May be without any knowledge of the local tennis fraternity, some bizarre, and at times extremely hilarious, developments are taking place in the ongoing process of appointing the National Selection Committee for tennis in Sri Lanka, it is learnt. The Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA), under its president Maxwell de Silva, nominated names for the national selection committee recently and on Thursday (29) the Sports and Public Recreation Minister Gamini Lokuge told ‘Sunday Island’ that those names had been sent, as a formality, for the consideration of the (overall) national sports selection committee of Sri Lanka.

Till Friday (30), though, the proposed selection committee for tennis, which will reportedly be under former SLTA president Suresh Subramaniam, had not received the ministry confirmation.

Maxwell de Silva involvement

The most controversial point is the fact that Maxwell de Silva, who was elected as SLTA president early this year, is one of the members of the (overall) national selection committee of sports in his capacity as the newly elected Gen. Secretary of the National Olympic Committee (NOC).

De Silva will therefore be sitting in a meeting that will decide on names of a committee, that have been sent for approval by an administration headed by himself. The situation indicates a clear case of conflict of interests. Is Mr. de Silva going to opt out when this national (overall) select committee meets to take decisions with regard to the SLTA?

Rohan de Silva to create history?

The next point, which is hilarious if not horrendous, is the fact that former Davis Cup stalwart Rohan de Silva, according to the sports ministry sources, is going to be one of the members of the proposed national tennis selection committee. It was only last week that the SLTA reported they had picked Rohan de Silva as one of the 16-player pool for next year’s Davis Cup, to be held in Colombo next March. Will that be a bizarre record-breaking situation of ‘I select myself’ or is he going to step down from the Davis Cup pool soon. Nothing was clear, though, by Friday (30).

Subramaniam involvement

The trickiest of all is the fact that Suresh Subramaniam, who was at the centre of a row at the time the SLTA held its AGM last year, has reportedly been named as the chairman of the proposed national tennis selection committee.

This very person’s involvement was mentioned as the main reason why minister Lokuge resolved to appoint an interim administration for SLTA, under the then president Janaka Bogollagama, after cancelling the SLTA AGM last year. Now it is problematic as to how the present SLTA which is under Maxwell de Silva, who was the secretary of the previous interim committee under Bogollagama, proposed the former controversial president Subramaniam as head of the national selectors. And it is more interesting as to how the same sports minister is going to take up this matter.

In the meantime, the present NOC head Hemasiri Fernando whose name too was involved in last year’s SLTA controversy, as he had been allegedly nominated for the SLTA general committee from the Matale Tennis Club under dubious circumstances, is also a member of the current national (overall) selection committee that will decide on the forthcoming national tennis selectors.

Is the overwhelmingly Colombo-based tennis fraternity here aware of these developments in the sports’ administration? The basic norms in ethics and rationality are expected to be maintained in the decision-making of a national sports association and from the part of the Sports Ministry, it is certainly their duty to see that every sport in Sri Lanka is run legitimately without working according to certain individuals’ whims and fancies to ruin the sports’ status and quality.