Tikiri Kobbekaduwa - all-round sportsman in young days

by Upananda JAYASUNDERA - Kandy Sports Special Corr

A SPORTING GOVERNOR... The name Tikiri Kobbekaduwa sounds a bell in most sportsmen's minds in the Kandy District. He has been associated with sports at Trinity College, Kandy and St. Sylvester's College, Kandy in no uncertain manner to give the necessary push for them to gain success.

Before becoming the Governor of Central Province, he and his primary education at Trinity College, Kandy where he played cricket in the junior grades that's under-11, 12 and 14 teams which ultimately took him to the under-16 and ultimately to the first eleven team. However, in the First Eleven Team, but his stay in the First Eleven Team was short lived as studies came his way.

The first eleven team when he was there was led by Rohan Perera and some of the names that come in a flash to mind are Roland Perera, Jayantha Keragala and Duncan Vandort.

Kobbekaduwa signed on with St. Sylvester's College in 1974 for his higher studies, but also played cricket in between.

He played for St. Sylvester's under Ishak Sahabdeen. Some of the names that come in a flash to mind who played with Kobbekaduwa were Roland Perera, Jayantha Keragala and Duncan Vandort. Came his second year with St. Sylvester's and he was in full flow playing under Duncan Vandort. He scored three centuries including a century in the 'Big Match' against Vidyartha - 111.

The other two centuries were against Kingswood (128) and against St. Thomas' Matale (108). He scored over 800 runs in that particular year to become on the leading batsmen among the schools.

He sought employment in the mercantile sector and got into Lever Brothers and was promoted to the rank of Marketing Manager and he was a senior hand as he had worked for 15 years. He then joined Reckitts as a Director, Marketing sector and also served at a certain time as a Director of Lake House Group of Newspapers.

Around this time, politics caught his fancy. However, his first attempt at politics was not successful. However, he came into the Municipal Council and then became the Governor of Central Province in 2005. He was sworn in as Governor of Central Province for the second term on 16th December, 2010.