Aelian Gunawardene, the newly appointed President of the Sri Lanka Basketball Federation (SLBF), says that his goal is to end the current decline in Sri Lankan basketball and make it one of the most popular sports in the country. He is a firm believer that the first step on the path to that is to establish good governance within the Sri Lanka Basketball Federation. Gunawardene said the goals could be achieved by creating transparency in the federation and the executive council working as a team.
Gunawardene completed his academic career at S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, was a brilliant basketball player, who led the school basketball team from the age of 13 and won college colours in four years. In addition to playing basketball, he also represented college at rugby, tennis, golf and cricket respectively. He is the Founder and Managing Director of Jat Holdings, which was established 28 years ago. It is no secret that Jat Holdings’ business has now expanded to a number of countries, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius, Kenya, Uganda and Ghana, thanks to the success of its business management.
Believing that Gunawardene had the potential to create such a successful vision and management, within the federation and to elevate the sport, the basketball membership took action to give the federation top chair without competition. “I came to know that the Sri Lanka Basketball Federation has been accused of various incidents in the recent past.
We can guarantee that nothing like that will happen in the future. Our Executive Council will sign an agreement to abide by the rules of the Olympic Committee and to enter into a process of good governance. It does not create administrative weaknesses. We have associations in 21 districts throughout the country.
Bringing the sport of basketball to a professional level is something that everyone expects. Our goal should be to fulfill those expectations,” said Gunawardene.
The short-term plan of the conference is to bring in a foreign coach and technical director as soon as possible to promote the game. In a country like Sri Lanka, where it is difficult to find taller players in basketball, the emerging young players need to develop speed and ball control, as well as new technology and formal training to focus on the ball at the end.
The new Chairman Aelian Gunawardene also hopes to introduce a selection process based on technical knowledge and data to avoid various allegations and problems in the selection of basketball players. “The Sri Lanka basketball team does not have a playing field. Our primary effort should be to build a playground. It costs around 200 million rupees to build a basketball court for our children to train. The Minister of Sports is well aware of this situation. The Minister has agreed to provide us with land and necessary facilities to build a sports ground. That is a great boost for basketball,”
“The Ministry of Sports is constructing huge sports complexes in ninr provinces. In addition, district sports complexes are being developed. A basketball court will be built in one part of them. That’s where the plan to take basketball to the village begins. It is not difficult to produce good players if the children of the village are given the basic facilities they need.
This costs some money. The annual cost of the Basketball Federation is 88 million. It receives only five million from the International Federation. We need to find sponsors to find the rest of the money. We are committed to take on all these challenges and move the sport forward,” Gunawardene added.
According to a concept of his, they are to construct a sports complex tagged under ‘Jat Sports Complex’ at the Water’s Edge premises at a cost of over 670 million rupees is currently being organized. The state-of-the-art sports complex will provide facilities for basketball, badminton, golf, gymnastics, swimming pools, fitness centres and superior accommodation for members. This fully equipped sports complex can be expected to be another turning point in Sri Lankan sports.
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