Deshamanya Dr. Najeeb Deen - right choice for SLC

by Priyan DE SILVA - Matara Sports Corr.

SPORTS PHILANTHROPIST: In Matara there is a sports philanthropist Deshamanya Dr. M.N.M. Najeeb Deen - the Chairman and Managing Director of Deen Brothers Pvt. Limited who enjoys sports and who helps those involved in sports in everyday life. Dr. Najeeb Deen is the President, Matara City Club and cricket being his favourite sport, he has managed to form a team with players from Kotuwegoda, Uyanwatta and Meddawatta who represented these teams earlier, into one unit and won the All-Island Division Three Tournament last year and this year, his club has qualified to play in the semi-finals.

He has found employment for members of the team in his business establishments and also arranged employment in other establishments too.

Najeeb Deen is a cricket fanatic. He played the game as a schoolboy at St. Aloysius College, Galle and he went on to captain the first eleven team in 1976. He is a keen follower of the progress of the Sri Lanka cricket team, especially the games where his childhood friend and neighbour Sanath Jayasuriya plays and recently he was in England to watch Jayasuriya played his last international limited-over match.

Though he is not a old boy of St. Servatius' College, Matara, he has helped the school with finances in order to promote the sports activities of the school.It is no surprise that the new interim committee of the Cricket Board with Upali Dharmadasa as its head has appointed Dr. Najeeb Deen as Secretary of the Tour Organising Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket and this appointment will be beneficial as Dr. Najeeb Deen has the experience in his job which he is doing to promote cricket without any monetary gains.