The Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa said that athletes should not make lack of infrastructure facilities as an excuse for not winning medals and questioned whether the athletes are mking the maximum use of the resources that we have. He was speaking in an event at the Colombo School of Business and Management recently. The Minister further added ‘We hear a lot of people making statements saying that there are no proper facilities nowadays to engage in sports’, I am not comparing 2020 with the 1990s but when we won so many medals what sort of facilities did we have?. Susanthika Jayasinghe won an Olympic medal but in comparison to the current day she didn’t have facilities, and the same goes when we won the 1996 cricket World Cup.
“We are a country that is surrounded by the sea, so why can’t we practice and win medals at the 2 mile event. Many people say since we don’t have swimming pools we are not in a position to qualify for Olympics, but still, we have the sea and the 2 mile swim is one event we should focus more. Every youth in the country rides a bicycle and for instance, if you consider the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, I guess no other country has more marathons and bicycle races than Sri Lanka. These are the events that we should focus more and try to win at international level”. The Minister also said the importance of providing mental happiness and strength to a sports personality that would help to bring the winning attitude out. He also pointed out the value of Sugathadasa Stadium.
“Actually we were unable to build up a sports culture in the country mainly due to certain issues that arose from time to time. In 1983 there were insurgencies, people were more concerned about saving lives than engaging in sports. The same happened in 1988-89. The brutal terrorism that existed in the country for 30 years didn’t allow the public to concentrate on building a sports culture in the island. But, we also shouldn’t forget that it is during the same period we won an Olympic medal, Asian medals and a Cricket World Cup”.
“We have to change the system. Normally we are waiting until the construction of the grounds but it has to change to first make performances and then ask for facilities and this is the system we wanted in future. If someone elect to a sports body he has to dedicate lot for the sport. However some Presidents are elected for the sports body after spending a lot of money and that amount is bigger than the expenses of National Sport Festival. I think that money should be spend for athletes benefit, added Minister Namal Rajapaksa.
“Normally Sports Minister is appointing selection committees and that system has to be changed. Selections has to come from the professional body (National Sports Council) and get the approval from the Minister. Already we have identified main three sports segments, leisure sports, competitive sports and sports economy. My target is to increase sports economy to billion dollars. If we can reach that we can reach international level. If we get that target we can earn money from sports. Today sportsmen and women are heavily depending on their parents who are living in villages. Parents find it difficul to give money for talented athletes. This system will change after developing a sports economy”.
“This year we are plannig to provide 333 functional training centres for the sports clubs which are not belong to Government institutions and located in rural areas. If we can change the education system the most problems of the Sports Ministry and Youth Ministry will be solved. The new education system will avoid the unemployment and produce professional athletes. This functional training centres and syntactic tracks construction will finish within next three years. We also make plans to digitalization the 25 National sports schools with the support of private companies. We will provide video technology for the training at sports schools. The nutrition facilities for the sports school athletes also will be considered. We already have lack of coaches and some times coaches haven’t qualifications. These are the important areas to look. Our first target is Asian and Commonwealth Games and then we can go beyond to Olympic level”, said Sports Minister.
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