Hamid brought honour and fame to his school and country-by Althaf Nawaz

Zulker Hamid

In the present sporting world, it is rare to find a family imbibed with sportsmen. Some of them excelled in school, club and finally ended up by representing the country locally and Internationally handling the oval shaped ball. Mohamed Zulkernain Hamid was one of the finest players produced by Royal College, Colombo, whose father and brother played a phenomenal role with both engaging in sports to become the cynosure of all eyes.

Mohamed Zulkernain was also called Zulker Hamid in the sports arena, He is the younger son of Ibrahim Hamid, who was one of the finest products of Zahira College, Colombo, and was tagged as ‘Tanker’ for his robust performance in rugby, during his hey day while contributing immensely in the Rifle Shooting sport while late Rameena was his mother who was a housewife. His father was one of the highly respected persons in sporting circles, who rendered yeoman service as a SSP with the Sri Lanka Police department until his retirement.

Zulkernain had three other siblings with his elder brother Zulki Hamid, turning out to be a classy cricketer playing for school and clubs as a wicket-keeper batsman while playing rugby for the school in a season. The other two sisters Zainab and Zakiya are housewives.

While he was living in Kollupitiya, Zulkernain was enrolled at Royal College, Colombo in 1989 as a primary school student and completed his school career in 2002 after higher studies. Whist concentrating on his academic studies, his stepping stone in sports at college was cricket and gradually took part in Athletics and Rugby at the Junior age groups. Due to his father’s influence, he was a rugby fanatic from his junior days and decided to pursue rugby at the under-13 age group.

He went onto don the college rugby jersey at all age groups and was appointed vice-captain of the under-13, 15,17 teams. He finally was entrusted to lead the college first XV team in 2002 as a third year coloursman. Due to indefatigable performance with some characteristic ability in making crucial moves, he occupied the position of centre, scrum half and full back during his tenure at first XV team, which was a unique achievement from 2000 to 2002 seasons.

In 2002, his team was coached by Tavitha Tulagesi (Laga) and Nizam Jamaldeen. They managed to remain as an unbeaten team at the schools tournament by winning all traditional Trophy matches including Trinity, S.Thomas and Isipathana and surged ahead to win the ‘Bradby Shield’ with a record margin of 83-0 (first leg at Royal Sports Complex 39-0 and second leg at Bogambara 44-0), which still remains an unbroken record.

The team later went on to win the Presidents Trophy the same year by beating Wesley by 25 points to 16 in the final. He toured Malaysia in 1989 with the Junior Age Groups and Australia in 2002. He also participated in Junior Rugby World Cup representing the country in 2001 in Chile. His junior coaches were Y.K. de Silva and Niroshan Jayasinghe at school.

After his fascinating school rugby career, he opted to continue his club rugby. As most of his team mates decided to join CR and FC, he enrolled with them and locked horns from 2002 to 2009 season playing as a scrum half. With his unstinted performance, he was appointed to lead the sevens team which won the Western Province Tournament He was also appointed as deputy skipper to lead the XV-a-side team in 2009. He crossed over to play for Havelocks in 2014 and after completion of that season he hung up his boots to end his illustrious rugby career which spanned over a decade. He was in his peak with the Longden Place club till 2010, playing as a link man, occupying the scrum half position. He has an unforgettable memory while playing for the country when they defeated Singapore in 2010 during the Asian Five Nations Tournament in Singapore which enabled them to advance to the top division of that competition. He put up a belligerent performance as player both at club and at international level competing in several other tournaments bringing honour and fame where ever he played.

Winning the ‘Bradby Shield’ with a record margin of 83-0 and retaining the Shield, instrumental in scoring three tries in the second leg at Bogambara becoming the only Royal captain to do so and receiving the ‘Royal Crown’ in 2003 were his other memorable achievements in school rugby. His junior coach was Asanga Seneviratne and late George Simpkin was his senior coach at

national level. He would like to extend his sincere gratitude to all his coaches in School, Club and at National level and his teachers and the staff at school for all the support they extended in making him a good player.

He holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) (University of Wales (UWIC)). He joined HSBC in 2003 and is serving upto date which is 18 years ‘of service there. He is currently attached to Wealth and Personal Banking Department at HSBC.

At present he is a member of the Royal College Rugby Advisory Committee since 2012 and the Treasurer of the CR and FC Committee since last year. His wife is Rukshana and has one child Yaminah.