Best player Vithanage in search of job

by Lal Gunesekera

Rugby Football: The 25-year-old hard running centre three-quarter of Kandy Sports Club, Chamara Vithanage, who was picked as the Best Player of the Year by the national selectors at the Caltex-Observer Rugby Awards, is unemployed.

Speaking to the Sunday Observer, Vithanage, said that he was employed at Sampath Bank (Kandy), but resigned two months back. He said: "As I was taking for matches for both by club and national side, there were certain persons who were against me and I resigned due to unpleasantness at work. Now, I have applied to the Seylan Bank and I hope that they will employ me soon.

Vithanage, who turns out for the champion hill country outfit - Kandy Sports Club, since joining them in 2000, owes much of his success to his alma mater, Kingswood, where he turned out in teams in various age groups and led the side in 2000 when they won the Knock-Out Schools Championships. He first won his national colours in 2001 at the Hong Kong International 7's and has been playing in all 7's tournaments for his country, but misses the Asian Games now in progress in Qatar due to injury.

He is also a regular member of the Sri Lanka 15-a-side outfit too, and his ambition is to captain the country one day. Vithanage was an all-round sportsman at Kingswood and captained the school's Football, Baseball teams apart from figuring in Table Tennis, Athletics and Hockey too apart from rugby which is his first love.

He thanked his coaches at Kingswood (Ananda Kasturiarachchi and Gunadasa of Army fame) and also New Zealander George Simpkin and Tavita "Laga" Tulagaese the Samoan who coaches Kandy Sports Club for helping him a lot on his skills.