Sri Lanka eye reducing carbon emission and rugby cup championship

By A Special Sports Correspondent

Sri Lanka will host the Asia Rugby Men’s Division 1 Tournament in Colombo with much focus on reducing carbon emission at rugby venues where games are played.

This fact was emphasized upon by Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) President Group Captain Retd. Nalin de Silva when the tournament was launched officially yesterday (April 29) at a leading hotel in Colombo with the participation of the captains of all the teams along with their officials. The tournament is contested by Kazakhstan, Qatar, India and host Sri Lanka with the opening game scheduled to take place today (April 30) at 4 pm between Kazakhstan and Qatar. This game will be followed by the match between Sri Lanka and India under floodlights.

De Silva emphasized on the fact that he had received the blessings of World Rugby (WR) to have an environmentally friendly tournament with the focus on reducing carbon emission at match venues. It is a known fact that there is carbon emission to the environment when matches are played under floodlights. According to SLR President De Silva, WR and United Nations have signed a pact to work towards reducing carbon emission by 50% at rugby venues by the year 2030.

To make SLR’s efforts to reduce carbon emission of this nature, Sri Lanka’s rugby authorities have roped in Plant Protectors, an organization working to protecting the environment, to be involved with the two-day tournament.

A representative of Plant Protectors, a Buddhist priest, speaking at the rugby launch said that a plant of an endangered tree would planted in the name of each player who scores a try during this Asian Rugby Tournament.

Nemantha Abeysinghe, the General Manager of Nippon Paint, one of the sponsors of the Asia Rugby tournament, said that as much as rugby boasts of sustaining itself he also wished to see this same quality when it came to conducting programmes associated with reducing carbon emission.

Sri Lanka can easily be rated as the favoutite to win their match against India and book its berth in the final of the tournament; scheduled for Saturday (May 4). According to Rear Admiral Udaya Hettiaarachchi, the Tournament Committee Chairman, the two teams featuring in today’s games and losing their encounters will feature in a clash termed as the ‘3rd place play-off’ and scheduled for Saturday. The teams winning their matches today will play against each other for the “Cup Championship’ on Saturday under floodlights.

Asia Rugby CEO Benjamin Van Rooyan speaking at the press conference said that Asia Rugby and the SLR are making a joint effort to make the tournament a success. “Rugby in Sri Lanka has as much a large audience as its cricket; hence a good quality spectator turnout is expected at the matches. There are some parts in the world which might not know about Sri Lanka’s involvement in rugby and there is no other irritating thing than someone asking me whether Sri Lankans do really play rugby. We (AR) want the division 1 tournament to work out well in Sri Lanka,” said Van Rooyan.

Sri Lanka is hosting the Asia Rugby Men’s Division 1 tournament after a lapse of 11 years and the country’s national team is participating in this tournament after seven years. Sri Lanka is led by Suhiru Anthony and coached by Sanath Martis, Nilfer Ibrahim and Dushanth Lewke. All matches will be played at the Race Course in Colombo 7.