Ranil’s Friend Bowls Doosra: Observer Sports Editor Out LBW
March 24, 2016
Callistus Davy the Sports Editor Sunday Observer has been sent on two months paid leave for a reporting blunder at the conclusion of 137th Battle of the Blues Royal Thomian Big Match, sources close to the Chairman Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited told Colombo Telegraph.
The veteran scribe counting over 25 years experience in sports journalism had carried an incomplete story in the Sunday Observer following Royal College’s remarkable victory. The story was written by Sports Journalist Ranjan Anandappa.
Nevertheless it is speculated that the reason behind the decision was because of Davy’s negligence in carrying a photograph of Chief Guest and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe handing over the D.S. Senanayake Shield to the winning Royal College captain. An Editor said “he carries the picture of the winning moment which as an editor he is entitled to”.”I am not sure if it was negligence or because President’s son Daham Sirisena was also on stage by forcibly making himself there. If they had to crop the picture to drop Daham from the scene, it would have caused much more problems for the Editor from President Sirisena’s side. He would have been caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. I think he played a forward defensive stroke here, but perhaps the doosra bowled by Premier Ranil’s friend trapped him in front of the stumps” he said.
However, when contacted a source close to ANCL Chairman Kavan Ratnayaka told Colombo Telegraph “He made a major blunder, So he was sent on leave. With paid salary etc.. He will be taken back in two months. The next day report on the Royal Thomian has no end and it ends somewhere in the middle, abruptly. That’s the main reason we took this decision.”
