The 18th Asian Games has been going on in Jakarta for a week with Sri Lanka sending their largest contingent to the Games with 185 athletes (138 men and 47 women) competing in 28 sports.
However the saddest aspect is that these games are not shown to the local television audience on any of the FTA channels but only on pay TV, thus depriving the rural folks of witnessing their sportsmen and women participating at international level.
It is a well-known fact that the majority of athletes representing the country are from the rural areas.
This is not the first time it has happened.
The Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast in April was not broadcast via free to air television despite it being the Games where Sri Lanka won the highest number of medals.
Similarly the third cricket Test match between Sri Lanka and West Indies at Barbados which was the first day-night Test (pink ball) hosted in the Caribbean was not broadcast on FTA channel.
However, the national broadcaster did not fail to broadcast the FIFA World Cup matches even though Sri Lanka was not a participant in the tournament.
This sort of lackadaisical attitude on the part of the national broadcaster is continuously depriving the rural folks in Sri Lanka who are unable to afford pay TV of witnessing the great moments of history in the making in the Sri Lankan sports arena.
Why does this continuously happen? Who is responsible for this lack of interest? Shouldn’t there be a monitoring body to ensure that these sporting events are freely available to the public to watch on their home televisions? Not to mention the fact that millions and millions of rupees off the tax payers’ monies are invested on athletes representing the country and unfortunately only a privileged section of the country’s population gets the opportunity to witness the proud moments of their achievements.
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