By Hishan Welmilla
The Sri Lanka Netball team have finished 15 in the Netball World Cup Ranking after the conclusion of Netball World Cup 2019 in Liverpool, England.
Sri Lanka lost their three Group A games but apart from the loss at the hands of defending world champions Australia (99-24), the Lankan lasses were able to produce good netball against Zimbabwe (79-49) and Northern Island (50-67). The loss of momentum in both games resulted in Sri Lanka being on the losing side.
Lankans met Singapore, Samoa and Fiji in their Round three matches and they recorded the only one victory in the event when they beat Singapore. The next two games against Samoa (55-65) and Fiji (44-59) Lankans should have done better and raised their hopes of climbing the world ranking ladder.
Asian Champions Sri Lanka finished 15th place in the game ranking when they beat arch rivals Singapore by 78 goals 57 at the 15/16 placing match
The post-mortem
Expressing her views on the entire tournament Sri Lankan Coach Thilaka Jinadasa has said expectations were not fulfilled.
“We had a golden opportunity to finish at number 13 if we have won the matches we could have won. This is the first time Sri Lanka faced tense competition in a World Cup and I realised the stamina of our players has to be improved,” Jinadasa explained.
“Some blamed me saying I concentrate more on fitness of the players in my coaching, but anyone can see how the other players were stranded when it came to fitness. We started our training in January this year and I am happy with overall performance when you consider the time period we had in which to prepare but we need to improve a lot.”
The future
The Sri Lankan coach also expressed her views on the future of netball after the World Cup.
“We don’t have a proper national plan for the game so far. The administration changes time to time and will do what they feel is right but focus on not the long-term requirements of the game. We need to have a team of authorities who run long-term plans in the development of the game in Sri Lanka.”
Sri Lanka Team Manager Trixi Nanayakkara stressed that looking for future advancement of the game in Sri Lanka was a need of the hour.
“We need to find new players and groom them to the higher levels. We need to have a combination of young blood and also players with experience.”
The new committee
Minister of Sports Harin Fernando has appointed an Interim Committee of three members to run the trouble-prone Netball Federation before the Netball World Cup. This decision was taken by the Minister on a request made by Secretary to the Ministry of Sports Chulananda Perera.
The committee is headed by an employee from the Foreign Employment Bureau, Yamuna Perera, while the other two members appointed to the Committee are Asha Edirisinghe and Ranjith Wimalasuriya. The main objectives rested upon the interim committee are to conduct the Federation’s activities in a transparent manner and to hold the AGM to elect new officials for the coming year as the term of the present administrators had already expired.
The constitution of NFSL
The structure and the constitution of the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka should also be evaluated properly and changes made according to new world trends and also to meet the new challenges effectively.
As per the Constitution the officer bearers of the NFSL should comprise only females. Many believe this would be changed as women in netball in Sri Lanka only fight for positions rather than serving the game to be nourished.
The writer who has been involved in the game of netball for the last 15 years by conducting many private netball tournaments (Srilanklasports.com Intercompany Netball challenge, Sri Lankasports.com Interbank Netball Challenge) and also providing a comprehensive five-year plan for the development of netball during the tenure of Gamini Lokuge as the Minster of Sports would like to propose to the Minister of Sports to adopt the administration structures of Sri Lanka Cricket and Sri Lanka Rugby (not the way of administrating but the structure).
Name change to Sri Lanka Netball
The writer proposes to the Minister of Sports for the Ministry of Sports to change the name of the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka to ‘Sri Lanka Netball’ with the consent of the local governing body. This would centrally coordinate and locally deliver its portfolio of programs and products targeting resources at the point of need (one size does not fit all), by ensuring pathways are integrated and securing a return on investment (financially or socially) creating capacity to reinvest in the business and deliver long-term sustainability.
New administration post – Chief Executive Officer
Although there is an election to elect the officer bearers, both Sri Lanka Cricket and Sri Lanka Rugby have administrative structures that run with a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). That will help the institution to run the administration smoothly even though different parties are elected after elections.
The CEO could partner and collaborate where there is a mutual benefit in terms of operational effectiveness and efficiency, value for money and added value for participants in netball and also develop, enable and encourage programs and activities that have a positive and beneficial impact on the lives of netball participants.
Sri Lanka Netball needs to establish integrated planning and process pathways that enable rather than constrain service excellence, making Sri Lanka Netball easy to do business with and add value to the participant and recognise and celebrate individual and collective contributions and success. Overall there are many things to do to keep the game of netball running. More concentration on schools is also a need of the hour as that would be the feeding point to the national level. Also important are infrastructure development and providing opportunities for international exposure while playing and introducing many local events to keep players engaged even after school while playing for clubs and their respective workplaces.
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