Lakshman Kadirgamar – A great sportsman
Without any doubt late Lakshman Kadirgamar, who left us nine years ago (11 August 2005), was one of the finest sports personalities produced by Trinity College Kandy. In addition to his sports career he was also a very good allround student who maintained his studies at top level. He was awarded with the Ryde-Gold-Medal (Best Allround Student).
He was seen at Trinity during most of the functions whenever he was invited with great pride. This brought lot of inspiration to the younger generations that followed him with his excellent leadership qualities.
Kadiragamar represented Trinity at the First XI cricket team from 1948 to 1950, captaining in his last year and winning the cricket colours. Kadirgamar was awarded with colours in Rugby in 1949. He played along some top names such as Dennis Ratwatte, Eustace Rulach, Maurice Hemon, Rod Tucker, Kamaleshan Arumugam, Rizvi Mohamed and late Berty Dias just to mention few of them. He represented his alma-mater at Bradby Shield encounters in 1948 and 1949.
However athletics was his main forte. He won the Public Schools Championship with a record timing of 15.7 seconds. In 1949 he was awarded the ‘Trinity Lion’. When the ‘Duncan White Challenge Cup’ was awarded in 1949 for the first time, it was Kadirgamar who won it. He also won the ‘De Soysa Challenge Cup’ the same year. His loss is a major blow for the country and will be remembered for long years to come.