Family ties took Kandy Sports Club far in Rugby

by Hafiz Marikar

In history of Kandy Sports Club rugby it was only Iswan Omar and Harris Omar, the father and son combination who led the club at rugby. Both hail from a sporting family. Iswan's father A.H.K. Omar was a fine cricketer and led St. Anthony's College in 1928 and later played for Kandy Sports Club and Central Province, he was a fine all-rounder, a medium pace bowler and a hard-hitting batsman. While fielding he was a superb cover point fielder.

Iswan started his rugby at Trinity College under the guidance of Hilary Abeyartne and first played for the under 15 side as a prop forward and as a second-row forward for the under 17. He then played till 1979 for the senior team, in the first two years under Iswan Omar and in his last year under Shafie Jainudeen and he was the deputy.

For the senior side he stated off as a 'prop' and later played as a third-row forward.

Some of his teammates were Ajith Abeyartne - a classy player and was a good leader, Shafie Jainudeen - one of the finest fullbacks at that time, and the man who joins the line and makes the overlap, J.K. Furlong, Irwin Howie, Gamini Udugama - a fine third row forward, Mohan Balasuriya, Anura S.B. Madawela, Mohan Samarakoon, Tikiri Kobbekaduwa, Y.S. Ping, Sam Samarasekara, B. Shanhi Kumar, N.T.B. Dissanayake, H. Afeef.

Iswan was awarded colours in 1967 and the Lion in 1969.

As a schoolboy in 1969 along with Shafie Jainudeen and Fredrick Prins, Iswan was invited to play for the Kandy Sports Club in the Clifford Cup knock-out that year. The Kandy Club entered the final after 25 years, the year Gen. Denzil Kobbekkduwa led the side at that time.

That year Kandy Sports Club beat Havelock SC in the Quarters, CH & FC in the Semis and lost to CR and FC in the final. He also played for the Combined School team.

Played for KFC first

He first played rugger for Kandy Lake Club and later for Kandy RFC. In 1974 joined Kandy Sports Club when the Kandy Sports Club amalgamated with Kandy Football Club.

In 1975 Iswan got the break and led the Kandy Sports Club side that was under the Presidency of late E.W. Balasuriya.

The Kandy side entered the Clifford Cup semi-finals and lost to Air Force SC during extra-time.Some of the players in the squad were: Sunil Munasinghe, H.G. Ariyartne, D.H. Rajaguru, Nimal Malagamuwa, Jadi Dissanayake, Christoper Anderson, Ashad Dole, Irwin Howie, Sam Samarasekara, Bola Gunarthne, Sunil Serasinghe, are some of the names that came to my mind. Iswan was a fine player and a good leader, where he led the side from the front.He was in the 1974 Sri Lanka pool, and was a good choice, but had to pull out due to his long standing knee-injury that injury put a halt to his rugby at national level. From Kandy Sports Club he took over planting and joined Uva Gymkhana Club, Dimbulla ACC and Dickoya MCC also played and for the Up Country team.

After chucking up planting, he came to Kandy Sports Club and became a committee member, later Secretary and was the Chief of the Singer-SriLankan Airlines International Rugby Sevens for ten long years.

Later he became the Secretary of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union.

Father and son played for Trinity

Harris Omar like his father played for Trinity College first. He started as a scrum-half in the under 17 side under the guidance of Janaka Kiridena and Lohan Rawatte.

While playing for the under 17, he was invited to play for the senior team as a third-row forward and ended up as 'Number eight' and led the side in his last year.

He enjoyed playing rugby at Trinity, he led the side to win the 'Bradby'. He had the rare privilege of leading the Sri Lanka under 19 team and later the under 21 team. While at school, he played for Kandy Sports Club and was one of the finest third-row forwards.

He led the Kandy Sports Club team in 1999. It was under his leadership and Priyantha Ekanayake's coaching that they won the Inter-Club sevens for the fist time.

The Club continue to win the triple by winning the League, and the Clifford Cup knock-out.

Harris Omar also led the Sri Lanka team at the Asiad.

After he led the Sri Lanka team, he hung up his boots and went on for higher studies. He was also one time Ex-Co-member of the SLRFU and now works for MAS Holdings. He has left the country and works for same company in a different country.

Who will be the next father and son to captain Kandy Sports Club?