Sri Lanka withdraws from staging contest
The Sri Lanka Netball Federation requested the Asian Netball Federation permission to stage the 2018, Eleventh Asian Senior Netball Championships. Now in a surprising turn of events Sri Lanka has withdrawn from staging the event. This has caused quite a lot of turmoil in the Asian Netball Federation. This request was made at the Hong Kong Asian Netball Congress in December 2015. With Sri Lanka. Japan and Pakistan too had made bids to stage the event in 2018. Japan had stated that they will look after accommodation, internal travel and meals to all participating countries.
Pakistan too had made a strong bid stating that they had never held a competition of this nature and to consider giving the 2018 event to them.
The Asian Netball Federation had opted to give the event to Sri Lanka because they had the experience while overlooking Pakistan because they had very little or no experience in staging an event of this magnitude. The Asian Netball Federation had said NO to Japan because they too are new to netball.
The Secretary of the Asian Netball Federation had inquired from the Sri Lanka Netball Federation whether Sri Lanka is ready and willing to stage the 2018 and also had wanted to know about the ground conditions and hotel facilities but Sri Lanka had given a negative reply, and had turned down flat the request to stage the event, after volunteering to stage the event in Hong Kong last year. Prior to this Sri Lanka had staged the Senior Asian Netball Championships in 2001 – the Fifth Asian Senior Netball Championships, where Sri Lanka beatSingapore to emerge champions at the Sugathadasa Stadium. In 2012 the Eighth Asian Senior Netball Championships was staged in Colombo.Here Singapore emerged champions defeating Sri Lanka in the final.
Sri Lanka is still staggering to pay the debt of Rs. 30 lakhs to stage the 2012 championships for which a court case too is pending. The Sunday Times inquired from Sri Lanka Netball Federation President Yasa Ramachandra regarding this, she said that Sri Lanka has no ground facilities. “The Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium is not suited for a contest of this nature. We even lack training courts to give the visiting teams. We are faced with a lot of problems to stage the 2018 event. That is why we turned down the offer to stage the competition.” At least 20 to 30 million rupees are needed to stage a competition of-this nature.
The request to stage the 2018 contest was made because the Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera had requested to take part in many tournaments abroad as well as invite them to take part in competitions in Sri Lanka. This is the second time that Sri Lanka had letdown the Asian Netball Federation. For the post of Asian Netball President Sri Lanka had nominated two names – former president Lakshmi Victoria and Yasa Ramachandra. The Sports Minister did not allow Lakshmi Victoria to contest and Yasa Ramachandra’s name was rejected by the Asian Netball Federation.