Former President J.R.. Jayewardene was remembered by Kandy’s sports loving fraternity on his 114th birth anniversary on September17 . He died 24 years ago on November 1,1996.
JR received his primary education at Bishop’s College,Colombo and later attended Royal College, Colombo for his secondary education excelling in studies, sports and extra curricular activities. He was the first secretary of the Royal College Social Services League in 1921 and he became the head prefect in 1925 and also represented the school in football and boxing in addition to rugger and cricket. He was also a member of the cadet corps.
JR as he was popularly known took both victory and defeat as a schoolboy in the same spirit. At Royal College he played cricket,debuting in the Royal-Thomian “Battle of the Blues” series in 1925. In that encounter although JR was dismissed for a duck he held the catch that brought victory to Royal. Some of his team mates at cricket were L. D. S. (Chippie)Gunasekera, H. E. Wijetunge, Douglas. Lieversz, D. C. L. Perera, H. C.Dharmaratne, Henry Meedeniya, R L. and W. Goonewardene and W. Ludovici. He also played cricket for Law College and for SSC. He captained the rugby team in 1924 in the annual Royal-Trinity encounter (which later became known as the Bradby Shield). That year although Royal had a good side they lost to Trinity led by P.A. Buultjens - by 3-37 at Bogambara. (the 37 points came off 2 goals and 9tries) to 3 points one try scored by Douglas Lieversz the first try by a Royalist against Trinity. JR was a fine line-out jumper and played in the company of V.C. Bartholomuesz, W.L. Siebel, R.F.C. Schrader, E. D. de Silva,E.F. Don, C.D.R. Bastian, K.S. Surendranath, V.E. Jayasundara, C.G.A. Perera,P.C.W. Peiris, Neil. Joseph, Douglas. Lieversz F.S. de Silva and L.D.S.Gunasekara.
In football, JR was the team’s vice captain and played as centre half, and was famous for long range kicks. He was also a fine pugilist and boxed for Royal along with his friend Dr. Colvin R de Silva, For a short time he played tennis and till his demise was the president of SSC from 1980. Trinitians were led byP.A. Buultjens and had D.Wyse, D. Perera, C.D. Buultjens, M.Than On, C. Bandaranaike,E. Aluwihare, N. Nagendran, C. Kishan Koli, F. Murray, G. Taylor, G.Bandaranaike, N.H. Perera, Yan Lin and L. Lindsay..
JR gave cricket a prominent place and went on to become the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka. When Sri Lanka gained Test status in 1981, he was the head of the country. He was present at Sri Lanka’s first test victory against India in 1985 and also when we won the Asia cup. .
It was during his leadership that the work at Asgiriya Stadium was done. He was the chief guest at the ceremonial opening of the stadium and when the Sugathadasa Indoor and Outdoor Stadiums were renovated and, R. Premadasa Stadium was built by late President R. Premadasa. When the indoor nets was opened in 1983 JR bowled his “leg spin” and “googlies” to mark the occasion .
As a keen ruggerite and cricketer he often visited Kandy to play against Trinity College from 1914 to 1925. . In 1997 October 26 the J R Jayewardene memorial trophy was donated for the cricket game between the two top cricket playing clubs SSC and NCC.
Although JR is no more his memory will remain forever in the minds of all those who knew him.
