Sri Lanka is one of the top teams in Asian netball.
They've won six titles in 11 tournaments, including this year's Asian Netball Championship, and are the region's most dominant side.
Success of this magnitude would normally point to a well-oiled system that provides players with the best opportunities, but a closer look at Sri Lanka Netball would tell you that this is very far from the truth.
Despite the team's success, their lack of resources is a huge problem.
Coach Hyacinth Wijesinghe says it's been an ongoing issue.
"I played in the 1980s — these are the same problems we had. So, it seems like nothing has changed since then," she said.
"Our main problem was not having an indoor court to train on in Colombo.
"Now, Sugathadasa Stadium is too expensive, and we can't afford to pay so much."
'Very challenging year'
Sri Lanka Netball was already on the backfoot in terms of resources, but these problems worsened exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic and political crisis in the country.
The pandemic brought the sport to a standstill, but the economic crisis, which was at its worst earlier this year, saw the team management struggle to put together any sort of consistently executable action plan ahead of the Asian Championships.
"There were definitely times when we missed out on training," Sri Lanka team captain Gayanjali Amarawansa said.
"We won the championship in 2018 too, but this campaign and that were very different.
"We did have challenges then as well, but nothing compared to this time. This was a very challenging year for us as a team."
Though an indoor training facility was organised for the team on the outskirts of the Colombo district, the meals provided by the Sports Ministry had to be halted temporarily after the Sri Lankan New Year, due to funding issues related to the economic crisis.
There were daily power cuts around the island, and despite having a schedule they didn't function according to it. It meant training sessions were regularly interrupted.
But one of the biggest challenges was actually getting around to training, with the drying up of fuel stocks wreaking havoc on the transport system.
All this meant that Sri Lanka ultimately played no international netball in the lead-up to the Asian Championships. In fact, they had no international games between the 2019 World Cup in Liverpool, to the 2022 Asian Championships in Singapore.
This was certainly not the case for Sri Lanka's biggest opponents in Asia, Singapore and Malaysia, who play the Southeast Asian Games biennially along with the Nations Cup and other international friendlies.
Practice games 'no challenge'
As a team that do not receive any financial compensation for representing the national side, the Sri Lankan team had to find a way to make things work, which included things like accepting shoes donated by a group of Sri Lankans here in Australia.
A plan was laid out for 43 warm-up games – they ended up managing just 13, nine of which came against school teams that posed no challenge.
"In the games against the school teams, they were scoring 10-20 goals, we were scoring in the 120 range. The situation with some of the club sides was also the same," Wijesinghe said.
"I realised that it was just pointless and let it go because there was no challenge.
"The best thing for us seemed to be to compete within the squad, so that's what we did."
But the seeds of belief were planted during one of those 13 warm-up games, when they beat a local Men's combined side, without star shooter Tharjini Sivalingam and defensive powerhouse Gayanie Dissanayake – a team which had beaten them in the past, with both present.
Slowly, as the tournament grew closer, all those obstacles started looking like challenges.
No electricity at training? We'll train in the dark.
No meals provided? We'll bring our own food.
No challenging opponents? We'll play intra-squad and challenge ourselves.
"From the beginning, I kept reminding them that we may not get our meal, we may not have transport for training, but we are going to win this," Wijesinghe said.
"We didn't forget about what we didn't have, but we focused on our goal and we believed we could achieve it."
Determined and dominant
That renewed determination to prove they could overcome whatever was thrown at them paid off.
During the tournament, the preliminary rounds saw all but Malaysia fold in their presence, but it was the final that saw Sri Lanka really backed into a corner from which there seemed like there was no way out.
After being humbled 67-49 in the second round, Singapore surprised everyone by racing to a six-goal lead at the end of the first quarter of the final.
When facing a quality side like Singapore, conceding such a substantial lead could have been fatal, but not for this team. After all those obstacles that weren't within their control, here was one they could do something about.
The team never seemed panicked, the calm was almost unnerving as they slowly got themselves in the game and eventually pulled away from a drained Singapore to win by 10 goals.
Hero's welcome worth 'more than what money can buy'
A hero's welcome awaited in Sri Lanka in the form of a parade in an open-top bus from the airport to Colombo as the win coincided with the men's cricket team's Asia Cup victory. Cash awards too followed through the generosity of individual donors and organisations like Sri Lanka Cricket.
"It was overwhelming, we couldn't believe it," Wijesinghe said.
"We didn't think anyone would come towards our bus. It was an emotional moment, seeing all those people, not just acknowledging the cricketers, but appreciating us too. We felt like we did something great for Sri Lanka.
"None of us are in netball for the money, but that welcome was worth more than what money can buy."
It was an unprecedented yet very overdue celebration of one of Sri Lanka's most successful sports teams, that despite the many challenges over the past four decades has somehow, continuously found a way to succeed.
Estelle Vasudevan is the Editorial Manager at Sri Lanka's leading sports website, ThePapare.com, podcaster at 99.94DM, ICC Accredited journalist and part of ABC International Development’s Women in News and Sport Initiative, funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Team Up program.
