As the Chief Instructor and President of Kudo Schools of Martial Art and also as the South Asian Regional Director and a founder member of the Sri Lanka Karate do Federation (35 years experience in martial arts), I thought it fit to comment on the decision of the Ministry of Sports to temporarily ban martial arts competitions in schools.

After all, a life has been lost. There could be many reasons. Fate, carelessness of the competitor, negligence of the organizers, referees and judges or all in one. Whatever the reason, a competitor participates in a tournament under the conditions that he will not hold responsible the organizers, competitors or the official doctor etc., in case of injuries or any harm caused to his life (even death). Of course this is the general rule for any sport. Not only for participants even for spectators.

For example: the ball strikes a person’s head during a cricket match and he dies. Nobody can blame the batsman, other players, the umpires or the organizers. This is common sense.

On the other hand, it is the bounded duty of the organizers to make sure that the competitor is physically and medically fit to participate, that a qualified doctor is present in the match area and that qualified referees should judge the championship. I have witnessed on many occasions the referee supporting a relative, friend’s son or daughter, or his own kid or student, which makes the opponent loose his temper. I have also heard some coaches shouting; "if you cannot win (due to referee being unfair), harm the guy or knock him down. This is of course very dangerous and should be avoided. To be frank, when I was judging a school competition I was told by an important guy in the federation; "machan, my daughter is fighting, be on the look out." (‘Machan mage duwa fight karanawa, poddak balaganing’), which indirectly is a request to support his daughter. Even the match referee was prompting me to give points for the said daughter which I never did and had to face some problems. I gave up judging after that. I was a member of the Sri Lanka Referees’ Council and also the First Chairman of the Central Province Referees’ Council.

There was another interesting event. I was a member of the national selection committee (Karate do). We had the final selection for the SAF Games. One particular person was not selected. The final selection was handed over to the ministry. We were called by the minister of sports at that time and were requested to reconsider including the said person in the list. All of us, except one stood by the selection. Finally, when the team was announced through the media, we saw that a deserving guy was dropped and the earlier said guy was included in the team. After all, the final decision is that of the minister (as per the constitution).

The (deserving) dropped guy, vowed that he will kill the minister’s man whenever he gets the opportunity to fight him. This never happened due to advice given by his disciplined instructor. The step taken by the minister had two drawbacks. One, it created hatred between fellow competitors and secondly, Sri Lanka lost a good exponent of karate.

I urge those responsible to consider the above reasons which might have been a cause for the death of the Wushu student and also if you have pressure from other quarters to permanently stop martial arts in schools, please consider the good side of martial arts. That is, self confidence, decision making, good health and above all, discipline.

I also take this opportunity to inform that my intention is not to criticize any individual. Whatever I have said is with good intentions.

Therefore, let us all be fair and be genuine in the duties entrusted to us, thereby bring honour and glory to our country.

Note: 1. During school tournaments, it is a practice to provide protective gear for competitors.

2. There have been incidents where competitors have assaulted referees due to unfair judging. I do not approve this or justify it. But the fact remains that when a talented competitor is purposely made to loose a fight, the natural tendency is to prove himself by unorthodox ways. At the same time, a well groomed competitor will never go to this extent because he understands that it is only a competition. It is not a fight for life and death. In real martial arts the one who subdues his opponent is the winner.

Unfortunately, in modern days there should be another set of referees to judge the referees. Not only martial arts but in other sports too. And it is funny that the final decision is made by people who have no knowledge of the subject concerned.

3. On TV news (News 1st) it was announced that "martial arts competitions have temporarily banned in schools," but, I understand, according to newspaper reports that the sport itself has been banned (temporarily).

4. I would suggest that the ministry of sports invites a representative from each martial arts schools, gets their views and gather facts and introduce (it is already there in the official rules) safety measures during tournaments.

Our sympathies are with the family of the Wushu competitor who died in the ring. May his soul rest in peace.