Today 1st of November 2018, is the 22nd death anniversary of that popular sportsman, politician and sports promoter J. R. Jayewardene. He was born on September 17, 1906 and passed away on November 1, 1996.
The former President was a great lover of sports. Every single sportsman in Sri Lanka, be it young or old as well as thousands of sports fans and fanatics will remember this great Sri Lankan. Born to a prominent Ceylonese family with a strong association with the legal profession, JR was the eldest of 11 children. His uncles were Colonel Theodore Jayewardene, Justice Valentine Jayewardene and the press baron D. R. Wijewardene.
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 extracurricular 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 rugger, football and boxing in addition to cricket. He was also a member of the cadet corps. He later served as secretary of the Royal College Union.
He was a versatile sportsman, sports benefactor, philanthropist and gentleman. JR as he was popularly known tasted both victory and defeat as a schoolboy in the same spirit. He played for Royal in 1925 and was a member of the Royal College team in the Battle of the Blues. In that encounter although JR was dismissed for a duck he held the catch that brought victory to Royal. He also played cricket for Law College and SSC.
As a keen ruggerite and cricketer he often visited Kandy to play against Trinity College in the 1920’s. JR’s name was extremely popular among the Royalists not because he participated in a numerous sports disciplines but for his outstanding contributions.
He led the Royal College rugby team in 1924. That year although Royal had a good side they lost to Trinity led by P.A. Buultjens by 3-37 at Bogambara. (37 points came off 2 goals and 9 tries) to 3 points (one try scored by D.W.L. Lieversz (Snr), the first try by a Royalist against Trinity). JR was a fine line-out jumper and played in the company of V.C. Bartholomeusz, 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, N.S. Joseph, D.W.L. Lieversz (Snr), F.S. de Silva and L.D.S. Gunasekara.
Trinitians were led by P.A. Buultjens and comprised 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. This game was refereed by T.A. Dunstan. Interestingly, during this period Trinity had a number of foreign students in their rugby team from England, France, Uganda, Burma and China.
JR was also a good footballer and played as centre-half, and was the vice captain of the Royal College team. Later he played for clubs in Colombo with the CH&FC being his favorite club in football. He was also a pugilist and boxed for Royal along with his erstwhile friend the late Dr. Colvin R. de Silva. For a while he also played tennis.
J.R. Jayewardene always gave a big hand for sports. His pet sport was cricket and he gave the game a prominent place and went on to become one of the most honored presidents of the Cricket Board. The late JR was the president of the SSC till his demise.
It was during his leadership as the President of Sri Lanka that the country gained Test status, and also won the First Test beating India in 1985 and also won the Asia Cup.
Although J.R. Jayewardene is no more his memory will remain forever in the minds of all those who knew his qualities.
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