Yatawara legacy still lives on

by Upananda Jayasundera

Looking for sportsmen in Kandy there could be plenty around. There are the Yatawara brothers with their siblings who made a name for themselves. Udaya Yatawara a fine sportsman excelled in cricket, rugby, football and athletics when he was a student of Dharmaraja College, Kandy.

A fine allrounder in cricket having represented the College team from 1979 to 1982, he also played rugby and participated in athletics too winning colours in all three sports.

Dharmaraja College produced many top-notch players in cricket and in the 1981/82 season Udaya made over 900 runs averaging over 50 per innings. There was a contest in Kandy in 1981 to select the best batsman of the year at the Antonian ground and there were Duleep Mendis, Susil Fernando, Sidath Wettimuny and Ranjan Madugalle to name some of them and in that contest Udaya Yatawara's outstanding fielding helped him to get the highest haul of catches.

Udaya played for Kandy Cricket Club in the Sara Trophy tournament as an opening batsman from 1983 to 1988 and represented George Stuarts helping them to win several tournaments. A public schools coloursman in athletics, Udaya was a prominent participant in the Mercantile sector where he played football as well. He has been a regular figure at the Henry Steel Olcott cricket tournament featuring the eight leading Buddhist schools. As the president of the Rajans OBA (Colombo Br) Udaya has given a hand to many sportsmen at the school.

Udaya has three sons schooling at DS Senanayake College and two of them are playing for Sri Lanka at school level.

Udaya is the Chairman of DS Senanayake College Sports Committee. His elder brother Hemantha bagged the highest award the Dagoba at Dharmaraja for rugby, hockey and athletics.

Hemantha played rugby for Police and hockey for Sri Lanka.

Udaya has six brothers in all with Saman presently serving in the Police as an ASP.

The three brothers Hemantha, Saman and Udaya played for the DRC rugby team in 1980 which was captained by Hemantha Yatawara and coached by Lanil Tennakoon.

Udaya is a certified professional in Supply Chain Management and holding an MBA with several other diplomas.