The Rajapaksification Of Rugby
Above is the President’s sons featured in a commercial by a state-owned telco which I saw on state-owned television. Which is, I dunno, but the two youngest sons seem to be playing in the Carlton Super 7s, which I think is broadcast on CSN, which is run by Yoshitha Rajapaksa’s girlfriend. Anyways. He was also recently made captain of the Sri Lanka rugby team, to some chagrin. I’ve heard that the boys are actually quite good at rugby, but still. It looks a bit… untoward.
The Sri Lankan government really really messed up cricket. I think the last World Cup was either thrown or the squad selection was messed with so badly that we lost. That was one of the more depressing days of my life, including the prior World Cup, during which the light went out in the West Indies and the LTTE bombed Colombo. Anyways. I’m not a big rugby fan, but the mix of politics and political sons does not fill me with hope.
I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and 
I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the 
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from 
The chutzpah of this government knows no bounds. Every government since Independence has had to balance placating Sinhala nationalists (AKA racists) while at the same time actually running a sensible, inclusive nation that doesn’t send minority citizens, capital and foreign investment fleeing. Basically, they’ve had to pay lip service to nationalists while at the same time trying to run an actual nation. Every government has also generally failed, SWRD being killed by a nationalist monk and everyone after almost losing the country to various rebellions. In that context Mahinda is actually doing a better job by virtue of not being dead and not losing control of the country. But he’s still not doing a good job.
namal is a very good player and i would have no problem him representing the country. but yoshitha is not as good and not nearly good enough to become of the captain of the team, overlooking so many better skilled players who have represented the country for many years.
what’s worst is yoshitha adopts the standard rajapaksa tactic of calling others traitors. thats what he called the other players who boycotted practice when yoshitha was appointed captain. yoshitha is the chairman of CSN , while his finace holds a very senior position. so its not his girl friend who runs the show..its yoshitha himself.
The eldest was actually good at it. It started diminishing down the order..
Namal is better than yoshitha. But he is an MP. any national player have to practice hardly. therefor namal play 10 or 15 min. as extra man. Nothing to say about Yashitha and Rohitha, they are newer came to national level.
this is my article(sinhala) about rugby: http://raj1st.blogspot.com/2012/04/blog-post_22.html
Indi, I was wondering whether you could make Sinhala available on your blog? For example I only see ??? on your blog when something is typed in Sinhala, but not on many other blogs on Kottu.
100% agree with Roshan. Yoshitha sucks and the current affairs in the local rugby scene is sickening. its very sad for loyal fans like us to watch this bureaucracy. When Kandy SC was organizing Singer Sri Lankan airlines rugby 7s few years back, they were getting the momentum to do better things for SL rugby, but sadly, ‘carlton’ took over with their political powers to interfere with the mainstream rugby. (but i still think Carlton 7s is good for the country, but the way they did is not)
Hats off for pointing out this madness. There is no hope that a mainstream media would be dared enough to point these.
Rugby’s not the only sport CSN are big on. They recently “won” the rights to broadcast all of Sri Lanka’s home cricket games for the next three years. Funny thing is, Rupavahini didn’t even table a bid despite the state broadcaster’s decades long history of covering Sri Lankan cricket games. In fact, CSN were the only bidders- I guess none of the other stations bothered since cricket is such a niche sport in Sri Lanka with a limited fan following.
Lack of talent in the team must be why they have to depend on foreign movie stars to attract crowds for the tournament.
They have obviously taken to heart the maxim that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton……
The eldest, Namal, plays at No.8 position. CR’s Dushantha Lewke and Kandy’s Sajith Saranga are the best in the country for that position. In addition, after serving his ban, Kandy’s Keith Gurusinghe will return to the foray soon. This will make Namal a distant 4th in the country for the position he plays for. He’s like a big fat bull, with a psyche befitting of an MP now and is clearly low on match fitness. He just plays the last 10 minutes of the important club matches that Navy plays just so that he can hog the limelight. He can’t last 10 minutes in an international rugby match. Most of Namal’s hype as a great player was built around playing with mediocre Thomian teams between 2002-2004. The Schools Rugby authorities bent the rules to allow 20 year olds to play for their school teams by changing the school Rugby league format from Under-19 to Under-20 in the year 2005, just so that Namal could captain his school team one last time after having left school already. The tournament was changed back to Under 19 format and normalcy was restored a few years later.
The second son Yoshitha, plays as flanker. CH’s Bilal Hassen, Kandy’s Sean Wanigasekara, Havelock’s Sudarshan Muthuthanthri, CR’s Danushka a.k.a ‘Gertha’ are some of the brilliant flankers we have in the country at the moment. They are all miles ahead of this dude Yoshitha. I wouldn’t have him on the bench as a reserve let alone make him the captain. He can’t hold a candle to any of the players above.