Frank Sonnenberg writes, “It takes many years to become an overnight success”-  and that simple phrase aptly encapsulated the mantra of Team Sri Lanka for the year 2020, that tournaments were won and lost not amidst the bustle of crowded, spectator filled Zooms but rather in the unseen and unnoticed hours dedicated to training, learning and controlling the controllable. 

Unlike the majority of previous years, the team was chosen in early November and consisted of Shalem Sumanthiran and Janul De Silva of Royal College, Rahul De Silva and Jasmine Markandu of the Colombo International School and Chanidu Ratnayake of Ananda College- Shalem Sumanthiran, a third-time returner was Team Captain.  As this was well ahead of the usual February/ March selection process the practice schedule began relatively calmly, allowing for gradual improvement and amplified as tournaments drew nearer. 

The pinnacle of school level debating is undisputedly the World School Debating Championship (WSDC) and the ultimate goal for the team was to perform strongly at Mexico ‘2020. With the sudden rise of COVID, physical tournaments were immediately out of the question and organizers rushed to turn tournaments virtual. This opened up an array of new possibilities for Team Sri Lanka as this facilitated entry into multiple international tournaments that were now being held online and the costs of international travel no longer applied. To suit the new circumstances team practice shifted online and strategies were adapted accordingly.

The first road test of the Sri Lankan team emerged in the form of the Bluebonnet World Schools Debating Championship organized by the Grand Oaks Academy in Texas.  Forty-eight teams took part from over twenty-two different countries including the USA, Canada, China, England and India. Out of four preliminary rounds, Team Sri Lanka managed to win three rounds beating teams from the USA and South Korea, narrowly losing a debate to a Canadian team. The team successfully broke 7th out of the 16 teams that proceeded into the knockouts. The octofinals and quarter-finals were won against an American and a Canadian team respectively.  Team Sri Lanka was then in the semi-finals and had already achieved one of the furthest runs in an international tournament by a Sri Lankan team. The Semi-Finals was against the English Team Eton College and the debate was lost on the slimmest of margins on a 3-2 split decision. Team Eton then went on to win the tournament beating out Team Romania in the finals.

Having almost tasted victory only to have it snatched away, resulted in a strengthening of the team’s resolve and training intensified leading up to our next tournament. The Tilbury House debating tournament organized by the German University of Koln saw thirty-eight teams from over twenty predominantly European countries. Team Sri Lanka chose to field two teams – Sri Lanka A and Sri Lanka B.  With five rounds and only eight teams going into the knockout rounds each preliminary round was hard-fought and a mistake could prove fatal. Fortunately however both Sri Lankan teams managed to reach the knockout rounds beating out teams from the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece and Romania. Sri Lanka B managed to break as the second-highest team in the tournament with 4 wins and 13 ballots while Sri Lanka A broke third with 4 wins and 12 ballots and the highest average team speaker scores in the tournament.  Going into the knockout rounds Sri Lanka A faced off against Team Ireland and Sri Lanka B was matched with Team Romania. Both teams opposed and after two high quality debates, both teams won unanimously.  Unfortunately, an all Sri Lankan final was off the cards as both teams squared off against each other in the semi-finals. An incredibly close debate ensued and Sri Lanka A clinched the victory in a hotly contested 3-2 split decision. For the first time in Sri Lankan debate history, a Sri Lankan team was in a final and Sri Lanka A prepared to take on Team Wales, a tough world schools heavyweight opposing the motion “THBT feminists in deeply religious societies should integrate religious messages and institutions into their advocacy rather than distancing themselves from it”,  Team Wales eloquently set out an exceptionally strong case and appeared strong favourites early on but Sri  Lanka A fought back, performing a strategic masterclass taking the win on a 4-3 split. For the first time in Sri Lankan history a team had proceeded to the Grand Final and brought home the win to boot. To top it all off, Sri Lankan captain Shalem Sumanthiran of Sri Lanka A bagged the coveted Best Speaker award ( The tenth in his collection), Incidentally, this is the furthest a Sri Lankan has come in the individual speaker rankings by miles. Janul De Silva of Sri Lanka B managed to add another top 10 finish to the Sri Lankan speaker tally snatching the 7th place in the Speaker tabs.

Practise continued and the brief euphoria of winning Sri Lanka’s first tournament was short lived as the World Schools Championship drew closer. The team had a point to prove. That Sri Lanka winning a tournament was no fluke, but rather a foreshadowing of what was to come. 

The final tournament before World Schools was the Vancouver World Schools Debating Championship organized by the Vancouver Debate Academy. Given the proximity to Online Worlds, a significant majority of WSDC heavyweights took part and the tournament saw 72 teams from twenty-seven countries. Due to regional time zone differences, the tournament was split into two divisions for the preliminary rounds- Orca and Caribou. Sri Lanka was in the Orca division along with national teams from Singapore, China, Hong Kong and India. 16 teams proceeded to the knockout rounds in each division. Sri Lanka broke sixth having beaten teams from Japan and Bangladesh and narrowly losing out to a team from Taiwan early on. The double octofinal round was against a team from India and Sri Lanka was able to advance on an unanimous 3-0 decision. For the octofinals Sri Lanka was matched up against Team Netherlands, previous winners of Mini Worlds Chennai 2019. After an intense debate on the impacts of extreme emotion, Sri Lanka managed to claim victory on a 2-1 split decision. The quarter-finals were then against Team Hong Kong, another tough WSDC contender. Unfortunately, Team Hong Kong utilized excellent framing at the top of their case ( An advanced strategic tactic to make one’s arguments more compelling) and that put Team Sri Lanka at a slight disadvantage early on. The ensuing debate was hard fought but the framing ultimately prevailed as Sri Lanka bowed out in the quarter-finals on a 4-1 split decision in favour of Hong Kong.  Having forfeited a tournament due to a gap in knowledge, Team Sri Lanka dedicated time and effort in the days that followed to gain mastery of framing to aid and abet their cases.

