Sri Lanka’s renownedBoxer Manju Wanniarchchiand T. B. Suresh broughtglory to Sri Lanka by win-ning a silver and a Bonzemedal respectively at the5th Commonwealth BoxingChampionships, which con-cluded in New Delhi inIndia, yesterday.

After beating Tira FaloStako of Botswana in theSemi-final, Wanniarchchiqualified for the finalagainst Ian Weaver(England) in the BantamWeight Under-56 category,but lost the contest byseven points to one (threerounds).

T. B. Suresh who foughtin the Fly Weight Under-52Kg category lost the semi-final encounter to OliverLavivi of Mauritius bythree points to one and hadto be satisfied with thebonze medal.

After taking intoaccount the performancesof the Sri Lanka men’s box-

ing team in internationalcompetitions, excluding thefeats at the South AsianGames, boxing analystsrate their performances atthis year’s CommonwealthChampionships as thebest,.

According to HemanthaWeerasinghe, SecretaryAmateur BoxingAssociation, Sri Lanka, SriLanka’s medals tally at theCommonwealth Games willincrease to four.

The other two medalswere won by A.K.G.Sameera and HarshaKumara in the 2005Commonwealth BoxingChampionships.

This year Sri Lankawere represented at theCommonwealth BoxingChampionships by TMThenakoon Light Fly - 49Kgs (Sri Lanka Army ), PDSuresh - Fly - 52 Kgs (SriLanka Air Force) , MDKWanniarachchi - Bantam

56 Kgs(SlimlineSC) RMABunathilakaLight - 60Kgs(SlimlineSC) RTayathilakaMiddle - 75Kgs(SlimlineSC).

Thursday 18th March, 2010

Thursday 18th March, 2010

By Ravi Nagahawatte

Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union(SLRFU) CEO Lasitha Guneratnedropped a bombshell yesterday

when he said that he would immediatelyaddress the alleged use of performanceenhancing drugs by Sri Lanka’s rugbyplayers if he gets elected as one of theVice Presidents of the SLRFU at its nextAnnual General Meeting (AGM).

Guneratne made these commentsduring an interview with The Islandwhen speaking about the role of the nextSLRFU committee that will be elected atthe SLRFU AGM, scheduled for March30 in Colombo.

“I have watched rugby for a whileand can see that there is no room for faircompetition. This trend towards con-suming performance enhancing drugsby players is dangerous and it is sad thatno one has addressed this to date,”Guneratne said.

Guneratne said that Sri Lanka wasthe only country in the world where oneof its national players was tested posi-tive in a dope test. He said that the men-ace of using drugs in rugby will beaddressed by the National OlympicCommittee (NOC) and World Anti-dop-ing Agency (WADA).

Guneratne said that he was confidentthat he would be elected as the SLRFUVice President at the next AGM whichhas now generated a lot interest with thepost also being contested by veteranrugby administrator ArjunDharmadasa. According to sources fromthe rugby fraternity, AsangaSenewiratne is expected to be elected as

President SLRFU without a contest.He said he was confident that the

majority of the rugby playing clubswould back him, but said that he mightnot be the most popular sports adminis-trator around because of the straightforward decisions he had taken as theCEO of the SLRFU.

He also said that the next set ofrugby administrators should bring asolution to the clashing of the schooland club rugby seasons and added, “Weshould schedule the rugby season inkeeping with the international rugbycalendar” He also opined that stepsshould be taken to see that rugby playersgive priority to national rugby.

Asked whether rugby might lose theideal person to oversee rugby develop-ment if he won and Arjuna Dharmadasalost at next SLRFU AGM he said, “Ithink he (Arjun) has a problem in nothaving the necessary credentials to beeligible to contest at the AGM. But over-

all I don’t see any rugby development inthe country. The standard of club rugbyhas gone down and so has the standardof refereeing and coaching. If there isanything of interest in the local rugbyscene, that is in school rugby. I see somedevelopment in this area. I don’t seerugby development, but there have been

efforts to spread the awareness of therugby in Sri Lanka”

Arjun Dharmadasa, who is biddingfor the post of Vice President, when con-tacted, rubbished claims by people whosay that he doesn’t sport the necessarycredentials to be elected to the executivecommittee of the SLRFU. “If I didn’thave the qualifications to serve theSLRFU how come I was elected on 12occasions to serve the SLRFU commit-tee? I was also put in charge of rugbydevelopment at one time. One personwho wants to see me out didn’t object tomy presence when I served the SLRFUwhen he was president so why the fuss

now,” asked Dharmadasa. He said thathe qualified to serve the SLRFU execu-tive committee because he had playedfor upcountry and even captained theSLRFU President’s XV, qualificationswhich he said came under the categoryof representative rugby.

He said that the new SLRFU execu-tive committee should first rid the sportof politics. “We should put a programmestructure in place because we have spentone full year doing nothing. The develop-ment programmes should be startedimmediately because now the majorityof the country’s rugby players are com-ing from the country and not the city,”

There is a lot of speculation that for-mer SLRFU CEO Dilroy Fernandowould contest for the post of secretary.But when contacted, Fernando said thathe wasn’t interested in contesting forany of the posts at the next rugby AGM.“As the referees’ society president, I’llany way have a seat at the SLRFU coun-cil. The only thing we (referees) areinterested in is to see that the ban onthe Sri Lanka Society of Rugby FootballReferees (SLSRFR) is lifted. AsangaSenewiratne has promised to lift thisban once he is elected as President ofthe SLRFU. If this is not done, the loserwill be Sri Lanka rugby,” he said.

