{"id":58386,"date":"2018-03-15T23:48:51","date_gmt":"2018-03-16T04:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=58386"},"modified":"2018-03-15T23:54:49","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T04:54:49","slug":"58386","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=58386","title":{"rendered":"Hambantota MP And Sri Lankan  Rugger Ex-Captain  Namal Rajapaksa  Ready To  Coach Girls Rugby Team In Kashmir  in May 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By<\/p>\n<p>Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In an unlikely collaboration, Sri Lankan parliamentarian and rugby player Namal Rajapaksa has offered  coaching    help to a girls\u2019 rugby team in distant Kashmir.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have spoken to senior Sri Lankan coach Ronnie Ibrahim, and we want to offer whatever support we can to the young team,\u201d Mr. Rajapaksa, a former captain of Sri Lanka\u2019s national rugby union team, told The Hindu on Thursday. Following a report by New Delhi-based World is One News on a Kashmir girls\u2019 rugby team, Mr. Rajapaksa tweeted: \u201cBreaking social boundaries to pursue their passion for #rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In response, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti\u2019s Peoples Democratic Party tweeted: \u201cThank you Mr. Rajapaksa for endorsing the talent &#038; extending a hand of support to these young rugby players. We are sure there must be many success stories in Sri Lanka too. All of us would be delighted to learn more about your country\u2019s experiences &#038; interventions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Rajapaksa is in touch with the Jammu and Kashmir government and hopes to visit the Valley in May along with his coaches, his office said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are exploring the possibility of training sessions. Taking the circumstances in Kashmir into consideration, sports can play a great role in reconciliation, building community and leadership,\u201d the 31-year-old Hambantota Opposition MP said. Mr. Rajapaksa and his two brothers, sons of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, are competitive rugby players.<br \/>\n<em><br \/>\nCourtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton58386\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D58386&amp;text=Hambantota%20MP%20And%20Sri%20Lankan%20%20Rugger%20Ex-Captain%20%20Namal%20Rajapaksa%20%20Ready%20To%20%20Coach%20Girls%20Rugby%20Team%20In%20Kashmir%20...%20&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Meera Srinivasan In an unlikely collaboration, Sri Lankan parliamentarian and rugby player Namal Rajapaksa has offered coaching help to a girls\u2019 rugby team in distant Kashmir. \u201cI have spoken to senior Sri Lankan coach Ronnie Ibrahim, and we want to offer whatever support we can to the young team,\u201d Mr. Rajapaksa, a former captain &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=58386\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Hambantota MP And Sri Lankan  Rugger Ex-Captain  Namal Rajapaksa  Ready To  Coach Girls Rugby Team In Kashmir  in May 2018&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58386"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58389,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58386\/revisions\/58389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}