dissanayake (RC) bt. I Perera (RC), 7/3. M Rajaratnam (RC) bt. S. Vishvanathan, 7/2.

Doubles: E Sudusinghe and M Siyaguna (SPC) bt. M Hazari and D Ranatunga, 7/2. J Ranaweera and M Rajaratnam bt. R Thalwatte and S Gunawardena, 7/5.

Under 11 Finals: Royal beat St. Peters, 3/2. Singles: T Dineshkanha (SPC) bt. N Herath 7/0. G Adasooriya (RC) bt. N Ranaweera, (SPC) 7/3. I Wettasinghe (RC) bt. L Grero (SOC), 7/3.

Doubles: D Fernando and S Senanayake (SPC) bt. K Weerakkodiarachchi and A Herath (RC) 7/4. S Gomes and A Subramaniam (RC) bt. R Makandaraja and R Wijesuriya 7/4.

Cager veterans for World Masters Games
Sri Lanka Veterans Basketball teams will be participating in the World Masters Basketball tournament in Melbourne, Australia next month, said Remegius Perera and Francis de Silva, captains of the under 54 and 45 age groups.

Sri Lanka Veterans Basketball team participating for the first time in an international tournament in 2000 annexed the Bronze medal at the Asian Pacific Masters Basketball tournament beating leading foreign teams.

In order to maintain the high standard of the game and to judge the stamina of the players they have been in training for last eight months at a leading indoor stadium. Most of the players are former national players who maintain high standard of the skills.

The teams will be selected from Brig. Nimal Jayasuriya, Nowfel Mahroof, Remegius Perera, Francis de Silva, Karu Jayasuriya, Vincent Loganathan, Z.A.M. Mahroof, Rohitha de Silva, U.C. Jayasinghe, Bernard Silva, Nihal Perera, Col. Vickum Siriwardena, Lal de Silva, Marlon Ranasinghe and Dominigue D Almeida from Sri Lanka.

Following former Sri Lanka national players who are domiciled in Australia will be joining the team. Hillary White, Vernon Davidson, Gamini de Alwis, Charlie Jansz, Noel Pereira and Clifford Vandergert.

Amateur Basketball Federation of Sri Lanka and its affiliated associations have extended their unstint support to the Veterans Basketball Association to participate in this tournament.

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