Addressing the house, President Mr. Rahula Dassanaieke said:

“Our Patron Mr. Dennis De Rosayro, Vice Patron Mr. Kumar Weerasuriya, , Past president Jayantha Paranathala, newly elected Exco members of BRC, my dear fellow members

Almost a year ago, on September 29, 2015 BRC membership accepted my candidacy as the President of this prestigious club. One year after, a challenging, yet an enjoyable journey, I am happy to reflect very briefly on the progress made during the last 12 months.

BRC continued to thrive during the year, despite many challenges, delivering outstanding performances not only in Cricket, but also in development, finance and general club management.

We became champions of Emerging 3 day and T20 tournaments, which was an outstanding and a remarkable achievement. This allowed us to be promoted to the most looked forward status of playing cricket in  ‘The Premier League’. While congratulating the players, coaches and officials for their achievement, I must say, NOW we would expect NOT the same but definitely HIGHER level of dedication and commitment from all our stake holders, for BRC to retain our position in the Premier League and to become a bright star in Sri Lanka Cricket.

In order to do so, I am sure you will agree, we will need to invite more talented players to the club, for which we will require enhanced finances. With the help of Sri Lanka Cricket, we have undertaken a much needed project to relay the centre wickets and improve the outfield, for us to be on par with other premier cricket clubs. The project has already commenced and is expected to be completed in October 2016. This is a much required project as this would be an added incentive to attract new cricketers of high standards to join the club and display their skills. My dear friends, members of BRC, we require your support to bring in more corporate sponsors and individual groups, or persons to sponsor our players. I am sure with the support & dedication of our members we will succeed in this.

Hockey has been our strength and forte in the past, though there have been no noticeable achievements during the last twelve months. But I am confident our officials, coaches and players will do their utmost this year to bring back the past glory. I am also very proud to inform the house that one of our players Mr. Abeetha Fernando was selected to represent the Sri Lanka Team during the ‘Asian Qualifying Tournament’, played in Singapore, where he performed in an outstanding manner and become a star by scoring 6 goals in 5 matches he played. He was chosen player of the tournament for his outstanding performance.

Once we were in the limelight due to our billiards and snooker performances. To get the ball rolling once again, the current committee has invested heavily in upgrading billiard and snooker facilities. I am hopeful the stakeholders who are responsible in managing the day to day affairs will work hard to put the BRC name on the map of billiard and snooker again. We played a friendly billiard and snooker match with Colts, one of our immediate neighbour clubs on 20th August and our players performed very well and beat Colts by 7 to nil. While congratulating our side, I thank the Billiard Secretary for taking the initiative in organizing this event, which was very successful. A good start after sometime.

Many development projects which were carried forward from the previous year initiated by Mr. Jayantha Paranathala, fondly referred to as Para, were successfully concluded. As you can see, we have ‘The Lounge’, which is fully air-conditioned and very tastefully designed for members to relax with their families and friends. We have upgraded our gent’s washrooms to the highest standards keeping the membership in mind. The lady’s washroom had been refurbished earlier.

The joint venture with P.G. Martins commenced operations providing the kids and families of BRC member’s real entertainment. However, it is sad to note that the membership is not making use of this facility to its full potential. I therefore appeal to the membership to use this facility to the fullest for their children. While children are in the play area, adults could use the other facilities of the Club.

The kitchen has been re-located facing Havelock Road allowing us to cater to non-members as well. The conference room was built for committees and members to use for Club meetings, which can be rented for private meetings as well. A new club management system has been introduced to overcome the operational difficulties. I must state that there is a definite noticeable improvement, in the day to day operations of the Club, after the implementation of the new IT system, which is now in place.

On our road map of action, many other development projects are identified and we will inform the membership once the master plan is formulated.

Treasurer’s report details our standing in finance. However, I must mention that from a financial management point of view, we have completely streamlined the entire accounting system and audited accounts and other accounts related information are readily available for  perusal and decision making.

It is with pride and humility that we say it is encouraging to see the influx of new members and also it is encouraging for us to hear the positive comments made by existing members on the progress and improvements in the club. We have made reciprocal arrangements with Kandy Club, Kandy Garden Club and Panadura SC, allowing our members to enjoy such facilities with their families and friends when they travel out of Colombo.

As I promised in my inaugural speech, as I took over as the President of BRC, we have made all efforts to make BRC ‘A Club for the family’, by having Kiddies Movie Night on Saturdays, reduced ticket prices for PG Martin facilities. In fact now it is totally free for the use of member children on last Saturday of every month between 5- 7 pm.

Friends, while doing all this work we have been mindful of our social responsibilities. Recently we did organize religious ceremonies at Isipathanaramaya and St Theresa’s church in remembrance of all departed members of BRC. Members who have contributed in numerous ways to uplift the standards of our club to what it is as you can see now, though they are not with us today. I must sincerely thank all who participated for these noteworthy ceremonies to show their gratitude. We expect to organize such events in coming years as well, for which I expect more participation from the membership.

My dear members, in conclusion I must emphasize that this is not a single individual’s effort, No! – it is a team effort. Every member not only in the committee, and each and every one of the staff, manager downwards, contributed greatly to the success and development of the club. I say a big Thank you to all of them.

We all worked together with one principle objective in mind that is to ensure that BRC will continue to develop and grow, as a family unit contributing to sports, society and national development as a whole.

As I did last year, let me conclude with the words of Julius Caesar “

MUTATIS MUSTANDIS EN AVANT, “which means, WITH THE NECESSAREY CHANGES MOVE FORWARD.

Thank you.”