Royal prove tough to beat!

What a game of Rugby it was! Not many tries, not many fouls, not many of anything but fire! The whole game was like fire – there was no time to rest. The Greenlanders were running throughout the match and the speed was exciting. But will only speed help to win a match?! Yes, speed is not the only factor which decides the match and may be Royal did not have the speed of the Pathanians but they showed their skills and proved once again that they are a hard to beat team!

On a showering eve today (27th June 2009) at the Royal Sports Complex the game of rugby between Royal College & Isipathana Vidyalaya kicked off at around 4 p.m. It was a ‘must win’ game for Royal but victory was not given for granted! It was the Pathanians who started the scoring from a penalty by Devinda Prasad. Then the match went on for a bit long without any scoring. The Royalists were struggling a bit to add soem points to teh score board because of the speed the Pathanians showed in the match. The game of the greens were mainly capitalised on sprints, passes and kicks rather than scrums and line outs. Then from a great scrum five meters away from the touchline, Royal’s number 8 Hamza Hassen made an excellent move to score a try which was unfortunately not converted by Mushin Faleel. The game went on without further scores until the half time. But Royal’s Udara De Silve was penalised with a yellow cardfor rough play . The half time score was 5 : 3  and the lead was not a sufficient one to settle down for Royal.

Second half was full of fire like the first half. The Men in Green tried to sneak through to score but capitalised on kicking the ball to touch or attempting for drop goals. On the other hand Royalists were trying to score more but line outs weren’t that perfect for Royal as they kept on missing the ball most of the time. After 20 minutes in the second half Royal’s Chilanka Sudaraka scored a try from a scrum within the ten meter line and gave  a break to Royal to breath a bit but the Men in Blue & Gold knew that was not enough to seal the game. That try was not converted, though kicker Mushin Faleel tried his best. The Pathanians were trying hard to break through but all the attempts were unsuccessful. They even missed a whole lot of advantages gifted to them by the referee. Then came an excellent moment – Royal’s Shehan Pathirana touched the tryline and Mushin successfully converted the try to make the score board 17 : 3. Now everyone knew the game was sealed and it was proved when the Pathana fans started leaving the premises. The last try of the game came from Royal’s Kalana Amarasinghe but the Deputy. Skipper Nikira Senanayake, though had  a good try – could not convert it. The whistle came after to end the game and Royal had a nice victory over Isipathana Vidyalaya 22 : 3. Royal College successfully won the Major Milroy Fernando trophy and the whole team was with happy faces. The Royalists gave  a great cheer for their beloved team.

Nothing more on the match but there were spectators complaining on the ability of the referee and the linesmen, especially on off side and some other crucial moment decisions. We cannot complain about the judgement. All over the world and in all sports there have been issues on refrees’ misjudgements. Referees are not machines or robots – they are after all human beings, but the referees have the morale responsibility to do their duties properly to the maximum of their ability.

Again Royal has proved that they are a ‘tough to beat’ side and are now the hot favourites to Win the President’s Trophy for this rugger season. The Last match of the season is next week against St.Joseph’s College and it is told that it won’t be a tough opponent for Royal which has remained unbeaten and victorious for the whole season.

Congrats – Naren & his excellent lads for the wonderful performance. Waiting to see you guys win the President’s Trophy next week.

(Sincere thanks to my friend Navaka Navaratne for providing me with those valuable photographs for this post)

Michael Jackson – an unforgettable icon!

A Great Pop Star of the century has passed away. Apart from all controversies and allegations he had been a great Singer, dancer & a star. He made history and history will keep him alive forever.

At this juncture – I wish to present my heartfelt condolences to the Family members, friends & fans of ‘The Great’ Michael Jackson.

Will money bring success?

