Nanda Senanayake Tribute to a great Sportsman of Royal College

He was unique in the sense that he captained Royal College in three sports: Tennis, Hockey, and Cricket in 1961, when he led the Royal team in the big match and also won the Dornhorst prize for the best all-round boy at Royal. Thereafter, he secured entrance to the University of Colombo to read for a degree in Biological Science.
I am not able to judge his prowess in Tennis and Hockey, but where cricket was concerned, we played softball in our garden and then hard ball in our teen years, so I know how gifted he was. I am referring to my oldest and dearest friend – Nanda Senanayake – who passed to the happy hunting grounds in January 2022. From the early 1960s, we would take every opportunity to visit Yala almost three or four times a year, where he developed into an expert Ornithologist. With his phenomenal eyesight, he would spot a rare bird 400 yards away and be able to identify it accurately. His encyclopedic knowledge of avian fauna made him the automatic choice to be elected President of the Ceylon Bird Club, in which capacity he served for more than 20 years.
I well remember going to the Oval to see him make a brilliant century against the Tamil Union for the SSC before he entered the University of Colombo.
We spent many happy weekends together, and on one occasion, I recall driving right up to and beyond Chilaw to view the damage caused by the cyclone in 1967.
In the last few years before his demise, I would visit him frequently, and we would talk of old times and old friends now gone ahead of us where we must all gather eventually.
Farewell, old friend, and may you have a blessed peace in the nearer presence of the Almighty.
Michael Dias