Srilanka, Sept. 27 -- The Stubbs Shield, once the blue riband of schoolboy boxing in Sri Lanka, has been reduced to a footnote in the very competition it gave birth to more than a century ago. What was inaugurated in 1914 by then British Colonial Secretary Sir RE Stubbs, who rendered yeoman service to the sport by gifting the Shield for annual inter-school competition, now finds itself lost in the shadows of bureaucracy and neglect.

Since the 1990s, the coveted Shield has been conducted as part of the All-Island National School Games (NSG).

The recently concluded 106th edition offered a glaring indictment of how far the event has fallen. Neither the official programme nor even the certificates awarded to winners bore mention of the fac...