
By Namal Rajapaksa –
Those who know me and my two brothers know well how deeply we love the sport of rugby.
Having begun playing around the age of six, we played during school, during college, captained university teams and finally represented Sri Lanka internationally. In addition to enjoying the game, in recent years, we also tried to do whatever we could to elevate the sport in Sri Lanka for younger generations that will follow us in the years to come. In this effort, we brought down internationally-acclaimed rugby players to Sri Lanka and worked to get access for our players to obtain playing experience abroad.
In all honesty, we simply enjoyed playing the game. And as we began to reach the final stages of our sports careers, we felt like we should try to give back to a sport that had given us all so much. I think and hope that these efforts would have made at least a small contribution to the development of the game.
Today, we’re incredibly saddened to see that the bitter, vengeful politics that took over this country after elections earlier this month, have even made its way to the sports sector. Just a few days ago, my brothers – Rohitha and Yoshitha – were both informed, by telephone, not to attend rugby practice. No reasons were given. They were just asked not to come.
Not wanting to tarnish the sport through any potential conflict, we took a decision to simply respect the request and not question the decision regardless of how unjust it seems. Though deeply hurtful, we felt this would be the best decision we could make at this time.
For some, rugby was also a part of politics. But for the three of us, it was the sport we loved.
On behalf of both of my brothers and myself, I want express our deepest gratitude to all those who supported us during our rugby careers. I think you all know how sincerely we loved the game. And if given the opportunity, we will never hesitate for a moment to contribute to the development of the sport in any way that we can.
*Namal Rajapaksa MP is the eldest son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. His writings can be found at http://www.namalrajapaksablog.com
sam asela / January 31, 2015
And the only place you could post this is on the site you blocked during your fathers rule? How would you feel if.what you had to say was blocked Like what happened to so many others that had so many mistreatments to tell others about during your time. Atleast now you can speak freely.
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Ruwan Perera / January 31, 2015
What a Shame we lost two great Rugby Legends for Sri Lanka, There Goes the Future hope for our International Rugby Ambitions. I wonder how many Foreign Coconut monkey here who have commented here in very negative terms did anything for Sri Lankan sports let alone sri lanka. The Sports of Sri Lankan Rugbt has suffered with this Huge Blow and will never Recover. Instead we will see more Foreign Coconut Sri Lankan Tree Monkey’s supporting other nations. But cannot their own.
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Rajash / February 1, 2015
Rizwan
Never kind foreign coconuts , Namal and his brothers are fit only to play rugby with coconuts in Hambantotta
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dcn / February 1, 2015
Ruwan Perera
What a shame you are talking about legends and referring to these two guys. By stopping them coming for practices they have done a great service for Rugby to develop with new emerging players without any fear and take Our rugby teams to a higher level.
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Ebola da Silva / February 2, 2015
Ruwan why talk about foriegn cocnut monkeys, why not about local monkeys who think that they own everything, just because they are or their kith and kin are in politics.
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Truth rocks / February 2, 2015
Ruwan, have you ever wondered who ordered the killing of a true Rugby great, Thajudeen Wassim ?
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su siri / February 4, 2015
If, SLankan sports has suffered, it is greatly due to the placement of the politically connected as well as stooges in the teams simply for their glory. When you stop being such a suck up you will see the real picture.
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Samua Bandara / January 31, 2015
Namal Baby, your father belongs to special category of leaders on this world; they are very fine kind of cheating world leaders. His legacy will I hope not repeat in this beautiful country. He can finely assign taking the lives of his rivals/anyone would go against him, but behave as if he could be the most intoxicated buddhist lay man in lanken buddhist nation.
My ears reechoes the typical words he used when addressing an audience ” ape hamuduruwane…. how much we have done for the nation etc”… anyway, he can be the best leader to fool a nation for his own sake. If you train a street monger of world market – such men can also do the job actually. No brains or anything that the society expect but for own sake – he would brokers killings.
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sach / January 31, 2015
i think this has been taken by CT from his blog….
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Pat J / January 31, 2015
Well said. This are tactics to get sympathy! If his bro resigned from the Navy and the other bro was never in the Army, can they play for those teams?
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Asokan.s / January 31, 2015
Had you been a loyal citizen during the time you had the power and done things in the correct way,You have the right to speak about injustice and vengeful politics.You people acted like monsters and ruined the lives of innumerous people.
You have lost the right to justice, because what’s injustice to others is justice to you so when justice is imposed on you automatically it becomes injustice to you.
