Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa said yesterday that “bitter and vengeful politics” that took over this country after elections earlier this month, has even made its way into sports, by throwing away Rajapaksa brothers from Rugby.

“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,” Namal Rajapaksa said in a blog post yesterday.

“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,” he also added.

“For some, rugby was also a part of politics. But for the three of us, it was the sport we loved,” Rajapaksa said.

“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,” the Parliamentarian added.