R. Premadasa Great sports promoter and benefactor

A genuine and keen student of football, the late Premadasa had to leave the football field early in life to serve politics

Every single footballer in Sri Lanka as well as thousands of the games’ fans and fanatics will remember the great sports promoter, benefactor and trusted poor man’s helper President R. Premadasa whose 26th death anniversary fell on May 1. 

Never in the long and chequered history of this land had its first citizen -- being a former footballer -- graced Price Park at Keselwatta. R. Premadasa was born among humble people and it was natural that he took up to football, truly called the common man’s game. 

As a young footballer, Premadasa learnt skills of the sport at PricePark, known then as the bastion of Ceylon Football. He represented Udeni Sports Club in Keselwatta at the commencement of his football career and played as an inside forward. 

A genuine and keen student of football, the late Premadasa had to leave the football field early in life to serve politics. It must be recalled here that it was R. Premadasa who brought football rightly up to the feet of the legislature when he promoted it among the Cabinet colleagues. 

In an epoch making exhibition football match, between the country’s parliamentarians and a team drawn from the Colombo Municipal Council, played before a capacity crowd at Sugathadasa Stadium on April 2, 1984, the late Premadasa depicted flashes of his football prowess by scoring the solitary goal for his team with a deft placement of the ball which found the net, beating an advancing goalkeeper. 

Off the field, the monthly grant of Rs.60,000 given by him for the promotion of football in Sri Lanka still stands as a priceless contribution by any individual in this country for the common man’s sport. In the early days, the Inter League Senior Championship was known as R. Premadasa League tournament – this trophy should be reintroduced. 

Besides his immense contribution to football, he refurbished the outdoor and the indoor Sugathadasa Stadium and built the Keththarama Cricket Stadium – it is named after him today. It will always remain as living monuments of President Premadasa’s love and dedication for the cause of sports in Sri Lanka. He also gave a flip up for rugby, together with Malik Samarawickrama and Y.C. Chang. The inter club and schools rugby tournament was introduced and played under lights for R. Premadasa Trophy. This tournament too is no more –it should be brought back!  
Even with his busy politics, he always maintained that “sports is the best reformer and the ideal thing for our politicians to engage in, as sports has no barriers.” There is no doubt that every sport in Sri  Lanka benefitted from his truly sporting personality. But today, it is not so. 

It was only fair that R. Premadasa who grew up amongst the poorer folk and who was a part of their wants and woes reached the zenith of public office through sheer dint of diligence and perseverance. 

The name of the late R. Premadasa will go down the annals of our history. May he attain the supreme bliss of Nirvana!