Sri Lanka should look for ‘B’ and ‘C’ division clubs - Basnayake

By Harsha Amarasinghe and Sandun Kodithuwakku

Central Province Rugby Football Union (CPRFU) President Pradeep Basnayake believes that Sri Lanka should look for competitions at Division ‘B’ and ‘C’ level in the coming years amid the speculations of the emergence of another ‘A’ division club up in Kandy.

“In CPRFU what we hope is to have ‘B’ division or ‘C’ division clubs because we have to be realistic about how we go about our business. To suddenly have an ‘A’ division club to compete with the top clubs is a fantasy when you consider all the sponsorships and all, it’s impossible,” Basnayake told Daily Mirror.

Instead, the former Sri Lanka captain says that a club needs time to slowly develop to the levels of top teams.

“New clubs need time to reach the top level and we should give them that time,” the former Kandy second row added.

However, he insisted that there is no use of any of the second division clubs if there are no competitions for them to take part in.

“No club could develop without competing in a tournament, so we need tournaments where the ‘B’ division teams and ‘C’ division teams could take part and with that experience they could go on to the next level. If you look at Sri Lanka Cricket, that is exactly what happening there, so this is a clear option for Sri Lanka Rugby as well,” the former Trinity forward said.

Basnayake also stressed on the fact that there are number of rugby playing school leavers who are without a club to continue the sport.

“We see so many players who do reasonably well at inter school level, but at the end of their school career, they have no clubs to stay in the game. This way we lose so many players after school because it’s difficult for all these players to find a spot in the eight clubs we have now,” he stated.