The Hon. Dinindu Saman Hennayake

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, we are debating the Convention Against Doping in Sport (Amendment) Bill published in the Gazette of 2025.09.04. SLADO implements WADA regulations domestically. WADA periodically reviews national systems and proposes updates; today we align our law with WADA’s 2024 revisions.

¶ 02 Drugs and prohibited substances harm both society and sport. We have seen celebrated athletes’ careers end due to doping, and broader drug-related darkness stain our sports. We must enact and enforce strong rules and intensify international engagement to elevate sport; today’s amendments are foundational.

¶ 03 A visible trend is the nexus among sport, drugs, and underworld crime. As sport became commercial and monetized, politics intertwined with sports bodies—seeking offices, controlling funds, and imposing political agendas. Even before sports-politics fusion, crime-politics linkages existed: from J.R. Jayewardene and Ranil Wickremesinghe’s era associations with “Gonawala Sunil,” to later episodes of arming street gangs, and the rise of figures like “Beddagana Sanjeewa.” Under the Rajapaksa period this nexus deepened and shifted south, where today we see repeated major drug busts and higher incidence of armed violence.

¶ 04 These criminal networks and their godfathers have also seeped into sport.