P. D. Sirisena “MASTER” , former national player and coach is no more. He passed away on Monday morning after a brief illness and his funeral arrangements have not been finalised. He was also one time Director, Technical of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka He was one of the most outstanding footballers that Sri Lanka has produced. late President Ranasinghe Premadasa named a ground in his honour- P. D. Sirisena playground in Maligawatte. He was a bright star in the game from 1960 to 1972. As a striker his dribbling where he beat several defenders to hit the net was a thing of beauty.He retired and took up to coaching. For nearly three decades,‘Sira’ has produced several top footballers.
Sirisena was capped for Ceylon 35 times in seven years, He skippered the country seven times, played overseas ten times and was invited to play for a continental club AVC Heracles of Holland in ‘A’ division league championships in Holland and also for their European Cup team. He was the first Ceylonese player to play in competitive soccer in the continent.
He was a product of playground movement. He started playing for Price Park from his younger days. Then at Central College, Maradana he represented the school for six years and captained the side. He also played for Bank of Ceylon, Saunders SC and Sri Lanka. He lived close to Price Park the home of Saunders SC . In 1956 as a schoolboy he first played for Saunders SC. In the 1960 CFA Cup tournament, Sirisena scored a total of 24 goals in 6 games. In the Gold Cup semi-final against Colpetty United in 1960 he set up a record netting all five goals. Saunders SC beat Colpetty United 5-4.
He had the distinction of being capped for Ceylon in 1960, as a schoolboy against Zenith FC from Russia at the Government Services Sports Club grounds at Parsons Road. Despite losing 2-5 Sirisena came off with top performances with his dribbling skills and both goals were scored through his clever passes. Both goals were struck by skipper Peter Ranasinghe a soccerite par excellence. Some of the players who played with Sirisena were Peter Ranasinghe, Mahinda Aluvihare, Lionel Peiris, Edward Wickremasooriya, Hashim Deen, M. A. Ameer, M. Zainulabdeen, K. A. Premadasa, T. J. Azeez and Basheer Ahmed.
Sirisena first started working at the Colombo Municipality as a Playground Instructor in 1961-1962, then at Bank of Ceylon from 1963 to 1976.
Sirisena was recently featured in ‘Sports Legends’ in the ‘Daily News’. ‘Football in Sri Lanka will never see the likes of him’, said former football boss Manilal Fernando during whose tenure Sirisena showed his excellence.
0 comments:
Post a Comment