Mahanama College, Colombo is a leading school which has contributed immensely both in the field of education and sports towards the betterment of the country. But when it comes to the game of rugby they have unearthed a handful of players who put up a profound performance with their ‘Alma Mater’ later putting out some belligerent performances at club and at National level. Nalin Sanjeewa Dissanayake was one of them who made his school proud by donning the National jersey bringing honour and fame to his school.
Nalin was known as ‘Nalla’ in the sporting arena and was born in 1972. He was a sports enthusiast from his younger days and had a determination of becoming a phenomenal sportsman. He completed his eventful academic career with Mahanama College, Colombo, who were not listed in the domestic school rugby arena till 1990. Subsequently, they got the nod to enter the local school rugby competition where they were slated to play in the ‘B’ Division League. Eventually, Mahanama became the runners up in the league tournament in 1990, where one of the significant events in that tournament was the win they notched up against ‘A’ division team Thurstan in a friendly encounter same year, which was the morale booster for them and paved the way to surge ahead in search of a promotion. As a fly half Nalin scored over 80 points during that season in 1990. In 1991, Mahanama College team emerged as the unbeaten champs in the ‘B’ division School League and were invited to play in the President’s Trophy quarter finals against Royal College. Mahanama playing as underdogs won against Royal in extra time through a penalty conversion fired by him. They ended up by reaching the semi-finals of that tournament which was a highly commendable performance. They also participated in the under-19 sevens tournament and entered the semi finals in 1991, where Nalin was instrumental in scoring over 125 points in that school season. He captained in all age groups and started playing for the school under-19 team when he was only 15 years old as a scrum half.
After an illustrious school career, he intended to continue his club career which started in 1992 by playing for Petersons Sports Club. During the same year, he was selected to play as a full back against the league champions CH and FC versus the rest of the team players. The following year, under the captaincy of Hisham Abdeen and ably coached by Tony Amit, he wore the CH jersey . That CH team ended up as ‘Triple Champions’ both in the 1993 and 1994 seasons He played along with Nishantha Dias and Sudesh Abeysinghe at CH in the 1994 and 1995 seasons. He was the last man in defence line occupying the full back berth for three years with the Gymkhana Club. He was fortunate to play with some great foreign players like Apisi Nagata, Manasa Qoro, Ilatia Ravouvou and cracking local players such as Hisham Abdeen, Nishantha Dias, Chandrishan Perera, Sudesh Abeysinghe, Rohan Abeykoon and Chanka Jayaweera few to be named. The bond among the players enabled them to go solo to remain as the top team in the fray during an era where almost all teams consisted of top class players.
In 1996, under the captaincy of Imthi Marikkar and under the coaching of retired senior DIG Nimal Lewke, he shifted to the hill capital to play for Kandy. During his tenure between 1996 and 1998, Kandy won five major trophies and the team remained unbeaten in 1997 under the captaincy of Lasantha Wijesuriya. In 1999, he swapped clubs again and came back to Colombo to play for Havelocks under the coaching of Ana Saranapala. But after a short stint there, he rejoined his former club CH in 2000 where he played a key role to win the League Trophy under the captaincy of Nazeem Mohamed. He continued playing for CH till 2004 before, he intended to prioritize his professional career foreseeing the future.
He wore the National jersey for the first time in 1993 to represent the country in Singapore Sevens and followed by the Hong Kong Sevens during the same year. He represented the Sri Lanka National team in both Sevens and XV-a-side formats. In sevens, he represented the country in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Taipei and Al-Ain Sevens during the period 1993 to 1999 . He also represented the National team in many XV-a-side International Tournaments such as Rugby Asiad 1994, 1996 and 1998, the Quadrangular trophy in 1997 (SL won that tournament), the World Cup Qualifying Games and the Asian Games . During his tenure with the National XV-a-side team, he played against teams from Fiji, Wales, Taipei and Australia. His entire National sevens and XV’s career was between 1993 to 2000 and played in several positions such as Fly Half, Centre and Full back. He was fortunate to play with many great and talented rugby players in Sri Lanka and coached by some great coaches as well. The exposure, learning, contribution, sportsmanship and teamwork were the highlights that he had gathered during his entire rugby career.
He chose his profession as a banker, and started his career at HNB in 1992. The Bank supported his entire rugby career while he was playing for the bank, Club and the National team. HNB had a fantastic Sevens team and won the Mercantile Sevens trophy on eight occasions between 1992 and 2003. After prioritizing him to the professional career in 2004, he ended up gathering momentum and enjoyed higher responsibilities as a payment card industry professional in the bank.
Currently he works for Visa Worldwide Singapore (Pvt) Ltd in the capacity of Director to lead Merchant Acquiring Business for Sri Lanka and Maldives. He holds a MBA as professional qualification. His wife is Aruni who stood by him as a pillar of strength and the two children are Bhumindra (23) and Sneha (17) years.
0 comments:
Post a Comment