CIIC: Could I ask that have you been listed as the tournament seeds?
M: I can’t play the team, because we don’t have a team, we need at least two players to make a team. Our embassy is very small, we only have two people, so we cannot form a team, but I will play at the individual category.
CIIC: Among all the foreign diplomats, I think you would be the best one.
M: I don’t know, because I don’t know all of them, so we have to wait until the tournament over. I think the most important thing is the participation of all the diplomats and generally to have a good time, to know each other and to enjoy the sport no matter at what level they play. I am very convinced that the players would be at all kinds of levels, and at each level, they would find a partner. That would be very interesting, and that’s what we’re looking for.
CIIC: I agree, well, Ambassador, are you interested in other kind of sports?
M: I tries to play other sports as time allows me, we play cricket here in China, which is also very interesting. Because the cricket has still not developed to the level as in other parts of world. But I know there are a lot of work has done by Chinese Crickets Association to develop cricket in China. At the moment, we have the Beijing Cricket Club, this is formed by a group of foreigners living here since 2005, and now the club has grown, we have 14 teams, and we play League through out the year, every Sunday, we have a match, there are many players from India, Sri Lank, UK, Australia. These countries play cricket and the people expect to work here. So I play crickets during weekends.
CIIC: Beijing Olympics is approaching fast, do you have expectations for the games?
M: Beijing Olympics, I’m sure, would be the best games so far. I’m saying this because I have seen the preparations of the games. I have attended many Good Luck Beijing sports events that have preceded the Beijing Olympics, like basketball, volleyball swimming etc. we have also went to see a football match between China and Japan, which is also very interesting, although not related to the Olympics. Look all those things around you, you would believe the Beijing Olympics will be a great success. For Maldives, we would participate the Olympics, we have done this in the past as well. Although we are a very small country and not reached into any level that wins many medals, but we would participate in swimming and athletics which are the two sports we could participate without qualifying. To qualify is very difficult for a small country, so these are the two programs we usually participate, we hope that they can perform well. In most cases, they always improve on their national records, which is also an achievement if you look at that way when they participate the international events. Unfortunately we are not able to participate other sports. In football, we have very good progress now. Last night we reached the final of south-Asian Football Federation Games, after a match with Sril Lank, we won Sri Lank at 1-0, therefore, now we are at finals, playing with India, this is very important tournament for us, which includes all 8 countries in south Asia, like India, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan etc. we are very happy, and the whole country is celebrating since last night, but we still have a big match to win to become the champions, we lost to India 1-0, but it’s very close, so we still have a good chance to win them and to get the champion. There is always a chance.
CIIC: I wish you can win the game.
M: Thanks.