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Ebola da Silva / February 2, 2015
Do these buggers have balls. ?
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Funlover / January 31, 2015
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Kumar R. / January 31, 2015
Namal,
Where was your concern about political revenge when Sarath Fonseka was jailed or when Shirani Bandaranaike was kicked out? Don’t you think your accusations now sound rather empty in that background of your papa’s (family) regime? And that, while KP, Muralitharan, and other LTTE-discards were enjoying royal-hospitality.
This is an opportune time to bring up another related issue.
You had this best-ever grade from Law College, a result that came under suspicion no sooner than the results were released. That case “stinks” just as much as the issue of Rugby captaincy that you refer to. The common ground for both issues is whether it is your papa’s influence and absolute servility of the relevant authorities that was behind these “seemingly” heroic achievements!
Here is one way you can add some credibility to you as a person if you are to be taken seriously. If you are that good to get the best ever results at Law college, that tendency for genius must have shown-up somewhere in your school career. Can you request the schools (Hambantota MMV? St. Thomas? what have you) to release your standings among your class over the years? That will help establish your academic potentials and remove any clouds or suspicions around the result that you claim to have achieved?
Here is one substantial implication if your school records show that you were, at best, nothing more than a mere average student, and wasn’t even close to being qualified to enter any of the Universities. If your school records show that, and despite that you (and the Law College) can credibly claim you indeed got a First Class (let alone the best-ever results) then don’t you think we need to re-structure our whole University admission process?!
Our school system, as we all know, is tailored to objectively filter out and chose the best students for higher studies. Now, if a mediocre student can prove that he can get not just a First Class but in fact out do all of the best legal minds that have ever passed through that hallowed institution, then we do seriously have to consider discontinuing the current process of not admitting those who cannot pass our standardized tests!
Here is an afterthought. Perhaps we have an alternative if either you or the schools are somehow too shy to detail your school and standardized test performances. Perhaps some of your class mates or school mates can help by releasing what they know of your grades at school, O/L and A/L results. That would be a great public service to re-establish our confidence in you and our school system! Any takers?
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Huz / January 31, 2015
A very good point, indeed.
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krishan / February 1, 2015
As a class mate of Namal, I can say without any hesitation that he was no nerd in school. Yes, he did sports, but no where near academic excellence
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Kumar R. / February 2, 2015
Thank you Krishan – appreciate your acting so responsibly on an issue of such significant public interest.
Lets hear from other responsible and forthright class mates as well.
Perhaps from the School principal or administrators as well – unless they have something to hide, there is no reason why an an MP’s academic performance should remain a secret, particularly given its significance after the MP has laid claim to “academic par excellence!”
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Navin / January 31, 2015
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Ansar / January 31, 2015
Thanks guys for the clarification and enlightenment.
Now I know the secret of the stunning victory . It was a real mystery to me all these years.
Thanks also to Namal baba for opening the Pandora box. Lot of things are coming out. Did I hear someone say Thajudeen.
Over to you Namal Baba. Welcome aboard.
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Javi. / January 31, 2015
Common talk is for Common people
Common Sense is Middle Class
Nonsense is for Aristroctats,
Mercenaries is for Rajapasse familial only.
Go back to the Zoo you came from ambude kollos
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Don / January 31, 2015
You are a mongoloid
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Javi. / February 1, 2015
This is XANTHIC POWER
!! sit on a box of razor blades you Biscuit don Boofer_Mona.
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sakura / January 31, 2015
Namal, Somehow somewhere some of us do feel a pang of injustice to have your brothers unceremoniously kicked-out. But you guys did bulldoze your way to rugby and were never good enough to play for Sri Lanka let alone captain at the time you did. You all did get better at the job as you went along but at entry point even you who are a brilliant player and tactician and leader were NOT good enough to play. It was disappointing to most of us genuine rugby fans and we couldnt understand why you all had no shame in taking places and skippering the country when you were not even good enough to play. But we all acknowledged that rugby grew because of you all as you were able to demand funding and sponsors and grew rugby like carlton etc. So its mixed feelings. Yes the sport of rugby will be poorer but the end does not always justify the means. So I think you guys have got away easy so far. Like some newspaper aptly put it- you come through the back door you go through the back door. Previously we would never be able to speak freely like this either :)
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dictator / February 1, 2015
Son, when I read this, there is a scene from the movie Dictator that comes to my mind where the Dictator runs for the Olympics and shoots anyone that tries to out run him. Well son, that was you and your whole family, that’s what you did to Sri Lanka. Now, I hope you all rot in hell!
