Sri Lanka’s preparations for the upcoming Asian Youth Rugby Championships has taken a beating with the appointed coach Theo Serafim informing the Rugby Interim Committee that he had decided to relinquish his duties.

Rugby Interim Committee Secretary Kiran Atapattu, when contacted, confirmed that Serafim had notified Rugby Interim Committee CEO Lasitha Guneratne about his intention to quit.

"Guneratne had met Serafim, at the Coffee Bean, and Serafim had revealed that the reason for quitting was because pressure was being applied on him by Chief Selector Ajith Abeyratne to accommodate four rugby players from S. Thomas’ College to cover up for some players named in the pool making themselves unavailable," Atapattu said.

Ajith Abeyratne, when contacted, said that he and his committee were within their rights to find replacements for the players not available for national duty. "I don’t wish to talk about the resignation of the coach because his appointment doesn’t come under my purview. In my opinion, he has nothing to get upset about," Abeyratne said.

The Rugby Interim Committee named a pool of 56 players for the 2009 Asian Youth Rugby Championships which includes 14 Royalists, seven Thomians and five Antonians. The championships will be hosted by Hong Kong and will be held from September 3-13.

More trouble is brewing in the Lankan camp due to the nomination of the captain by the national selectors, to the Sports Minister, not being done in keeping with proper procedure, spelt out in the country’s Sports Law.

Atapattu said that any meeting conducted by the national rugby selectors to nominate players for selection should be done in his presence. "The national selectors had a meeting to nominate the captain without informing me. I have written to the Secretary of the Sports Minister to make the nomination invalid because the proper procedure hasn’t been followed. It is stated in their (National selectors) appointment letters that they have to keep the Rugby Union Secretary (In this instance it’s me) informed of such meetings, during which nominations are made regarding national teams," Atapattu said.

Abeyratne, responding, said that there was no specification in the appointment letters given by the sports minister to them (National selectors) to keep the Rugby Union secretary informed about meetings related to selection matters.