The Western Province RugbyFootball Union, which has the biggestclout in deciding who gets elected atSLRFU AGM, is expected to meet todayat Havelock Sports Club, to decide ontheir choice of office bearers whoshould get elected at the next rugbyAGM.

by Reemus Fernando

Paceman BhushanaNibandana picked up sixwickets including a hat-trick to steer IsipatanaCollege to a 71 run victoryover Gurukula College intheir Inter School Under-19Limited Overs Tournament match, playedat BRC Ground yesterday.

Chasing 202 to win, Gurukula were115 for five wickets at one stage beforeNibandana and spinner AnushkaSamaratunga ran through their battingline up to restrict them to 130 runs.

Earlier, off spinner Shehan Nivankapicked up five wickets for 35 runs forGurukula, but a valuable knocks of 47runs from Thivanka Ranasinghe, 30sfrom Nilusha Sasanka and DimithriPerera and an unbeaten 24 runs fromAnushka Samaratunga took them to arespectable total.

Scores:Isipatana 201 all out in 48.5 overs

(Nilusha Sasanka 32, ThivankaRanasinghe 47, Dimithri Perera 37,Anushka Samaratunga 24n.o; BhushanaNibandana 19; Sheshan Nivanka 5/35,Rukshan Bandara 3/28, RoshanAnuruddha 2/51)

Gurukula 130 all out in 37 overs

(Nilendra Prabath 34, Sheshan Nivanka22, Rasika Kottagoda 23, BhushanaNibandana 6/35, Anushka Samaratunga3/31)

Ananda record 250 runs victory Ananda College amassed 308 runs for

eight wickets before restricting AsokaVidyalaya to paltry 58 runs to record amammoth 250 runs victory in theirUnder-19 Limited Overs Tournamentmatch played at Ananda Mawatha yester-day.

Scores:Ananda 308 for 8 in 50 overs (Sachin

Devage 65, Madumal Jayaratne 51,Minura Janadhi 43, Matheesha Rasuwan37, Ruwinda Shamen 28, DanukaMadushan 24; Lakshan Dananjaya 2/60,Sandun Jeewantha 2/52)

Asoka Vidyalaya 58 all out in 22.4overs (Chanaka Hemachandra 17, SandunJeewantha 15; Ruwinda Shamen 3/20,Sachithra Perera 3/15)

Samarasekara helps Maris Stella A top score of 90 runs (in 134 balls,

6x4s) from skipper MalindaSamarasekara was the highlight as MarisStella College recorded a close eight runsvictory over Wesley College in their InterSchool Under-19 Limited Overs matchplayed at FTZ Ground yesterday.

Scores:Maris Stella 209 for 9 in 50 overs

(Malinda Samarasekara 90, DasunShanaka 39, Vishwa Kanchuka 21,Prasansana Jayamanne 15n.o; BasithMuzammil 2/28, Sachin Jayawardena2/50)

Wesley 201 for 9 in 50 overs (JavidBongso 78, Ashen Fonseka 33, AshelKariyawasam 17; Sathira Dileepa 3/34)

SLRFU CEO drops rugby bomb!

Candidate for the Vice Presidency at theupcoming rugby union AGM LasithaGuneratne states that the next executivecommittee should take steps to stop the alleged use of performance enhancingdrugs by Sri Lankan players

Nibandana hat-trick sets uphuge Isipatana win

Manju wins silver,Suresh bronze

Manju T.B. Suresh

TURKU, Finland (AP) - DavidBeckham and his wife Victoriaon Wednesday left the clinicwhere the former England cap-tain had surgery for a tornAchilles’ tendon, an injury thatwill keep him sidelined for aboutsix months.

Dozens of fans jostled andshouted as the two got into a sil-ver Volkswagen outside the clinicin Turku, southwestern Finland,just before 2 p.m. (1200GMT).

Amid a light snow shower,police pushed back reporters andphotographers as the Beckhamswere driven away, escorted by

two police cars. They werebelieved headed to the local air-port.

The 34-year-old Beckhamtore his left Achilles’ tendonwhen playing for AC Milan onSunday and underwent surgeryhere Monday. He will need aboutsix months to recover, meaninghe will miss the World Cup inSouth Africa.

Before Beckham’s departure,orthopedic surgeon Sakari Oravasaid medical teams would reviewa rehabilitation program forBeckham.

eckham, who flew to the

MehilainenClinic inTurku onMonday, wasjoined a daylater by hiswife, whoalso spentthe night atthe clinic.Local news-papersreported thatthe coupleordered piz-zas lateTuesday.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - The Pakistan CricketBoard gave permission on Wednesday forMohammad Yousuf to play in a privateleague in Bangladesh.

Last week the PCB barred Yousuf andYounis Khan from representing Pakistanfor an indefinite period due to infighting,but said both players were eligible to com-pete in domestic cricket and abroad incompetitions like county cricket and pri-vate leagues.

PCB says yes to Yousuf

Beckham leaves clinic after surgery

Marcos Baghdatis, of Cyprus, returns a shot to Roger Federer, of Switzerland, during their matchat the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, Calif., Tuesday, March 16, 2010.Baghdatis upset top-ranked Federer 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (4) in the third round match. (AP)

Baghdatis stuns Federer

David Beckham

Bhushana