Senarath Alwis was an outstanding cricketer who played for Dharmaraja College and later for Panadura SC in Sara Trophy Cricket, but his fond memories in sport are mostly associated with rugby at University of Colombo. He was the Physical Education Instructor of the University of Ceylon, Colombo. What is remarkable about Senarath, he was innovative and inventive. Games and sports are primarily physical achievement. But, he added various dimensions to his personality by going beyond sports. He was an able sports administrator, coach cum teacher, a man of sports literature and a commentator.
This old Rajan is a rare character. There are sportsmen who excelled in one or two disciplines. He is a sportsmen who went beyond that. He played cricket, rugby, Football, hockey, athletics, badminton and basketball, today people of his calibre are rare. Senarath was born in the year 1951 and entered Dharmaraja College. While at school he gave his best for sports. He first played cricket for the under 14, 16, 2nd XI and later the senior side, where he gave his best and was the vice captain of the side in 1971. In cricket he was a fine player, a dashing batsman with an array of strokes. One of his best performance was the fourth wicket stand of 257 with Janaka Bandara Tennekoon, Senarath was able to score 174, and Janaka Bandara Tennekoon batted well to score 78, This was in the game with Dharmapala College, Pannipitiya. From 1972-1975, Senarath Alwis played club cricket. Started with Kandy Cricket Club, later played for Catamaran CC and played in Sara trophy for Panadura Sports Club.
In1974, Senarath Alwis joined the Sports Ministry as a sports officer. He served as a sports officer at Pelmadulla, Mahiyangana and Kalawana. He was one of the finest sportsmen and promoter. He gave a big hand for cricket in Ratnapura.He got the break to lead the Ratnapura cricket team in 1978.
AS a sports officer, he did his best and had the proud opportunity of captaining the Sports ministry cricket team in the State Services Division One Tournament. He also played for State Services team in the famous Robert Senanayake Tournament. After a good innings at the sports ministry, he left and joined the Mahaweli Economic Agency in Thambuttegama as a sports officer.
Late in 1986 he crossed over to Colombo University as an Instructor in Physical Education. That year he led the University Colombo Staff cricket team and was able to score the fastest century against Customs Department.
Then went as coach cum team manager of the Combined University cricket tour, which came after 29 years,during Alwis’ tenure of office as the Physical Training Instructor.
For this tour, he was selected as the manager cum coach. Then from 1987 to 1997 he coached the Royal College under 13, 15 and 17 teams. From 2000 to 2002 he coached the Bangladesh junior cricket team.
At that time coaches like Malcolm Perera, Carlton Bernadus and Sumithra Warnakulasuriya too were there as coaches. He gave a hand for rugby too, when Dharmaraja College took up rugby in 1971, he was in that team and did his best.
From1982-1984, Senarath Alwis played for Uva Gymkhana Club. In 1978,he was able to introduce rugby to Pelmadulla Central, Balangoda in the Ratnapura district.
He was the team Manager of the University of Ceylon Rugby Football Team in 1992, which annexed the Gymkhana Centenary Cup7’s International Tournament. In 1996, he was the Manager of the Sri Lanka Under-19 Rugby Team for the second under-19 Rugby Asiad held in Hong Kong.
He participated at the International Olympic Academy, 29th Session in Athens,Greece as a representative of Sri Lanka. As a sports administrator, he was an executive member of Sri Lanka Cricket as well as, a council member of Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union from 1987-1997, which is a unique achievement for any sports administrator. \
He translated and printed the rugby rules in Sinhala to help the players and also became the first Sinhala rugby commentator.
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