Ha Haa – all transfer stories around the football news sites and all talks are on millions. I never thought a million dollar will go so cheap as it is proving that football world is pumping in huge amounts for players this season. Especially Real Madrid after the return of its’ ‘Galacticos’ president Perez, he is working strong on re-implementing his ‘Galacticos’ project by paying over the odds or simple words paying huge money and buying so called ‘star players’ to Bernabeu. I wrote an early post on Kaka’s and Ronaldo’s transfers, both of them which is of the value of Approx. 140 million pounds.

The basic idea which I could not understand is can all this money bring back victory to the team or the club? Florentino Perez, when he was the president of real Madrid earlier to his second term he introduced the ‘Galacticos’ project. ‘Galactico’ means super star of football and the concept is buying a number of superstars and having a  super star class team. In the first era of ‘Galacticos’ Perez signed 4 great players of those days – Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo & David Beckham for a total value of 135.7 Million pounds. Real tasted immediate success after the signings of Figo and Zidane. They won the La Liga titles in 2000-2001, 2001-2002 & 2002-2003 seasons and also won the UEFA Champions league in the 2001-2002 season. After 2002-2003 season Real signed Beckham & Ronaldo and expected more success but unfortunately they couldn’t win any trophies in the next seasons but Barcelona their bitter rivals were on a winning streak and this last season ended last month was a huge success for them as they won the triplets – the league, cup & the European championship and notably Barcelona has not made any ‘huge’ signings but have trained most of their players from academy.

To be frank – money will not always bring you success, there are other more important things which decide success and I am sure it won’t take long for these ‘hugely spending’ clubs to understand that.

The answer from Steve Waugh…

Today I had an exciting opportunity to ask a question from the great cricketer and an inspirational ex. captain of the kangaroos Steve Waugh. Today the Australian College of business & Technology along with Royal College organized a leadership training programme at the ‘Navarangahala’ of Royal College. He made a great speech on his experience as the captain of the Aussies and shared thoughts on leadership.

In the Q&A time, I got an opportunity to ask a question and the answer he gave was very interesting. I asked him “As a captain & a leader have you ever felt frustrated?” And what he said was “Frustration is common when you are a leader and it will be with you always. Because when you are a leader you are under pressure always. At times you may need to take hard decisions for the betterment of your institution. For example I had to take a very tough decision as a Captain of Australia to drop my Vice Captain & the famous bowler Shane Warne – because he was not fully cured after a shoulder injury. Though it was a tough decision and a frustrating one I had to do it for the best to my institution – the Australian cricket team. So it is natural for a leader to be frustrated at times”

(These aren’t the exact words used by Steve Waugh, but an extract from my memory on my wording)

Royal thrash off the wooden kings!

A beautiful Sunday evening (21^st June 2009) the most expected school rugby encounter of the season and a great top table clash between Royal College & Kingswood College. The game kicked off at around 4.30 p.m. at the Royal College Sports Complex, Colombo. All spectators were very enthusiastic to see a great rough game and truly the game was very aggressive and a rough one. The first yellow card came out immediately just after 3 minutes of play to Kingswood’s center Weeresekara for his aggressive & rough game. But it did not stop the aggressive play. It was the Kings who placed their score first on the board with a great try and then a great conversion. Then the war heated up and the Royals were fighting their way to touch the line and it was not an easy attempt to succeed. The Kings’ defense was tight and at last after many attempts No.13 Duminda Attygalle touched it for Royal and Mushin converted it with a great kick. The scores were tie now and then with a penalty awarded it was Mushin Faleel who gave the lead with a penalty goal.

Then it was No.9 Aqeel Sathuk who scored the next try for Royal – the ‘Little Talented Star’ of Royal did not have time to celebrate, because he was shown a  yellow card for a very rough behavior at the try line, yet his scoring gave some time for Royal to breath. Mushin converted that try also with his experienced boot. Now the shocking time comes when the Kingswood skipper breaks out to keep a great try which was beautifully converted and the Score tally became 17 : 14 at half time.

