FOMO with the POLO

The Hayman is back, and bound to bring with it some fun and excitement. It’s superb to see how water polo has grown in Sri Lanka with the annual Royal – Thomian game having to be moved out of the home and away tradition into proper Olympic sized pools, primarily for accommodation of a growing following.

Sometimes I miss the cauldron like atmosphere of the Thomian pool, and the hostile terraces of Royal, but the in-pool entertainment has been excellent. This particular trophy has been unusual historically, in the sense that it has seen long periods of dominance by first one school and then another. STC never lost for almost entirely the first decade of the encounter. Subsequently Royal dominated for the most part of the noughties. Since then there has been some balance reached but still not enough to make the fixture as nail-biting as it should be. Difficult to understand why that is.

Last year Royal shockingly lost the first leg. A little complacency, and trying to do things that don’t work for you. But they got it together and comprehensively won the second leg. Devshan De Mel’s heroics for STC were evenly matched by Kanitha Munasinghe’s lightning breaks. This year’s captain will be well marked by the Thomians, who will be expecting a lot from the enormously talented Sachitha Jayatilleka. Saw the lad play last year’s U15 game and have since seen him win trophies with the U17 cricket team, tour with the U17 national water polo team and come off the bench for the 1st XV. He’s 16 and considerably bigger than I am, and light on his feet. He is an exciting prospect, and it’s time STC produced one of those dominant sportsmen. As a bonus, he seems a nice lad too.

Let’s see what he brings to the party. Royal have lost a few key players from last year, and STC will look to capitalise.

Sugathadasa Stadium, tomorrow afternoon. Kudos to the Organising Committee for the amazing publicity.

National Teams

While water polo has begun to grown in popularity though, it’s not clear whether there is a corresponding increase in quality. No doubt the U17 Boy’s and Girls performances in Singapore recently at the Asian Youth Water Polo Cup, is encouraging. The Boys beat the Phillipines team, which was pretty abysmal, and performed creditably in a 19-11 loss to Iran. They finished 8th out of 10 teams by virtue of their win against Philippines, but seemed on par with the Indian juniors on a comparative analysis.

The Girls team did well to beat Singapore by a solitary goal to end up 6th out of 7 teams but they were unfortunate to face Japan and China in the group which led to a 74 -5 goal tally against them in those 2 games.

The Senior National teams in the Men’s and Women’s competition didn’t fare as well, to say the least. Both teams finished dead last in the Asian Water Polo Cup, and the only so – called joy, was Sri Lanka’s draw with Phillipines in the Men’s category.

The Men’s team conceded 116 goals in 5 games while scoring 29 and the Women’s team conceded 86 goals in 4 games while scoring 15.

The scorelines can sometimes not tell the entire story. But watching some of the games, it was pretty evident that the scorelines did reflect the state of the sport. There was a general lack of game awareness, and inability to complete passes, much less get into scoring positions. The teams looked tired and lethargic, and the refrain from the coaches of ‘keep the ball’ was unfortunately the end, rather than the means.

Given the composition of the teams, particularly the Women’s team – which comprised a large percentage of professional players on approximately 40 grand a month – the question needs to be asked whether the resources available are being channeled properly.

Reports from some coaching staff reveal that the U17 team was regularly beating the Senior Women’s national team at practice. Why then, are teams sent to punch above their weight without the basics being established at domestic level? The Men’s team too were heavily experienced domestic players and their run of form was surprisingly average.

With only Royal and S. Thomas’ being a cut above in the domestic scene, and Ladies’ and Visakha being the dominant schools, it is not something that boggles the mind that the lack of competition is the problem. With the advent of the Navy Men’s and Women’s teams of mercenary packed, highly paid players, and with Police and Air Force taking to water polo it should be the case that domestic competition should be at a higher level. Unfortunately, it isn’t.

The biggest problem here, is not the lack of talent. It is the lack of competent referees and educated coaches. Ironically though, this tour was probably one of the best prepared tours with arduous selections and rigorous practices. However, the scorelines indicate that we could have just rolled out of bed, turned up and achieved the same margins with the talent available. Kidding ourselves that a draw against Phillipines is sufficient for the amount of time, money and effort that went into this tour will not help. Honest assessment of your capabilities and limitations is required.

Without parents forking out large amounts for tickets and accommodation, it’s probably more beneficial for SLASU to transparently pick some worthy individuals and send them for referee and coaching education. Coaches in Sri Lanka are largely ex players, thrust into coaching, with little or no understanding of team management. If the circus trainer doesn’t have a hoop the lion certainly can’t jump through it. And it is the players and the game that suffer.

The experience argument is nonsensical, at National level. Perhaps at Junior Level. Goalies don’t get better by picking the ball up from the back of the net. Neither do players improve chasing the white splash in the wake of their opponents. Players improve by being constantly put under pressure, and responding. Steps to achieve that need to be taken incrementally. Not drastically.