Indrajith Bandaranayake – the athlete turned ruggerite
Indrajith Bandaranayake, was not only a great wing three quarter, but also a great athlete, a great cricketer who played under captain Jeevan Gajaweera, a brilliant student and a head prefect. hailing from Dharmaraja College, Kandy,
Bande – how the sports loving public affectionately used to call him, was a supremely gifted bundle of talent from his early days. Be it the nter-house sports meet, the district meet, the provincial meet or even at the National meet, the name Bande made waves wherever he took the field.
He was a formidable hard hitting batsman, a medium pacer for the school up in the lake view hills. Yet, it’s not athletics that links ‘Bande’ with. Forming the core of a Kandy SC team that struggled around the early nineties, Bande and his team mates were the architects of the success story of Kandy Sports Club
From winning their first championship, the Clifford Cup in 1992 under the leadership of his long time team mate Maurice Joachim.
The nippy wing three quarter went on to Captain Kandy SC to a league title in 1994 with some all time greats in his team in the form of brothers LV and Priyantha Ekanayake, Inthi Marikkar, Shyam Siddeek, Shantha Rohana, Sudath Sampath the brute force of Kiti and Bati, Leroy Fonseka, Lasantha Wijesuriya and Dunstan De Silva.
The pattern set by this bunch of great ruggerites continued well into the new millennium where they won consecutive league titles for well over a decade.
The trophy cabinets at the Nittawela club house were running out of space.
*Bande, was also a 7’s specialist with his ability to dish out bone jarring tackles and attack with fierce guile when a scoring opportunity loomed. He represented Kandy SC from 1990 to 2006. He also captained Kandy SC at just 24 years and led them to a league title. He was also an automatic choice to the national team all through his career.
*We also remember with gratitude the late Lakshman Bandaranayake, the veteran old Rajan who gave a great son to the motherland.