Sports - Malik will not ‘walk away’ from Royal rugby

One of Sri Lanka's major rugby promoters in recent times, Malik Samarawickrama may have decided to call it a day, but he will not walk away from supporting his old school, said Royal College Rugby Committee Chairman C.R. "Bulla" de Silva this week. Reacting to last week's The Sunday Times news item which said that Mr. Samarawickrama would no longer be in the thick of rugby promotion, Mr. de Silva, the country's Solicitor General said that his one-time team mate would continue to play a pivotal role " from the base of the scrum " in helping his alma mater.

Mr. Samarawickrama was the scrum-half in the Royal College XV that was captained in 1968 by Mr. de Silva. He is credited for raising the standard of rugby among Kandy clubs during the past two and a half decades, which gave a boost to school rugby in the hill capital, and saw the emergence of Kandy Sports Club as a champion club side feeding the national team, and witnessed the rise of rugby standards at Kingswood, Dharmarajah and Vidyartha in addition to the older rugby playing schools like Trinity and St. Anthony's.Mr. de Silva told The Sunday Times that Mr. Samarawickrama continues to support Royal, which having been a champion side for four years, was relegated to Division 2 after a horrible season last year.

Mr. Samarawickrama spends over a million rupees each year on Royal rugby, especially in contracting a foreign coach to train the team. He played for the CR & FC and Sri Lanka after leaving school.

He has now created a Trust that will ensure rugby promotion work he began 25 years ago at club level would continue, but will not have a direct hand in promotional work other than in assisting Royal College, Mr. de Silva said.