Athletes not paid since August

Hollow promises by the Sports Ministry left many athletes heartbroken, as the monthly allowance for the elite pool of national track and field athletes has not been paid since August.

Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara promised to double the monthly grant of National Athletes when they made the country proud, winning gold and three silver medals at the Asian Championship, but not a single penny has been paid since August.

Surprisingly athletes of other sports, such as weight lifting and so on, are receiving the said grant on time, whilst only track and field athletes are facing the delay. The athletes claim even when they received the said grants since early this year, it was never on time, as they always got paid once in two or three months after several appeals to the Minister .

The Sports Ministry used to reward Asian Championship medallists with large cash prizes at the early stage, and expected such prizes after their extraordinary medal performances in July at Bhuwaneshwar, India, but left heartbroken after the Ministry refused to pay the said prizes. The Minister instead promised to double the grant to Rs 60,000 per month from the earlier Rs 30,000 for medallists of the elite pool.

Even at the last Asian Indoor Games, only track and field athletes produced four medals while the rest of the sports failed to win a single medal, but there have been no rewards for them so far.

“They never care to pay those in time but come to get the credit whenever we win medals,” said one heartbroken athlete who wished to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.

Director of Sports IP Wijerathne is the responsible officer for payments, but most of the athletes complain he always delays and messes up when it comes to the paying of monthly allowances, prize money or reservation of air tickets for overseas championships. He also recently messed up at the National Sports Festival where the Department of Sports failed to provide an air ticket to sprinter Rumeshika Rathnayake to arrive in SL in time for the National Sports Festival, which led to the Sports Officers protest at the NSF in Matara during the closing ceremony.

When contacted, Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara was surprised about the development, as he had given clear instructions to the Department of Sports Development and Wijerathne to pay athletes on time, and said he is going to sort out the matter soon.