Leelananda Iththapaana gave all his support for hockey

Sports fans and hockey fans in particular had to bid goodbye to a strong supporter of hockey when death took hold on Leelananda Iththapaana - Sri Lanka's National Hockey Coach the other day.

Leelananda Iththapaana was a quiet spoken gentleman who was dead keen in popularising the game of hockey and he took hockey to the highest point here in Sri Lanka. Death came all of a sudden to this very energetic coach and he was only 52 years of age when through the dreaded dengue virus, he cut short his period of time on this earth.

The game of hockey has thus lost a worthy worker. Sumith Edirisinghe - DIG Police in the Colombo District - the President of the Sri Lanka Hockey Federation says that though he was an old Nalandian, he was personally pleased in the manner in which Anandian Leelananda worked in his personal life as well as on the hockey field.

"Both played the game during our salad days. "I felt him quite different than the others. He was ever willing to render his services whenever needed without grouching for his personal favours."

From his very young days Leelananda Iththapaana took to the game of hockey in a big way. He started playing the game at an early age of 13 years around 1974 and captained Ananda's under-15, 17 teams and was called up to lead the under-19 team in 1979. He represented Sri Lanka Schools in 1979 at the Senior National Championships. Then he went on to coach Ananda College in 1983 and then became coach of the National Team in 1985.

Leelananda was affectionately called "Leela-Etta" by his colleagues as he and his loving wife spent a cosy life and engaged much of his time in the coaching stint due to his affection to the game of hockey.

Iththapaana, a down to earth man, a flamboyant national coach who was at the top for two decades gave all he had for the improvement of the game. The presence of many friends, former colleagues and subordinates in a jostling crowd to pay their last respect to him was a clear manifestation of the high esteem which was held, paid him a glowing tribute highlighting not only his coaching assignments, but on his personal values cherished by him radiated throughout his life, piety, simplicity and honesty and also his sharp judgements at any event of intricate situations.