Following the exclusion of Imran Bisthamin of Kandy Sports Club from the 24 member rugby squad ahead of the HSBC Asian-5-Nations Division 1 Tournament in Taiwan from 12th to 15th November 2008, informed sources told The Island of the possibility of several Kandy based players pulling out from the squad sighting medical reasons.
The alleged decision of the KSC players comes in the wake of the resignation of the national selectors led by Rohan Abeykoon on Saturday.
The game of rugby football with the intervention of the Minister of Sports Gamini Lokuge has continued to plunge into turmoil with each development jeopardizing the future of the game in the island.
When the Minister of Sports ratified the appointment of Duhsntha Luke of CR & FC early September, 12 players representing KSC boycotted national pool training in protest of the appointment of the captain. Notwithstanding, pool practices continued for six weeks with the remaining players representing Colombo clubs when the Minister intervened again.
Lokuge requested the rebel players from KSC to return for training, at a time the remaining players in the national pool had made a lot of headway even playing two test matches against Asian Dragons.
This decision of the Minister later transpired to lead to another crisis when the Colombo players threatened to pull out, but the Minister after a discussion with the Colombo players gave them an assurance that their grievances will be looked into and thus to return for training, which request was honoured by the players.
Later the Minister went onto dissolve the selection committee led by Brigadier Japuna Jayawardana on the 22nd of October. What followed was the appointment of a fresh set of selectors led by Rohan Abeykoon and they were assigned with the task of picking up the final squad of 24 players for the tour to Taiwan.
The selectors in the process picked up the team and the Minister of Sports ratified the same including two captains - Dushan Lewke and Dilanka Wijesekara for the first and the second games and if there was a third nominating Sanjeewa Jayasinghe for it.
Later it was reported that the Minister had suggested the selectors to drop Imran Bisthamin of Kandy Sports Club from the final list of 24 and replace him with Nilusha Fernando of Sri Lanka Police. This decision provoked the selectors to charge that it was the Minister who decided to nominate three captains and drop Bisthamin from the squad and in protest they relinquished their positions as selectors.
The crisis does not seem to be over and continues for the third successive month and it is learnt that with the latest situation many Kandy players are likely to pull out from national duty sighting injuries. The players are expected to make a statement today.