By Harsha Amarasinghe

As Daily Mirror exclusively reported last Wednesday (27) the Ministry of Youth and Sports has appointed former Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) President Asanga Seneviratne the head of the advisory committee for the development of rugby in Sri Lanka.

The committee also includes the incumbent President Rizly Illyas, M.H.Marso, Dilroy Fernando, Wing Commander Eranga Geeganage, Rear Admiral A.S.L.Gamage, Udani Edirisinghe and Lal Ekanayake.
When contacted by Daily Mirror, SLR President Illyas made the following comments on the advisory committee.

“I am happy that Mr Marso is on the committee. A person with dignity and integrity moving forward will look at matters proposed by the committee that could uplift rugby. Talking about the rest of the committee there are matters relating to Dilroy Fernando where the SLR council rejected to give him an appointment letter under development in line with the sports law. Also the SLR council under past President Lasitha and myself rejected the current head of the advisory committees nomination for ARFU Vice Presidency. The Hon Minister stated that there are mixed feelings when it comes to committees and said for example cricket was very difficult and minister himself had to chair some meetings, but after a while matters settled down and now they are under a good track with Mahela Jayawardena heading the advisory committee. I suppose it’s all to do with the head of the committees’ credibility and integrity time will tell the story. Udani has done a great job with CH & FC as well Admiral Gamage I have spoken a couple of times before and he has played the game. Dr Lal has been very helpful with the vaccination programme and all other amenities we have requested through the sports ministry. SLR has not worked with Wing Commander Eranga but being from one of the tri forces am sure his inputs would be valuable but not sure if he has played the game,” said Illyas.

Former SLR President Asanga Seneviratne stated that he would respond to all allegations very soon while Daily Mirror’s attempt to contact the sports minister was fruitless.