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ramona therese fernando / February 1, 2015
Reinstate them back you fools! Otherwise Rugby will be relegated to the Colomboan-type cliques that the whole country gets screwed up by. These boys at least took the sport to disadvantaged majority.
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Palmsquirrell / February 1, 2015
These boys are a stain on any sport with their unsportsmanship behavior and nepotism ruling over merit.
There is no reason the masses can’t enjoy the sport without these guys.
Better to spend money on Soccer development. Soccer has been a way out of poverty for many a poor kid in developing countries and developed countries. Just look at how many world class stars have emerged from poor Brazilian neighborhoods. In England Soccer is the common man’s game , while Rugby like Cricket is associated with the upper class.
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Colomboan / February 1, 2015
ramona therese fernando
Are you writing from a mental institute?
Did you forget to take your tablets today?
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Palayang Yako / February 1, 2015
Ramona:
Do you have to display your ignorance about rugger as you do about everything else?
Were you part of the Rajapaksa’s Bed Rugger Team and is that why you speak so knowledgeably about their contribution to the game? Shame that you weren’t able to get a diplomatic job in Sydney, Australia like Yoshitha’s ,,,,,because you sound like you are similarly qualified.
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Tamil from the north / February 1, 2015
Vengeful Politics And Rugby: Phone Calls To My Brothers? your family are experts at it. They must have learnt it from your family. Namal bugger, listen you, your siblings and your entire family are not even capable of making Kottu Roti, let alone be leaders. We know what you all did to the money people paid as taxes all these days. Your whole family are full of murderers, thieves, rapists………….etc. So go and bugger off.
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Douglas / February 1, 2015
Namal, Rohitha & Yoshitha: There is one ADVICE your father failed to give three of you.
That is: VEDIYA UDA PENNOTH BIMA VATAI> (If you jump up too much, you will fall to the ground) Also he did not tell you that, that FALL will break your neck. That is what happened to you and three of you have indirectly PUNISHED your father too for not giving that advice.
At lease now, please take that advice and try to correct yourself. This applies to your father too.
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aratai / February 1, 2015
.
Isn’t that one of you slapped a referee and got away?
:-)
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piranha / February 1, 2015
Hey Namal Podiyan
What kind of rugby did you play with [Edited out]? is it [Edited out]rugby?
Can you tell the readers the final score in that game.
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Nasser Majeed / February 1, 2015
Hi.
Purely staying on the topic of Rugby no doubt you
Guys lifted the profile, brought in sponsorship
and good money for a lot of players.
We enjoyed seeing some good tournaments
I also enjoyed watching every game you played
For your school and you were undoubtedly
One of the best
I think your brothers should sign up with some
Clubs and play. Some will target them but they
Should play and retire when the time is right
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Dr.Goebells / February 2, 2015
Naseer Majeed
Obviously you have not seen good Sri Lankan Rugby players . Namal was a good player at school level . The other two were absolutely hopeless, and should never have captained STC . At Club level , Namal was too small to play at number 8 so he became a very average hooker . The other two were quite ordinary , and could only have got a place in the forces teams due to obvious reasons. The youngest created history by captaining the Army team in his very first season !
All three were constantly seen arguing with referees on the field , and trying to intimidate them .It was also a problem for spectators whenever they played , as they had to undergo body checks due to Royal patronage .
You talk about the wonderful tournaments they organised . The main sponsor was their uncle who ran an airline that has accumulated losses of Rs 100 billion . In other words those carnivals were funded by the poor tax payers of this country .
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Lal / February 1, 2015
Why don’t you all join civilian clubs, rather than crying foul, do the right thing by showing your ability and be selected to the team?
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Lal / February 1, 2015
Why don’t you all join civilian clubs, rather than crying foul, and do the right thing by showing your ability to be selected to the team?
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Das / February 1, 2015
Lee Kwan yews son was educated in Oxford and had a class and served national service diligently for two years and waited 10 years before he even enter politics.When he became the PM, he even took Singapore to greater heights.I remember one of the lecturers in Oxford commented he is capable of thinking 50 years ahead.look at Singapore today and Sri Lanka today,see what your father has done.he took Sri Lanka 50 years behind.You are like Rahul in India.you are going to suffer the same fate as him.you entered law college illegally.I don’t think you can even go to the lift of Oxford.please do sone thing in which you are good at.don’t rely on the laurels of your father as he is finished for good.
