Mohan Sahayam - a great rugby player excelled at cricket and athletics too

by Hafiz Marikar

Mohan Sahayam was a doyen of Trinity College Rugby, Cricket and Athletics, where he excelled in all three sports and had the privilege of leading the rugger team in 1964. He was famously known for his dummies and most of the time he sold these dummies like he was selling 'Kadala.' He would smile whilst drawing a sale and on a few occasions he sold dummies even to spectators. He can be rated as the best dummy presenter.

He first played for Trinity College in 1962 under N.T.E. Brohier. That year, Royal won the first leg at Longden Place 5-0, and the second leg was won by Trinity 9-0 at Bogambara.

In 1963, he played under B.D.A. Piyasena, first leg in Kandy ended in a six-all draw and the second leg Trinity won 5-3.

In 1964, Mohan led the Trinity side, and some of the players in his team were Gotabaya Dissanayake, B.D.G. Piyasena, J.T. Labrooy, M.T.M. Zarook, George Carson, C.S. Jayasinghe, N.V. Perera, Sam Canagasabi, Ifthikar Hamnid, Gavin Rodie, Darthusena Senanayake.

That year Royal were led by K.D.T. Paul and the team was made out of K.S.D.S. Vidanage, N.B.L. Lieversz, I.R. Thuriratnam, D.W. Goonawardene, N.M. Jaimon, R.T. de Soysa, S. Jayadevas, A.L. Dissanayake, L.K.L. Hettiarachchi, L.R. Perera, L. de Chickera, G. Tillekarathne, S.N.L. Wadugodapitiya, U.P. Wickramasinghe. There was hardly a game in which he did not score. Even his rival captain in the Bradby of 1964, Keith Paul told his coach, Mahes Rodrigo, "we will win, but Mohan Sahayam will score." In that year, the first leg was played at Longden Place - Trinity 0, Royal 3 (Referee) Percy Perera. Then the second leg was played at Nittawela, refereed by Dr. C.O. Foenander - Trinity 6 Royal 14 - Bradby Shield awarded to Royal.

Mohan won his rugby colours in 1962 along with R.G. Geddes, L. Karunatilake, A.R.P. Kehelpanala, B.D.A. Piyasena and the 'Lion' came Sahayam in 1963.

Sahayam played cricket in 1963, under the captaincy of Sunil Perera. That year, he played three games including the "big match" in the big match he scored 21 and 3. Then in '1964, he played a full season under M.T.M. Zarook and his teammates were S. Galgama, Eardley Wadugodapitiya, Harindra Dunuwille, Anil Ratwatte, Hemendra Ranaweera, David Ondatje, Brian Munaweera, Glen Vanlangenberge, I.R. Hamid, A.H. Jayawaradene, T. Disanayake, G. Rodie.

He was a hard-hitting left hand batsman. In 1964 when Trinity were struggling at 99 for 6 against St. Josephs' at Asgiriya, it was Mohan Sahayam who hit a hard hit 51 runs and helped the side to recover and Trinity went on score 190 runs. The Josephians in reply were all-out for 146 and Trinity in their second innings declared at 169 for 7. Mohan Sahayam made another good score 33 and the Josephians were all out for 161 and Trinity won by 52 runs.

At the end of the season, he was awarded colours along with R.B.J. Munaweera, D.C. Ondatje, Hemendra Ranaweera, Anil Ratwatte and Geln Vanlangenberg.

In athletics Mohan was in the 400 metres relay team with Gotabaya Dissanayake, M. S. Jayasinghe and Sarath Weerasinghe.

He won the A.H.R. Joseph Challenge Cup in all round excellence in games in 1964 and in the same year he was a School Prefect with G.T. Garson, W.F. Furlong, C.S. Jayasinghe, J.T. Labrooy, D. Periyasamy, R.T. Siriwardene, E.K.B. Wadugodapitiya, A.C.S. Walgampaya and M.T.M. Zarook.

Having won the 'Bradby' in his first two years, he was surprised that Trinity lost in the year of his captaincy, even with thorough breds like M.T.M. Zarook, Sam Canagasabai, Gotabaya Dissanayake, Brian Munaweera, Henry Dullewa, Gavin Rodie, Marlin Goonetilleke, Eardley Wadugodapitiya, I. R. Hamid, B.K. Jeerasinghe and C.S. Jayasinghe.

But Sahayam conceded that Royal had trump cards in Lucky Dissanayake's boots, the straight running of Brian Lieversz, the high scaling Lakshman de Chickera, the fearsome flankers Keith Paul and L.K.L. Hettiarachchi, Brian Baptist and U.P. Wickramasinghe.

Straight from school he joined CR & FC and played for a long spell and led the side in 1969, the year Kandy Sports Club led by Denzil Kobbekaduwa entered the cup final after 14 long years and this match went in favour of CR & FC. He also played for Colombo Clubs and Sri Lanka as a top fly half.

The 1969 CR & FC team which won the Clifford Cup by beating Kandy Sports Club were made out of Hadji Omar, 'Bumpy' Jayasekara, Dushantha Samarasekera, Junie Cader, Kamala Ratnapala, Indragith Coomaraswamy, Ajit Abeyratne, Tony de Siyva, Tony Srimanne and Mohan Sahayam (Capt), Ronie Schokman, Hasitha Kannangara, Regie Batholomeusz, Hamzi Hameed, Iqbal Jumar.

Kandy Sports Club team was from Y.C. Chang, Mohan Balasuriya, G. Sevens, Rohan Abeyasundara, Dr. D. Makuloluwa, Jadi Dissanayake, Deepla de Zoysa, Gamini Udugama, Denzil Kobbekaduwa (Capt) and Jayantissa Ratwatte, Lakshman Samarawijaya, Chang Faa Ching, George Jayasena, Fredrick Prins, Shafie Jainudeen.

In the final when the final whistle was blown by Referee Cmdr. Darley Ingelton the scoreboard read 12-6 in favour of the Longden Place Club.

Mohan Sahayam received the Clifford Cup from then president of the Union Dr. K.B. Sangakkara. When Mohan gave up playing, he became a referee. It is gratifying to think that after his last match as referee was between Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Police at Galle Face. Mohan was a fine thinker of the game and made rugby a favourite sport.

At present he is living in Brisbane.