After around nine months of training, the 18th of July dawned and with it the first round of the Online World Schools Championship. Again for the preliminary rounds the tournament was divided into two, based on timezones- the Maya division and the Aztec Division. Sri Lanka was in the Maya Division along with teams such as India, Hong Kong, China and Singapore. The first round was against Team South Korea, and after a tough round debating the ethics of “drug use zones”, Sri Lanka claimed their first win on a 2-1 split.  The next round had Sri Lanka pitted against Team Rwanda on reforming the education system and Sri Lanka managed to pull through unanimously. Having won two rounds fairly strongly the next round had us facing Team China- a consistently strong WSDC contender. Having debated a motion on algorithms in criminal justice, Team Sri Lanka was relatively confident that our first “upset” in the tournament had been pulled off- but unfortunately it was a 2-1 split in favour of China, incidentally however certain judges appeared to be swayed by the ‘tournament favourites’ – team China, one judge chose to casually compliment Sri Lanka for ‘making it close against a tournament favourite’. Despite being wronged, the Team chose to focus effort and energy into giving better performances rather than waste time feeling angry or indignant, Following that Sri Lanka was pitted against Team Bangladesh in the fourth round. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka proposed a tough motion and after a high quality debate a 2-1 split went in favour of Bangladesh. Incidentally, around 14 out of the 17 Propositions lost that debate. Now in the upper middle of the table with 2 wins and 2 losses, Team Sri Lanka had a treacherous mountain to climb as a single loss would mean we were out of the running. The coaches reassured the team to focus on what could be controlled and to take one debate in at a time to avoid being overwhelmed. Taking on this advice Team Sri Lanka faced off against Team Sudan in the fifth round and took home a unanimous decision on a motion on complete state ownership of land. The sixth round was nerve wracking as a loss now would invalidate all the training and effort, but effort and practice stood the team in good stead as another 3-0 decision was chalked up against Team Namibia. 

Team Sri Lanka was into the Partial Double OctoFinals (Round of 24) having broken 5th out of 12 breaking teams in our division. The Partial Double Octo final was against Team Scotland and Sri Lanka was able to clinch a 4-1 decision in a motion on empowering women within global organizations. In previous years the furthest a Sri Lankan team had ventured at World Schools was the Octo Finals and our opponent was none other than Team England, a strong contender and a previous Champion. Opposing a motion of social movements utilizing anger as a tool to mobilize support, Sri Lanka pulled off a unanimous 5-0 victory and signalled to the world that this team meant business. The quarter-finals held the next day was against a thus far unbeaten Team Hong Kong that had beaten almost all opposition unanimously. In a poetic and almost cliche turn of events, Sri Lanka was able to out frame Hong Kong and used the same strategic tool they utilized  in the previous tournament to flip the tables and ended up claiming the win on a 5-2 split decision. Sri Lanka had by now reached the semi finals of the tournament, something that would probably have been considered almost unthinkable in previous years. The semi final was against Team Ireland and after a spirited debate on redistributing charitable donations Sri Lanka was able to soundly claim a unanimous decision. Months of training and practice were now put to the ultimate test as Team Sri Lanka prepared to take on Team Canada in the Grand Finals. Having received sound advice from the coaches, Kithmina Hewage & Sanjit Dias, both former National Team debaters, to focus on getting the basics right, Team Sri Lanka engaged in a spirited debate that pitted a materialistic worldview against that of following one’s passion even at an economic cost. The debate that ensued was of the highest quality but unfortunately, Team Canada was able to take the debate on a 8-1 split decision and with it claimed the title of Worlds Champions for the year 2020.  Despite the loss, Team Sri Lanka remained jubilant too, the previous best finish had been top 16, this team made it all the way to the Grand Finals, the previous best Speaker result had been bettered when Captain Shalem Sumanthiran grabbed the 12th position in the Open Tab along with the 7th position in the ESL (English as a Second Language) Tab. All in all, for Worlds 2020, Sri Lanka was no longer an ESL country that could break at best but nothing more- now Sri Lanka was a newly established powerhouse pulling off clinical performance after performance, rebuking the naysayers and doubters through action.

Now at the end of multiple successful international tournaments and Online Worlds, the resolve of Team Sri Lanka remains strong and unbroken, because despite a Grand Finals finish- the job is still not done. Team Sri Lanka now prepares to come back stronger- to train, learn and eliminate weaknesses- to someday hear a Tournament Convenor read that Sri Lanka has claimed the World’s School Championship. This year is exceptional and the strongest performance of a Team in Sri Lankan history by far – But this may just be the beginning of something greater, and that is what Team, Coaches and community strive for.