The second half was jubilant for Royalists but not without the hard work. It was the Royal Flanker Hasthika Bandaranayake who touched down and then another conversion from Mushin to make the scores tally at 24 : 14. Then came a penalty for Kingswood and Royal’s Ranga Perera was shown a  yellow card just within seconds after Aqeel Sathuk returned from the sin bin. The penalty was cleverly taken by the Kings to add 3 more points to their score. Then comes the hot scene when the Kings’ Center Weeresekara was penalized again and gained a red card and was sent off. The poorly performed Royals’ Shailendra Chandresegar was replaced with Nabil Faizer. Here started a new game for Royal – Nabil Faizer scored the try and unfortunately Mushin missed the conversion.

Then it was a great run by Chamara Dabare from Royal’s half to the other and his pass to the Royal skipper Naren Dhason made an easy try for Royal. Naren scored the try without any defensive problems from Kingswood and followed a conversion from Mushin. The last try of the game came from Royal winger Shamil Ahamed and again converted by Mushin Faleel. That was the end of the game and the score tally ended up with 43 : 17.

A great Royal victory! And I should mention the extra ordinary talent, skill and team work presented by Royal throughout this season which achieved them an unbeaten, victorious season so far and two games to go.

I really enjoyed the game and it was  a memorable one too. I wish to congratulate Naren & his team – who proved it tough for anyone to beat Royal!

Is democracy a success?

in this contemporary globe – we talk more about democracy but do we really get the point of democracy? – this question stroked into my mind after listening a long lecture on democracy at my Political Science class.

Well what is democracy? it means that the state power is held by people of that state or simply the people decides the ruler (or rulers) of the state. This system is believed to be fist in practice in Greece, and later spread all over the globe – may be not in the same model but took many different forms based on the same concept. From those before Christ days up to now democracy has been very complicated and a tough thing to practice exactly the way it is meant to.

Yes, it is true that in democracy it claims that the people are the deciders, that means giving equal rights to all people to decide their ruler (or rulers), but does that mean that really ‘the people’ are deciding? – no, it is the ‘majority opinion’ which is deciding. So simply we can define democracy as ‘majority’s choice’.

‘democracy’ became a real need for all those people who suffered under monarchs. when the majority felt that they are discriminated by the monarchy , they rebelled against it and after the successful downfall of the monarchy – they chose a  ruling system which suited them – which gave them all rights, which fulfilled their aspirations – this thing happened mostly in the western countries like UK & France where they had one community & one language for the whole country so democracy seemed working for them.

But when this theory was applied to the eastern countries in the 17^th,18^th & 19^th centuries, which had many communities, ethnicities, castes, religions, and very well diverse in many ways then a problem occurred. As we said earlier democracy is ‘majority’s choice’ – and when it came into these multi ethnic nations – the communities which had population power easily chose the rulers and satisfied their needs and aspirations from them, whereas due to their lack of population the other ethnicities were considered ‘the minorities’ and discriminated from achieving their aspirations! This is what has caused many problems in these eastern nations. In one perspective democracy has failed in these nations but democracy isn’t a constant avatar, it is a thought which can be dressed up the way which suits us, thus when it is moulded into a suitable system which satisfies all ethnic communities – then that will prove successful. A great example for this is Switzerland. The Swiss federal government model is a great forefront system for all multi ethnic countries yet we should understand that it is hard to practice.

democracy has its’ advantages but it will also be disadvantages if not properly tailored according to your needs, because we cannot practice the same model of democracy followed in the UK in India and we cannot assume that American democracy model will suite Sri Lanka, because each & every nation’s nature & needs are different and the systems & models too should differ too.

we should note one important thing in democracy. If at all democracy in a country is used by the ‘majority’ to ruthlessly rule the ‘minority’ – the goodness of democracy will be demolished and the country will have to face many challenges in succeeding as a prosperous nation. So it is an important duty of the political intellectuals to find a proper and suitable model of democracy to their country considering the needs and aspirations not only of the majority but also of the minority.

Let’s make democracy a success!

