Former national hockey star C. T. Rodrigo passes away
C.T. Rodrigo
Many relatives and friends here and abroad would have received the intimation of Clifford Tissa Rodrigo’s demise with much sadness. Affectionately known as ‘CT’ he was a loved personality both on and off the field. Clifford was a great lover of sport, with a passion for hockey and cricket.
Extremely devoted and talented he excelled in both sports and one of the best all-round sportsmen produced by Wesley College in the early sixties. In his position as centre forward, he was a regular goal scorer and ‘glamour boy’.
In 1962 his amazing feat of eight wickets for nine runs against Ananda College, Colombo, must surely be a schools’ record. Soon after leaving College, he secured employment at Carson Cumberbatch, a reputed mercantile establishment whose hockey team were ‘A’ Division champions in 1963 and thereafter.
Simultaneously, he joined the Burgher Recreation Club and secured a place in a team that had a host of internationals and played for just over a decade.
He continued his steady progress and represented Mercantile Hockey Association (MHA) at the Sri Lanka Hockey Championships from 1964 to 1973, captaining the MHA Team in 1971 and won the Best Player Award that year. In between his moment to glory came in 1969 when he was selected to tour South and North India with the Sri Lanka Hockey Federation contingent.
In all these teams he mainly played as centre forward. He possessed deft stick work coupled with body swerves and had the uncanny ability to slip through the tightest defence and score many spectacular goals, some winning ones too.
In 1975 he left Carsons to join Shaw Wallace & Hedges, where he met his future wife, Hiranthi Goonetilleke. Not long after he joined the JEDB in 1977 and Pussella Plantations as Administrative Manager.
On full retirement he devoted his time and efforts towards the Old Wesleyites SC in varied positions and finally as the Sports Administrator of Wesley College, an enviable position he richly deserved.
His remains lie at the Jayaratne Respect Parlour from 9.00 a.m. and the cortege leaves the parlour at 3.30 p.m. on September 15 for burial at the General Cemetery, Borella.
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