Sports Minister Namal has done his best to uplift sports, says Mahela

On Aug 20, 2021

The Sports Minister is the top official who is responsible for the country’s sports development.

After assuming duties as Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa the youngest sports Minister of the country has completed one year overcoming many challenges. He is the 18 th Sports Minister of the country During his first year he tried to usher in a new era for the benefit of sportsmen and women.

The Sports Minister always tried to draw up new plans to develop sports and mainly focus on players and coaches benefits to get success . Mahela Jayawardena the former National cricket captain,was appointed Chairman of the National Sports Council and makes decisions through the National Sports Council which has brought about successful results during this one year period . He also appointed the High Performance Development Committee to focus on athletes . The sports development with long term plans as well as short term plans despite the Covid -19 pandemic always was a big challenge for the Sports Ministry. The players prepared for the International events such as Olympic Games and Paralympics Games , giving infrastructure facilities for the Sports Bodies to develop their respective sports are the key activities and Sports Ministry has already made a successful journey in fulfiling all these obligations.

Mahela has already submitted his plans to Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa whose vision is to produce athletes to get successful results at the 2024, 2028 and 2032 Olympics .. He always pointed out the value of the talent search from rural level to National level and go for International success . The young energetic Sports Minister and his team have overcome all the challenges . To make a healthy Society through sports is the responsibility of the Sports Ministry and the Sports Minister is already working hard to achieve success despite the Covid19 epidemic.

National Sports Council Chairman Mahela Jayawardena who is away in England to participate as a coach of inaugural cricket hundred ball tournament is very keen to talk about Sports Ministry success of last year. We have already introduced a national sports strategy mainly to focus on athletes and to uplift their standard at the highest level. “Our target is to create a unified approach to high-performance sports in Sri Lanka that is value based,” he emphasised.

“We want to see our athletes producing a sustainable and improved performance to inspire the nation by winning medals at Olympics, Paralympics and World Championships and targeted sports like athletics, para games boxing, weightlifting and swimming.”

“Our goal is to felicitate medal winning athletes at international level and Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa has already given his blessings to execute our plans for the benefit of these athletes,” he explained. The Sports Ministry has allocated 20 percent of Government funds for the development of sports and for athletes benefits.

The Minister has taken this decision and really appreciate this brave decision for the sports development . Today most of the countries have already come forward with these plans and some of the countries allocated more than 50 present of their Government funds for sports development. .

“We have to update the infrastructure development projects, national high-performance strategy and maintain a sports data centre which is more important to obtain all details of the athletes for their development. We also have plans to get services from the foreign coaches and use modem technology to uplift the sports and all these plans with blessings of the Sports Minister and hope for more success of Sri Lankan sports concluded the National Sports Council Chairman . The National Sports Council and the High Performance Development Committee already notified the sports bodies to get more success at the International level and Sports Ministry has given huge financial assistance to the success of these selected sports .