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by Dinesh Weerawansa

Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports, Johnston Fernando has embarked on a special mission to spot future national players. An initial step of a countrywide programme, Minister Fernando will focus his Ministry's attention on junior level players in athletics, soccer, volleyball, netball and kabaddi.

A total of 187 boys and girls, representing the junior national pools of the five sports, have been called to Colombo next Tuesday (26) to present them sponsorships and nutritional scholarships. There are a total of 107 young athletes who will come under the project while the junior national level pools of soccer, volleyball, netball and kabaddi will have 20 players each.

"Today, we have some good national level athletes who have brought honour to Sri Lanka at Olympic and Asian levels. But what are we going to do once they call it a day? We must think for the future and groom a set of talented boys and girls who could be future Sri Lanka star sportsmen and women. Nursing future Sri Lanka material through development pools will help us to fill the vacancies in national teams," said Minister Fernando, who has undertaken an ambitious programme to find tomorrow's sports stars.

Minister Fernando said there should be a national level programme to sharpen the skills of our youngsters. "We must look for talent. Once you spot the talent, we must groom them carefully for the future," he said. It is a concept which is being practised by major sporting nations for long time. Despite the financial constrains faced as a developing nation, Minister Fernando is confident of finding necessary funds from the Government as well as sponsors to maintain junior national pools.

Minister Fernando, who has already completed several projects under the Government's 100-day programme, said the Sports Ministry will constantly monitor the progress of these junior national pools. "There will be district level training for young athletes. We plan to get them down to Colombo at least once a month and assess their progress. This will help us to keep a close tab on the progress of our youngsters," Minister Fernando said yesterday.

A programme of this nature will help to find the replacements once the current national level sportsmen and women retire. If Sri Lanka is to find replacements once the current set of champion athletes of the calibre of Susanthika Jayasinghe, Damayanthi Darsha, Sriyani Kulawansa, Sugath Tillakaratne and Rohan Pradeep Kumara retire, feeder pools must be maintained in an organised manner. It is the same in other sports as well.

The programme will initially be for five sports but it will be introduced to other sports as well. Minister Fernando is keen on spotting talent at tender age and providing them the right training. The programme will be monitored by Director General of Sports Milton Amarasinghe and Deputy Director Dervin Perera under the direction of the Minister.

Meanwhile, Minister Fernando has summoned all sports officials of the country, coaches and physical education officers, district sports officers and provincial sports directors and officials for a special meeting to be held at the Youth Affairs Ministry on February 26. All issues pertaining to the programme, other sports matters and the sports Ministry's future development programme will be discussed at the meeting, to be presided over by Minister Johnston Fernando.

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