Solving Problems

Problems are part of life. Each & every human being (or may be living being) is facing problems every moment. If anyone say I am living without problems – that means he is lying or not really living a  life. Problems very commonly occur. From small issues to major conflicts problems take different avatars and coem with different masks.

Basic reason for a conflict or a  problem is mis understanding or not understanding. If all of us understand & respect each other then problems won’t occur but it is not practical. For many reasons & in many situations we don’t undertsand others or don’t want to understand others or simply mis understand others – all of themwhich cause conflicts & issues. For the people who don’t understand, we can try different ways to make them understand and solve the issue. For the people who mis-understood a  thing, we can point out their mis belief and make them understand. But the toughest part is with the people with the attitude of ‘I don’t want to understand’ your problem. These type of characters really don’t bother to understand others’ problems, because simply they are of the point that they don’t care about that all or they care only about themselves and stay self-centered.

Handling problems with those characters are hard yet the world had proved it possible – because we also should understand the reason why they are not prepared to understand your problem. If we understand that, then by finding a way to convince them will work. So the first step is we should listen and understand why they are not bothered about others’ concerns and enlighten them with the necessary facts, because they may have  a strong reason for doing that. Then slowly we have to make them understand our problem and then when they understand – 90% of the problem is solved.

90% of Conflict Resolution is depended on ‘understanding’ – If no understanding then no conflict resolution. The world should know by now that conflicts & problems cannot be solved  by violance or  dictatorship. Violance can be a  temporary solution but it has proved a failure in the longer run.

Thus, if you ahve a  problem – talk out and solve it and don;t forget to understand the other side also!

Narcissistic & showing off people

We meet millions of people in our life – all of different sorts and kinds yet among them I saw a very small set of similar people who were loathsome because they are very much showing off and have the attitude ‘it’s all about ME’.

Well, showing off or publicising yourself is not wrong – but we should make sure that we do it in the right way. These showing off people I talk of aren’t those people do good things nor work hard for credits, These are the people who work with their mouth for the most to full fill their own wills & aspirations and do nothing to others nor the society! They are absolute narcissist and never ever have anything useful to give except problems. Because of their self-centered motives they try to full fill their own wills, thus if anything goes wrong about their aspirations they cause immense trouble.

We should be very much warned about these characters, because they may look like good friends but highly poisoned inside and can transform into your major enemy when they fail to achieve what they want. Basically these people are very showing off type and egoist, because they feel that showing off is the easiest way to gain speculation and then support. They even show off all small things they do & have and try to convince others to support them in achieving their self-centered aims and after coming to heights using others they demean others and prove their egoism.

Working with them can be sweet in short time – until they come to good position but after that it will be more bitter that even the dreams of those sweet moments will also transform into nightmares.

So BEWARE!

P.S. : This post is not on any accusations towards anyone but a  general idea.

World recession and club football transfers….

These days we read, listen and many things on world economy crisis & recession, and the latest famous football player transfers arose a question on whether it is true that the world is in ‘real’ financial crisis.

Real Madrid – the Spanish based rich football club has spent approx.140 Million Pounds on 2 players – Kaka & C.Ronaldo. Earlier real madrid confirmed the signing of Kaka for approx.50 million pounds from the Italian football giants AC Milan and later they confirmed an agreement with Manchester United FC for signing of Christiano Ronaldo for a deal worth of approx.80 Million Pounds. The first transfer was a world record (real madrid broke it’s own record of signing zenedin zidane) and then within a week real madrid broke their own record by signing Ronaldo.

At contemporary – where the world is suffering with huge financial crisis, these signings raise a doubt and a hard question on ‘economical recession’.

Leaving that apart – as a sport these ‘huge’ buyings are really challenging the fair play theory. Though it is hard to predict whether real madrid will achieve heights with these signings, yet there are huge differences between the richer clubs and the other clubs. And I personally don’t believe that such things are good for the development and stability of football.