Two women badminton players who participated at the Asian Badminton Championship held in Chinese Taipei from April 16 to 21 returned to the country early last morning but to the amazement of the duo and many others, the officials who accompanied them did not return.
The two officials are Palitha Hettiarachchi, a vice president of the Badminton Association, and Kamal Gamlath both of whom opted not to accompany the two women players back.
No reason for their non-arrival has been given.
The two players are Chandrika de Silva, a veteran shuttler, and Kavindi Ishadika who is a schoolgirl from Sirimavo Bandaranaike Balika.
Both these players lost in the first round of the qualifying round and should have returned the following day itself. However, they returned on the final day of the tournament on Sunday April 21.
But what has raised more eyebrows was the authorization of a schoolgirl to make the tour without the constitutionally-required Lady Chaperone.
According to the Constitution of the Badminton Association, if any schoolgirl is included in a tour party that participates in a foreign tournament she should be accompanied by a Lady Chaperon. But in this case there was none and both officials were males.
Going by the book the present set of office bearers of the Sri Lanka Badminton Association (SLBA) should have ceased to function on March 31 as a new set of officials were to be elected on that date.
Questions are now being raised as to how did the SLBA arrange this tour and who selected these officials to accompany the players?
In contrast the two men’s players, Dinuka Karunaratne and Lasith Menaka, who were selected, did not travel to contest the event.
Meanwhile the election of office bearers to the SLBA is scheduled to be held today after being postponed following the rejection of the nominations of Prof Ranjith de Silva and LR Ariyananda who took their case to the Human Rights Commission which then ordered the election to be put on hold.
Subsequently the duo had to re-submit their nominations for the post of president and secretary.
Prof Ranjith de Silva will contest the president’s post against former Sri Lanka Cricket World Cup director Suraj Dandeniya.
Mismanagement of funds, disputed selection of players, unwarranted foreign tours, parental and outside interference and collection of funds from players without official approval have been some of the most questionable acts committed by officials over the past few years.
