Kodituwakku going great guns in Melbourne

Hafiz Marikar

A product of Vidyartha College Saman Kodituwakku was the first Sri Lankan to take up the position as Registrar cum Team Manager of the Melbourne University Rugby Football Club. According to the standards over there it is considered a very high position within the sports bodies in Australia.

Saman played for Vidyartha College in 1987 and '88, but during these two years Vidyartha College could not achieve much in rugby due to the insurgency. Saman while at school in 1986 as a weightlifter broke the junior national record.

In 1992 inter club rugby season Saman turned out for Kandy Sports Club as a flanker and it was in 1992 that Kandy Sports Club won the first ever title in rugby. In the following year he played for the Kandy Sports Club "Lions".

Employment

From Kandy he came over to Colombo for employment. While working at Pure Beverages and later at Hayleys Group he played for the CR & FC "Bees" in 1996.

In 1999 he migrated to Australia and settled down in Melbourne and played for Melbourne University Rugby Football Club, Victoria's premier Rugby Union Club with over 110 years of history in the field of rugby.

In 2007 and 2008 he had to stay off the game due to a knee injury.

In 2009 Saman became the Manager of the Melbourne University Rugby Football Club, and in the following year he was invited to serve in the Committe. He thus became the first overseas member to take up a post in the committee in its history.

In 2011 too he continued to be in the committee and this year (2012) he has been invited to serve in the committee once again with a additional post as Registrar.

He also took up refereing and became an assistant referee in Victoria Rugby Union in 2010.

In the same year he became an Australian Rugby Union recognized junior coach. Saman is a member of the Australian Defence Force (Army) since 2008, and is currently pursuing a Bachelor's Degree of Arts/Criminal Justice at the Victoria University under the defence graduate programme.

Proud record

In the field of sports Kandy has established a proud record of producing some of the top most sports people in Sri Lanka in a wide range of sports such as rugby, cricket, football, swimming, hockey, athletics, table tennis, lawn tennis, boxing, swimming, basketball, iron sport, golf and even baseball, which has only been introduced into Kandy recently.

Kandy has produced national captains in football, cricket, rugby, hockey, and athletics.

Unlike the rest of the country, rugby is the most popular sport in the region. This is because of, Kandy Sports Club being the reigning Club Rugby Champions in the national league and the knockouts for almost over a decade and half, - (League 15 times in 19 outings in a row - 19 times 20 outings in a row).

The Singer Sri Lankan Airlines Rugby 7's tournament was an annual international event attracting nations from all over the world for ten long years. Sad to say this tournament is no more. Rugby has boosted the sport in every corner of the city with all schools taking up to the game.

Trinity, Kingswood, St. Anthony's, Dharmaraja, St. Sylvester's, Sri Sumangala, Sri Rahula, and Vidyartha hold top positions in the country. Today Kandy has the best rugby grounds in the country, that is the Nittawella rugby stadium, which caters for every school in the region.

KSC AGM

Few days back, Kandy Sports Club had their annual general meeting and, once again Dr. S Kapuwatte was elected president for the good work he has done from the day he took membership at the Nittawella club in 1988.

Malik Samarawickrema the king maker of the sport, Hemaka Amarasuriya and Dr. S Kapuwatte are the Trustees with D Madugalle as the Patron.

Senior Vice President is E Van der Poorten with Hafiz Marikar and L De Zoysa as Vice Presidents. N. Ratwatte is the new secretary with R. Gooneratne as Treasurer.

Ground secretary N Gunasekara, Pavilion Secretary U Balasuriya, Games captain (P & T) S Wijasinghe.

Committee is made out of L Wijasuriya, H Yatawara, R Daulagala, S Tennakoon, A Ranasinghe, C Rajakaruna, R Ratwatte, M M Jiffry, J.B.Attanayake, A Nanayakkara. Rugby Committee - L Wijasuriya Chairman), Coach John Taylor, Kapila Silva and N Jamaldeen, SLRFU Representative S Siddik, and CPRFU Representative H Yatawara, Lionel de Silva is the Administrative Secretary, and Chandra Liyanage Assistant Administrative Secretary.

First class

Cricket is widely played in Kandy with the city having three first class teams Kandy Cricket Club, Kandy Youth Club and Saracens Cricket Club. Kandy is host to the Sri Lanka nationals cricket team with two Test status grounds, Asgiriya International Stadium and the newly built state-of-the-art Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.

Both stadiums have held World Cup matches. Trinity last years league champions are the top followed by St .Sylvester's, Vidyartha, Sri Sumangala, St. Anthony's, Dharmaraja , Sri Rahula and Kingswood.

Sports such as hockey at school and club level is in healthy state. With most of the schools, especially girls' schools dominating the game. Kandy District Hockey Association is quite active and taking the game to a higher level in the district.

The first ever hockey tournament called the P T Rjan Trophy is back again after many years from February. Boxing is also at its best with schools like St .Sylvester's, Dharmaraja, Kingswood, Vidyartha, Peradeniya, Sarasavi Uyana, Trinity giving of their best.

New leadership

Once again Kandy YMCA is all out to give a fillip for boxing. Volleyball the national sport of Sri Lanka under the new leadership from Kandy's new boss Dilum Amunugama MP is picking up, and football, though it is the common man's game, but sad to say it is now not what it was taken a back seat.

Billiards and snooker have hardly anyone playing it. However basketball, table tennis, lawn tennis, badminton and even swimming are popular due to the high participation of students and schools.

Although Kandy has several sports bodies they need to get actively involved at the highest levels. Kandy's urgent need is proper ground facilities. During the time when the Bogambara Stadium was under the Municipal Council, these three sports flourished in Kandy.

The sporting fraternity of Kandy appeal to the Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage who is doing a great job, to give a push to sports in Kandy, with proper people involved.