He was speaking at the felicitation ceremony for sportsmen and sportswomen from the Central Province who excelled and won medals at the 24th National Sports Festival held in Colombo recently and the medal winners were presented with certificates and cash awards and also medals. This ceremony was held at the Mahamaya College Auditorium on Monday evening.
Minister Dissanayake said the netballers had done extremely at Asian level and they have the material to reach the top and even to become world champions. It is a matter of pride that two girls from Kandy have been members of this netball team. ``Though we lack in many amenities when compared to other countries, we are forging ahead of all the Asian countries now in almost all the sports. We have done well at cricket, rugger, netball, athletics and Kabaddi added Minister Dissanayake.
Minister Dissanayake said though Sri Lanka do not have the proper facilities, both physically and mentally our sportsmen are a determined lot and coupled with confidence can give the top countries a run for their money.
Minister Dissanayake, speaking on cricket team's performance recently said that it is like sunshine and rain. They went to England and taught the Englishmen a lesson by beating them roundly for the poor treatment offered to us by giving only a solitary Test. ``We also beat them in the limited over tournaments to become champions of the Emirates tournament. But came the two tournaments in Dhaka and Sharjah and their performances were dismal and the cricket fans were furious and it is not only the cricketers but also their ancestors were not spared by the cricket fans. But winning and losing is part of the game and we should get over this bad patch and be on a winning streak soon. In badminton, the Malaysians and the Thais are on top and our shuttlers have the potential to defeat any of these countries to reach the top.
Thirty scholarships
Minister Dissanayake said that next year, 30 scholarships will be given to sports officials and coaches and the dedicated coaches will be financially rewarded. Of the coaches, only about 30 per cent are dedicated and working and of the Sports officers, only about 10 per cent are working. They should not do this and some of them have the habit of applying for leave on Wednesdays which is the public day and doing some other work. Even with this small per centage working, we have produced results and we could just imagine the results if the full force worked with dedicated and loyalty.
Mahamaya Girls College has become all island swimming champions on a number of occasions and this they were able to achieve without a swimming pool. A sum of Rs. 30 lakhs will be allocated to this school for them commence work on the swimming pool and a further Rs. 100 lakhs will be provided to build an indoor gymnasium at the Bogambara grounds. This will fill a big void.
The sports Minister in conclusion said that with young but experienced Tillina Tennakoon as the chairman of the Kandy Regional Cricket Board, there has been good progress for cricket in the Central Province with a lot of improvement to the available infrastructure. With him as the head, Kandy and the Central Province should make good progress at cricket.
Director of Sports of the Central Province Sunil Munasinghe proposed the vote of thanks while the welcome speech was made by the secretary to the Central Province Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Sports A. M. L. B. Polgolla.