THE KARMA WILL FOR FOLLOW HIM FOR SEVERAL BIRTHS TO COME ALSO YOUR UNCLES WILL FOLLOW THE SAME FATE.
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Kumar / February 1, 2015
Lee Kwan yews son was educated in Oxford and had a class and served national service diligently for two years and waited 10 years before he even enter politics.When he became the PM, he even took Singapore to greater heights.I remember one of the lecturers in Oxford commented he is capable of thinking 50 years ahead.look at Singapore today and Sri Lanka today,see what your father has done.he took Sri Lanka 50 years behind.You are like Rahul in India.you are going to suffer the same fate as him.you entered law college illegally.I don’t think you can even go to the lift of Oxford.please do sone thing in which you are good at.don’t rely on the laurels of your father as he is finished for good.
THE KARMA WILL FOR FOLLOW HIM FOR SEVERAL BIRTHS TO COME ALSO YOUR UNCLES WILL FOLLOW THE SAME FATE.
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WalaGemba Raja / February 1, 2015
Master Namal,
May I please advice you on your PhD thesis that you seek to obtain in Criminal Justice from SJU. Master Namal, the title of your thesis should be HOMICIDE by CRIMINAL MASTERMINDS for would be MURDERERS. We can work on this title later. Furthermore, I would like you to start with your childhood Rugby and how this ‘love’ evolved within the family and even escalated to murder. You can select the protagonist but the victim was a young lad from St. Thomas College named Mr. Wasim Thajudeen. Master Wasim died under very mysterious circumstances although deemed a tragic accident. Heretofore, Wasim’s death remains an unsolved mystery or should I say a “COVER-UP”. I await the first draft, and you may share that draft with CT for the general public to view your progress. After all, progress now emphasizes transparency under “YAHA PALANAYA” unlike the previous hoodlums of YAKKO PALANAYA. Over you Master Namal. Good luck!
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Ahmed / February 1, 2015
I have watched your family play at international games, not really gods gift to man.
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Lasith / February 1, 2015
I never thought I would ever see Namal on colombo telegraph, complaining and bitching like a little girl.
But this is life! Anything and everything can change in the twinkle of an eye. Nothing is permanent in this world. The Buddha taught us that, Impermanence is constant.
Likewise Karma takes its course, nothing can be done to change that either, the plight of the Rajapaksha family today for instance or the demise of Prabakaran.
So Namal try to learn a lesson from all this and do what is right and leave the rest. Greed will not take you anywhere.
Never thought I would feel this way, truly feel sorry for you.
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george jilmart / February 1, 2015
You sick shit, you used your position to politicise rugby in this country. You and your perverted brothers put yourselves into the rugby team despite the fact that you all were not fit to represent the country or the club when there were so many other more talented players. Every facet of public life was contaminated and polluted by your depraved family and now you have the gall to make a statement that you crooked shits did this for the sake of the country. Go take a high jump over the precipice and disappear you piece of shit.
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sarongJ / February 1, 2015
Ado here Namal Chooty, if it were up to most lankans , your legs and your brothers legs would be broken in several areas then all three of you will be hanged from the tree in front of your house in Tangalle.
Useless morons all three of you are.
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dcn / February 1, 2015
It would useful for the readers to kniw tge universities you and your brothers attended and pkayed rugby. Will you clarify.
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Lasantha Pethiyagoda / February 1, 2015
The writer cannot seriously be the former SL president’s son? If he was, then he should be reading the feedback and offering his responses to readers on this forum. I feel that it could be a cheap trick to activate people’s emotions and whip up public condemnation..
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Moderate / February 2, 2015
How ironic that you talk of revenge… do you remember what happened to SF during your father’s reign? What goes around comes around they say, but I don’t see that happening, your father is NOT in jail unlike SF
I did NOT vote for SF, I did not want him being prez, but what your daily did to him was NOT good at all!
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Umesh Srinivasan / February 2, 2015
Namal and his brothers who have so much spare time can start their own Rugby league, represent Hambantota Hurricanes and challenge the Chinese Cheetahs
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muslim / February 2, 2015
Namal baby ,you are speaking for your brothers,and yourself ,did you ever do that for the other good rugby players?
Anyone who is a threat to you and your brothers in rugby were bumped off,so that winning the games were made easy for Mahinda Rajapaksa sons.
How many mothers and fathers were deprived of their precious sons,their lights were blown off prematurely,all because of you and your brothers jilmart of winning .
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